In a study of several hundred "photospheric radius-expansion" bursts observed by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer</a>, Monash PhD student Hauke Worpel found evidence that the accretion rate increases by a substantial amount during the burst (see the previous post). As a followup, Hauke also analysed the much larger sample of almost 1800 less-intense bursts, that did not exhibit radius expansion. The additional analyses confirm the original result, and further support the interpretation that the accretion rate is increasing in response to the bursts. Interestingly, even including the amplified contribution from the persistent (accretion) emission does not result in a formally good fit to all the spectra, suggesting that the burst spectrum deviates significantly from a blackbody. Hauke's paper was just accepted by ApJ.

Read the paper arXiv:1501.02070

Labels: 2015, thermonuclear bursts