Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Mar 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003head....7.3002d&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #7, #30.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 35, p.648
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The key difference between neutron stars and black holes is the presence/absence of a solid surface. Recent attempts to detect this difference have concentrated on the quiescent luminosity, but here these sources are faint and difficult to observe. Instead we look at these sources when they are bright, and show that there is a clear difference between black holes and neutron stars in the evolution of their X-ray spectra as a function of luminosity. We model the source evolution both qualitatively and quantitatively with a similar accretion flow in both black holes and neutron stars. The observed differences in colour evolution can be explained by the additional emission from a boundary layer/surface in the neutron stars, while the lack of this component in the black hole systems implies the presence of an event horizon. We also show that there is a type of X-ray spectrum which is only seen from black holes, making it a good diagnostic for the nature of new transient sources.
Done Christine
Gierlinski Marek
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