Compact stars and their progenitors

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

The Astrophysics of Compact Stars has undergone several revolutions in the last decade thanks to the enormous progress in high-energy observations. After a short review of results from the ROSAT, ASCA and GRO booms I will describe the recent discoveries of kHz QPOs (kilohertz Quasi Periodic Oscillations) and of magnetars by the XTE observatory and the quasi identification of the source(s) of GRB (Gamma Ray Bursts) by the SAX-ASCA-XTE-Hubble joint observations. The kHz QPOs almost certainly originate from the inner edge of the accretion disc of low mass X-ray binaries, which is located at three Schwarzschild radii, i.e. at most a few kilometers above the surface of the neutron star. The magnetars are a new class of neutron stars with demonstrated magnetic fields of the order of 10^15 G, i.e., two to three orders of magnitude larger than in standard pulsars. There is now little doubt that GRBs are of cosmological origin, either due to collision of compact objects and/or coming from `hypernovae', i.e., supernova explosions of supermassive stars with enormous magnetic fields. All these are manifestations of extreme gravitational and/or magnetic fields. Finally, more than the nature of the progenitors of these objects, the next questions is what fraction of supernovae do actually produce pulsars, which could give us a clue about the evolution of the core of massive stars, their magnetic field and their rotation.

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