Related papers: Thermonuclear Bursts with Short Recurrence Times f…
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…
Runaway thermonuclear burning of a layer of accumulated fuel on the surface of a compact star provides a brief but intense display of stellar nuclear processes. For neutron stars accreting from a binary companion, these events manifest as…
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…
In low-mass X-ray binaries, the accretion of stellar material onto a neutron star can fuel unstable thermonuclear flashes known as Type I X-ray bursts. Simulating these events using computational models can provide valuable information…
The excess of the rate of type I X-ray bursts over that expected when the matter fallen between bursts completely burns out in a thermonuclear explosion is explained in terms of the model of a spreading layer of matter coming from the…
Since the advent of powerful new X-ray observatories, NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), the Italian - Dutch BeppoSAX mission, XMM-Newton and Chandra, a number of entirely new phenomena associated with thermonuclear burning on…
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…
We present a sample of observations of thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts, selected for comparison with numerical models. Provided are examples of four distinct cases of thermonuclear ignition: He-ignition in mixed H/He fuel (case 1 of…
Thermonuclear (type-I) bursts arise from unstable ignition of accumulated fuel on the surface of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries. Measurements of burst properties in principle enable observers to infer the properties of the host…
Burst oscillations, a phenomenon observed in a significant fraction of Type I (thermonuclear) X-ray bursts, involve the development of highly asymmetric brightness patches in the burning surface layers of accreting neutron stars.…
I review the basic phenomenology and theory of the millisecond brightness oscillations observed during thermonuclear X-ray bursts from 13 of approximately 70 accreting neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries. Compelling observations…
The rotation rates of six weakly-magnetic neutron stars accreting in low-mass X-ray binaries have most likely been measured by Type I X-ray burst observations with RXTE. The nearly coherent oscillations detected during the few seconds of…
Thermonuclear X-ray bursts from accreting neutron stars power brief but strong irradiation of their surroundings, providing a unique way to study accretion physics. We analyze MAXI/GSC and Swift/XRT spectra of a day-long flash observed from…
We present a global linear stability analysis of nuclear fuel accumulating on the surface of an accreting neutron star and we identify the conditions under which thermonuclear bursts are triggered. The analysis reproduces all the recognized…
The discovery of long-lasting (~100 s) X-ray flares following short gamma-ray bursts initially called into question whether they were truly classical short-hard bursts. Opinion over the last few years has coalesced around the view that the…
I present ignition models for Type I X-ray bursts and superbursts from the ultracompact binary 4U 1820-30. A pure helium secondary is usually assumed for this system, although some evolutionary models predict a small amount of hydrogen…
The study of transiently accreting neutron stars provides a powerful means to elucidate the properties of neutron star crusts. We present extensive numerical simulations of the evolution of the neutron star in the transient low-mass X-ray…
[abridged] The LMXB 4U 0614+091 is a source of sporadic thermonuclear (type I) X-ray bursts. We find bursts with a wide variety of characteristics in serendipitous wide-field X-ray observations by EURECA/WATCH, RXTE/ASM, BeppoSAX/WFC,…
Superbursts are very energetic Type I X-ray bursts discovered in recent years by long term monitoring of X-ray bursters, and believed to be due to unstable ignition of carbon in the deep ocean of the neutron star. In this Letter, we follow…
We have assembled a sample of 1187 thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts from 48 accreting neutron stars by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, spanning more than ten years. The sample contains examples of two of the three theoretical ignition…