Radiative MHD Simulations of Photon Bubbles in Radiation-Supported Magnetized Atmospheres of Neutron Stars with Isotropic Thomson Scattering

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Zhang, Lizhong, Blaes, Omer, Yan-Fei, Jiang
• Format: Paper Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 06.10.2021
• Subjects: Boundary conditions; Bubbles; Columns (structural); Computational fluid dynamics; Deposition; Diffusion rate; Dynamic stability; Fluid flow; Magnetohydrodynamic simulation; Neutron stars; Neutrons; Nonlinear dynamics; Photons; Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; Pulsars; Radiation; Radiation pressure; Simulation; Thomson scattering; X ray sources

A major uncertainty in the structure and dynamics of magnetized, radiation pressure dominated neutron star accretion columns in X-ray pulsars and pulsating ultraluminous X-ray sources is that they are thought to be subject to the photon bubble instability. We present the results of two dimensional r...