Alex's paper comparing the observed burst lightcurves from GS 1826-24 with time-dependent models of nuclear burning is finally out. The correspondence is really remarkable, and confirms the solar composition of the accreted fuel, as we suspected from the 2004 paper. However, in that paper we found that the drop in recurrence time with increased flux was more than predicted by Andrew's ignition models; this discrepancy is resolved with the new modelling, which indicates that thermal/compositional inertia play a role in setting the ignition column.

Read the paper (arXiv:0711.1195)

Labels: 2007, thermonuclear bursts