Bursting Neutron Stars

ISBN-13: 9783639068887 / Angielski / Miękka / 2008 / 160 str.

Nikolai Shaposhnikov; Lev Titarchuk

Opis

Thermonuclear burning in the matter accumulated on the surface of an accreting neutron star is unstable under certain conditions, which leads to powerful explosions also called Type I X-ray bursts. This book covers the theory of spectral formation in the atmospheres of neutron stars during these violent events as well as its application to observational data on X-ray bursts. The main goal of the presented study is a proper measurement of the fundamental properties for neutron stars. We take both analytical and numerical approaches to the problem of radiative transfer in X-ray illuminated atmospheres which account for all crucial physical factors such as Comptonization, free-free absorption and emission. We apply our models to the data collected with NASAs Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer mission in order to constrain neutron star masses and radii for five X-ray burster 4U 1728-34, 4U 1820-30, Cygnus X-2, EXO 0748-676 and GS 1826-24. The developed neutron star mass-radius measurement method has a great potential for application to new and archival X-ray data. It can provide scientists with a vital information on various aspects of physics of compact objects.

O autorze

Shaposhnikov Nikolai Nikolai Shaposhnikov received his Master Degree in Physics and Mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1996 and PhD Degree in Astrophysics from George Mason University in 2004. His research interests concentrate on high energy astrophysics of neutron stars and black holes. Lev Titarchuk is Research Professor in George Mason University, Visiting Scientist in Naval Research Laboratory and NASA, and Visiting Professor of University of Ferrara, Italy