Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2016
We review the tidal capture process and in particular the chaotic orbital evolution which follows capture. We discuss the formation of low-mass X-ray binaries in globular clusters via tidal capture and speculate on the possibility that some field low-mass X-ray binaries were formed this way in open clusters which have since dispersed, or in existing old open clusters which are not accessible to observation because of obscuration by dust or because they are indistinguishable from the rich background of galactic stars.