Related papers: XTRA: The fast X-ray timing detector on XEUS

Neutron rich matter is central to many fundamental questions in nuclear physics and astrophysics. Moreover, this material is being studied with an extraordinary variety of new tools such as the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) and the…

High-Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs) serve as useful laboratories for exploring the behaviour of accreted matter onto compact objects and for probing the complex wind environments of massive stars. These investigations are essential for…

Strongly magnetized, accreting neutron stars show periodic and aperiodic variability over a wide range of time scales. By obtaining spectral and timing information on these different time scales, we can have a closer look into the physics…

In the past five years observations with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer have revealed fast quasi-periodic oscillations in the X-ray flux of about 20 X-ray binaries. Thought to originate close to the surface of a neutron star, these…

Observations of thermonuclear X-ray bursts from accreting neutron stars (NSs) in low-mass X-ray binary systems can be used to constrain NS masses and radii. Most previous work of this type has set these constraints using Planck function…

Modern X-ray observatories yield unique insight into the astrophysical time domain. Each X-ray photon can be assigned an arrival time, an energy and a sky position, yielding sensitive, energy-dependent light curves and enabling…

A new x-ray transient, designated XTE J1739-302, was discovered with the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) on the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in data from 12 August 1997. Although it was the brightest source in the Galactic Center…

We have modelled X-ray burst oscillations observed with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) from two low mass X-ray binaries (LMXB): 4U 1636-53 with a frequency of 580 Hz, and 4U 1728-34 at a frequency of 363 Hz. We have computed least…

The X-ray spectra of isolated neutron stars (INSs) typically include a thermal component, that comes from the cooling surface, and a non-thermal component, produced by highly-relativistic particles accelerated in the stellar magnetosphere.…

The fluctuating brightness of cosmic X-ray sources, particularly accreting black holes and neutron star systems, has enabled enormous progress in understanding the physics of turbulent accretion flows, the behaviour of matter on the…

Some tests of fundamental physics - the equation of state at supra-nuclear densities, the metric in strong gravity, the effect of magnetic fields above the quantum critical value - can only be measured using compact astrophysical objects:…

The recent discovery of periodic pulsations from several members of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) family in nearby galaxies as well as in our own galaxy unveiled the nature of the accreting compact object. Neutron stars rather than…

In order to probe the activity of the inner disk flow and its effect on the neutron star surface emissions, we carried out the timing analysis of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations of the millisecond X-ray pulsar XTE…

In this White Paper we present the potential of the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) mission for studies related to Observatory Science targets. These include flaring stars, supernova remnants, accreting white dwarfs, low and…

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 present the calibration and background model for the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) aboard the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The energy calibration is systematics limited below 10 keV with deviations from a power-law fit to the…

We report on a study of the evolution of burst oscillation properties during the rising phase of X-ray bursts from 4U 1636--536 observed with the proportional counter array (PCA) onboard the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We present…

Using the HEXTE experiment on-board the RXTE satellite, we performed a search for hard X-ray tails in Sco X-1 spectra. We found strong evidence for the presence of such a non-thermal component on several occasions. Using the PCA/RXTE we…

We present the novel capabilities of the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) mission to study the strong gravity region around stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binary systems and supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei.…

High-time-resolution X-ray observations of compact objects provide direct access to strong-field gravity, to the equation of state of ultra-dense matter and to black hole masses and spins. A 10 m^2-class instrument in combination with good…