Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1999-12-16
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
To appear in Proc. of the 10th Annual October Astrophysics Conference in Maryland: Cosmic Explosions, 4 pages
Scientific paper
10.1063/1.1291737
Many thermonuclear X-ray bursts exhibit brightness oscillations. The brightness oscillations are thought to be due to the combined effects of non-uniform nuclear burning and rotation of the neutron star. The waveforms of the oscillations contain information about the size and number of burning regions. They also contain substantial information about the mass and radius of the star, and hence about strong gravity and the equation of state of matter at supranuclear densities. We have written general relativistic ray-tracing codes that compute the waveforms and spectra of rotating hot spots as a function of photon energy. Using these codes, we survey the effect on the oscillation waveform and amplitude of parameters such as the compactness of the star, the spot size, the surface rotation velocity, and whether there are one or two spots. We also fit phase lag versus photon energy curves to data from the millisecond X-ray pulsar, SAX J1808--3658.
Lamb Donald Q.
Miller Michael Coleman
Weinberg Nevin
No associations
LandOfFree
Extracting Neutron Star Properties from X-ray Burst Oscillations does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Extracting Neutron Star Properties from X-ray Burst Oscillations, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Extracting Neutron Star Properties from X-ray Burst Oscillations will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-244422