Speaker
Dr
Yuri Cavecchi
(Princeton University - University of Southampton)
Description
When a neutron star in a binary system is accreting from its
companion, the newly accumulated matter can undergo a thermonuclear
runaway which spreads over the whole surface of the star:
this results in extremely bright X-ray flashes called Type I Bursts.
Nuclear burning and its dependence on the mass accretion rate are
fundamental ingredients for describing the bursts complicated
observational phenomenology. A long standing puzzle is the increasing
burst recurrence time versus increasing accretion rate experienced by
many sources, while theory predicts that the recurrence time should
constantly decrease (nearly) until stabilization.
I will show how, by considering different conditions across the
stellar surface as a function of accretion rate and spin frequency, it
is possible to resolve this apparent contradiction between theory and
observations and I will discuss the implications of this scenario for
our understanding of nuclear burning on neutron stars.
Primary author
Dr
Yuri Cavecchi
(Princeton University - University of Southampton)
Co-authors
Dr
Anna Watts
(University of Amsterdam)
Dr
Duncan Galloway
(Monash Centre for Astrophysics, Monash University)