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Relativistic jets are observed from accreting and cataclysmic transients throughout the Universe, and have a profound affect on their surroundings. Despite their importance, their launch mechanism is not known. For accreting neutron stars,…
Hotspots on the surface of accreting neutron stars have been directly observed via pulsations in the lightcurves of X-ray pulsars. They are thought to occur due to magnetic channelling of the accreted fuel to the neutron star magnetic…
X-Ray bursts (XRB) are powerful thermonuclear events on the surface of accreting neutron stars (NS), where nucleosynthesis of intermediate-mass elements occurs. Their predicted and observed luminosities sometimes exceed Eddington's value,…
We present a compilation of observed recurrence times ($t_{\rm rec}$) and infer the corresponding local mass-accretion rates ($\dot m$) for type I X-ray bursts, milliHertz quasi-periodic oscillating sources and recurrent novae eruptions. We…
We investigate nuclear reactions and feedback in hyperaccreting neutron star environments, considering accretion rates in the range 0.3 - $3\times10^4$ $M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, typical of short-period compact object binaries in common…
Thermal states of neutron stars in soft X-ray transients (SXRTs) are thought to be determined by "deep crustal heating" in the accreted matter that drives the quiescent luminosity and cooling via emission of photons and neutrinos from the…
One long standing tension between theory and observations of Type I X-ray burst is the accretion rate at which the burst disappear due to stabilization of the nuclear burning that powers them. This is observed to happen at roughly one third…
Neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries are thought to be heated up by accretion-induced exothermic nuclear reactions in the crust. The energy release and the location of the heating sources are important ingredients of the thermal…
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…
Transiently accreting neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries are generally believed to be heated up by nuclear reactions in accreted matter during hydrostatic compression. Detailed modeling of these reactions is required for the correct…
Flow of matter onto strongly magnetized neutron stars in X-ray binaries proceeds through accretion funnels that roughly follow geometry of the magnetic field. X-rays originate near surface of the neutron star, and it may happen that the…
We construct a two-zone model to describe H and He burning on the surface of an accreting neutron star and use it to study the triggering of type I X-ray bursts. Although highly simplified, the model reproduces all of the bursting regimes…
We present raytracing computations for light emitted from the surface of a rapidly-rotating neutron star in order to construct light curves for X-ray pulsars and bursters. These calculations are for realistic models of rapidly-rotating…
We show that burning of a small mass fraction of carbon in a neutron star ocean is thermally unstable at low accumulated masses when the ocean contains heavy ashes from the hydrogen burning rapid proton (rp) process. The key to early…
Type-I X-ray bursts are recurring thermonuclear explosions on the surface of accreting neutron stars. Matching observed bursts to computational models can help to constrain system properties, such as the neutron star mass and radius,…
Time-resolved spectra during the cooling phase of thermonuclear X-ray bursts in low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) can be used to measure the radii and masses of neutron stars. We analyzed ~ 300 bursts of the LMXB 4U 1636-53 using data from…
We follow the nuclear reactions that occur in the accretion disks of stellar mass black holes that are accreting at a very high rate, 0.01 to 1 solar masses per second, as is realized in many current models for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The…
The emission spectrum has been calculated of a homogeneous pure hydrogen layer, which parameters are typical for a flare on a red dwarf. The ionization and excitation states were determined by the solution of steady-state equations taking…
We calculate the spectrum resulting from the interaction of a fireball with ambient soft photons. These photons are assumed to be produced by the walls of a funnel in a massive star. By parameterizing the radial dependence of the funnel…
A hyperaccretion flow around a stellar mass black hole is thought to be the most plausible engine that powers gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The flow efficiently cools via neutrino emission at >~ 0.003-0.01 M_sun s^{-1} (corresponding to a…