Nature, formation and evolution of High Mass X-ray Binaries
  The aim of this review is to describe the nature, formation and evolution of
the three kinds of high mass X-ray binary (HMXB) population: i. systems hosting
Be stars (BeHMXBs), ii. systems accreting the stellar wind of supergiant stars
(sgHMXBs), and iii. supergiant stars overflowing their Roche lobe. There are
now many new observations, from the high-energy side (mainly from the INTEGRAL
satellite), complemented by multi-wavelength observations (mainly in the
optical, near and mid-infrared from ESO facilities), showing that a new
population of supergiant HMXBs has been recently revealed. New observations
also suggest the existence of evolutionary links between Be and stellar wind
accreting supergiant X-ray binaries. I describe here the observational facts
about the different categories of HMXBs, discuss the different models of
accretion in these sources (e.g. transitory accretion disc versus clumpy
winds), show the evidences of a link between different kinds of HMXBs, and
finally compare observations with population synthesis models.
