Related papers: The first radius-expansion X-ray burst from GX 3+1

Observational evidence has been accumulating that thermonuclear X-ray bursts ignited on the surface of neutron stars influence the surrounding accretion flow. Here, we exploit the excellent sensitivity of NuSTAR up to 79 keV to analyze the…

We report results obtained from the study of 12 thermonuclear X-ray bursts in 6 AstroSat observations of a neutron star X-ray binary and well-known X-ray burster, 4U 1636$-$536. Burst oscillations at $\sim$581 Hz are observed with…

The X-ray source 3XMM~J150052.0+015452 was discovered as a spectacular tidal disruption event candidate during a prolonged ($>11$ yrs) outburst (Lin et al. 2017). It exhibited unique quasi-soft X-ray spectra of characteristic temperature…

Shock breakout emission is light that arises when a shockwave, generated by core-collapse explosion of a massive star, passes through its outer envelope. Hitherto, the earliest detection of such a signal was at several hours after the…

Gamma-ray bursts of short duration may harbor vital clues to the range of phenomena producing bursts. However, recent progress from the observation of optical counterparts has not benefitted the study of short bursts. We have searched for…

Gamma-ray burst (GRB) 050904 is the most distant X-ray source known, at z=6.295, comparable to the farthest AGN and galaxies. Its X-ray flux decays, but not as a power-law; it is dominated by large variability from a few minutes to at least…

Neutron star (NS) masses and radii can be estimated from observations of photospheric radius-expansion X-ray bursts, provided the chemical composition of the photosphere, the spectral colour-correction factors in the observed luminosity…

The prototypical accretion-powered millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 was observed simultaneously with Chandra-LETGS and RXTE-PCA near the peak of a transient outburst in November 2011. A single thermonuclear (type-I) burst was detected,…

We searched for X-ray bursts in XMM-Newton archival data of X-ray sources in M 31 globular clusters (GCs) and GC candidates. We detected two bursts simultaneously in EPIC pn and MOS detectors and some more candidates in EPIC pn. The energy…

MAXI J1807+132 is a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) first detected in outburst in 2017. Observations during the 2017 outburst did not allow for an unambiguous identification of the nature of the compact object. MAXI J1807+132 was detected in…

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…

Hydrogen and helium accreted onto a neutron star undergo thermonuclear burning. Explosive burning is observed as a type I X-ray burst. We describe the different burning regimes and focus on some of the current inconsistencies between theory…

Repeating X-ray bursts from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1806-20 have been observed with a period of 398 days. Similarly, periodic X-ray bursts from SGR 1935+2154 with a period of 238 days have also been observed. Here we argue that these…

Theory and observations favor stable helium burning as the most important means to produce fuel for superbursts on neutron star surfaces. However, all known superbursters exhibit unstable burning as well. This ambiguity prompted us to…

Previously, observations with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer showed that millisecond oscillations occur preferentially in thermonuclear X-ray bursts with photospheric radius expansion from sources rotating near 600 Hz, while they occur…

We describe observations of the 2003 outburst of the hard-spectrum X-ray transient 4U 1901+03 with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. The outburst was first detected in 2003 February by the All-Sky Monitor, and reached a peak 2.5-25 keV flux…

When a star undergoes core collapse, a vast amount of energy is released in a ~10 s long burst of neutrinos of all species. Inverse beta decay in the star's hydrogen envelope causes an electromagnetic cascade which ultimately results in a…

For thermonuclear flashes to occur on neutron-star surfaces, fuel must have been accreted from a donor star. However, sometimes flashes are seen from transient binary systems when they are thought to be in their quiescent phase, during…

We analysed a dedicated NuSTAR observation of the neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary Z-source GX 13+1 to study the timing and spectral properties of the source. From the colour-colour diagram, we conclude that during that observation 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…