  We explore the population of candidate pre-low-mass X-ray binaries in which a
neutron star accretes mass from the wind of a low-mass companion (mass < 2Msun)
in the framework of a binary population synthesis study. The simulated
accretion-luminosity distribution shows a primary peak close to 1e31 erg/s and
a secondary peak near 1e28 erg/s. The relative contribution of the two peaks
depends primarily on the magnitude of the kick velocity imparted to the neutron
star at birth. The secondary peak is negligible for average kick velocities
larger than 200 km/s, but becomes dominant for average kick velocities smaller
than 50 km/s. Regardless of the relative contributions of the two peaks, our
calculations suggest that pre-low-mass X-ray binaries may provide a
non-negligible contribution to the population of discrete low-luminosity X-ray
sources in the Galaxy.
