Population of persistent high mass X-ray binaries in the Milky Way
  We present results of the study of persistent high mass X-ray binaries
(HMXBs) in the Milky Way, obtained from the deep INTEGRAL Galactic plane
survey. This survey provides us a new insight into the population of high mass
X-ray binaries because almost half of the whole sample consists of sources
discovered with INTEGRAL. It is demonstrated for the first time that the
majority of persistent HMXBs have supergiant companions and their luminosity
function steepens somewhere around ~2x10^{36} erg/s. We show that the spatial
density distribution of HMXBs correlates well with the star formation rate
distribution in the Galaxy. The vertical distribution of HMXBs has a
scale-height h~85 pc, that is somewhat larger than the distribution of young
stars in the Galaxy. We propose a simple toy model, which adequately describes
general properties of HMXBs in which neutron stars accrete a matter from the
wind of the its companion (wind-fed NS-HMXBs population). Using the elaborated
model we argue that a flaring activity of so-called supergiant fast X-ray
transients, the recently recognized sub-sample of HMXBs, is likely related with
the magnetic arrest of their accretion.
