Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jul 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998pasa...15..250l&link_type=abstract
Publications Astronomical Society of Australia, vol. 15, no. 2, p. 250-253
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Magnetic Accretion, Pulsar Spin
Scientific paper
X-ray binaries in which the accreting component is a neutron star commonly exhibit significant changes in their spin. In the system Cen X-3, a disk accreting binary system, the pulsar was observed to spin up at a rate of 8x10^{-13} Hz per sec when averaged over the past twenty years, but significant fluctuations were observed above this mean. Recent BASTE observations have disclosed that these fluctuations are much larger than previously noted, and appeared to be a system characteristic. The change in the spin state from spin-up to spin-down or vice-versa occurs on a time scale that is much shorter than the instrument can resolve (less than one day), but appears always to be a similar amplitude, and to occur stochastically. These observations have posed a problem for the conventional torque-mass accretion relation for accreting pulsars, because in this model the spin rate is closely related to the accretion rate, and the latter needs to be finely tuned and to change abruptly to explain the observations. Here we review recent work in this direction and present a coherent picture that explains these observations. We also draw attention to some outstanding problems for future studies.
Li Jiying
Wickramasinghe Dayal T.
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