Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Apr 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998aps..apr..m803z&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, APS/AAPT Joint April Meeting, April 18-21, 1998 Columbus, Ohio, abstract #M8.03
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Galactic low mass X-ray binaries distinguish themselves from the X-Ray pulsars by two characteristics: (1) they emit X-ray bursts due to unstable nuclear burning of accreted matter on the neutron star surface, and (2) they do not appear to emit coherent pulsations, even though they are believed to harbor fast-spinning neutron stars. One of the ``holy grails'' of X-ray astronomy in the 1980's was to measure the spin rates of these neutron stars so as to establish these neutron stars as progenitors of milli-second radio pulsars. Since the launch of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer in 1995, highly coherent flux oscillations, with a Q-value of several hundred, have been observed during the X-ray bursts of several low mass X-ray binaries. All aspects of these oscillations, i.e., coherence, frequency stability from one burst to another for a given binary, their absence and presence at different phases of the bursts, strongly indicate that these oscillations are due to rotation of the neutron star. A very promising interpretation is that they are due to a combination of the neutron star rotation and surface temperature variations during the unstable nuclear burning. Therefore it is quite appropriate to call these neutron stars nuclear powered pulsars. These oscillations offer a unique opportunity to probe the neutron star structure. In this talk I will review the observational status of these oscillations and show how we could use them to study the intrinsic properties of the neutron star (mass, radius, and magnetic field).
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