Related papers: On burning regimes and long duration X-ray bursts
Superbursts are very energetic Type I X-ray bursts discovered in recent years by long term monitoring of X-ray bursters, believed to be due to unstable ignition of carbon in the deep ocean of the neutron star. A number of "intermediate…
Superbursts were discovered at the beginning of this millennium. Just like type-I X-ray bursts, they are thought to be due to thermonuclear shell flashes on neutron stars, only igniting much deeper. With respect to type-I bursts, they last…
Superbursts are rare day-long Type I X-ray bursts due to carbon flashes on accreting neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries. They heat the neutron star envelope such that the burning of accreted hydrogen and helium becomes stable, and the…
Type-I X-ray bursts arise from unstable thermonuclear burning of accreted fuel on the surface of neutron stars. In this chapter we review the fundamental physics of the burning processes, and summarise the observational, numerical, and…
Thermonuclear flashes of hydrogen and helium accreted onto neutron stars produce the frequently observed Type I X-ray bursts. It is the current paradigm that almost all material burns in a burst, after which it takes hours to accumulate…
In many X-ray point sources on the sky, the X-ray emission arises because hydrogen and/or helium is accreted onto a neutron star from a nearby donor star. When this matter settles on the neutron star surface, it will undergo nuclear fusion.…
The hydrogen and helium accreted by X-ray bursting neutron stars is periodically consumed in runaway thermonuclear reactions that cause the entire surface to glow brightly in X-rays for a few seconds. With models of the emission, the mass…
Type I X-ray bursts are thermonuclear explosions that occur in the envelopes of accreting neutron stars. Detailed observations of these phenomena have prompted numerous studies in theoretical astrophysics and experimental nuclear physics…
Many distinct classes of high-energy variability have been observed in astrophysical sources, on a range of timescales. The widest range (spanning microseconds-decades) is found in accreting, stellar-mass compact objects, including neutron…
X-ray bursts are thermonuclear explosions on the surface of accreting neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries. As most of the known X-ray bursters are frequently observed by INTEGRAL, an international collaboration have been taking…
Rare, energetic (long) thermonuclear (Type I) X-ray bursts are classified either as intermediate-duration or superbursts, based on their duration. Intermediate-duration bursts lasting a few to tens of minutes are thought to arise from the…
Accreting neutron stars exhibit Type I X-ray bursts from both frequent hydrogen/helium flashes as well as rare carbon flashes. The latter (superbursts) ignite in the ashes of the former. Hydrogen/helium bursts, however, are thought to…
X-ray bursts are the thermonuclear runaway of a mixed H/He layer on the surface of a neutron star. Observations suggest that the burning begins locally and spreads across the surface of the star as a flame. Recent multidimensional work has…
Neutron stars in mass-transferring binaries are accreting the hydrogen and helium rich matter from the surfaces of their companions. This article simply explains the physics associated with how that material eventually fuses to form heavier…
Superbursts from accreting neutron stars probe nuclear reactions at extreme densities ($\rho \approx 10^{9}~g\,cm^{-3}$) and temperatures ($T>10^9~K$). These bursts ($\sim$1000 times more energetic than type I X-ray bursts) are most likely…
I review our theoretical understanding of thermonuclear flashes on accreting neutron stars, concentrating on comparisons to observations. Sequences of regular Type I X-ray bursts from GS 1826-24 and 4U 1820-30 are very well described by the…
Neutron stars, with their strong surface gravity, have interestingly short timescales for the sedimentation of heavy elements. Recent observations of unstable thermonuclear burning (observed as X-ray bursts) on the surfaces of slowly…
Type-I X-ray bursts are thermonuclear explosions caused by the unstable burning of accreted material on the surface of neutron stars. We report the detection of seven type-I X-ray bursts from the ultracompact X-ray binary M15 X-2 observed…
During accretion, a neutron star (NS) is spun up as angular momentum is transported through its liquid surface layers. We study the resulting differentially rotating profile, focusing on the impact this has for type I X-ray bursts. The…
Explosive hydrogen burning in type I X-ray bursts (XRBs) comprise charged particle reactions creating isotopes with masses up to A~100. Since charged particle reactions in a stellar environment are very temperature sensitive, we use a…