Accretion Disks and Coronae in the X-Ray Flashlight

• Published in: Space science reviews Vol. 214; no. 1; pp. 1 - 61
• Main Authors: Degenaar, Nathalie, Ballantyne, David R., Belloni, Tomaso, Chakraborty, Manoneeta, Chen, Yu-Peng, Ji, Long, Kretschmar, Peter, Kuulkers, Erik, Li, Jian, Maccarone, Thomas J., Malzac, Julien, Zhang, Shu, Zhang, Shuang-Nan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.02.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Accretion disks; Aerospace Technology and Astronautics; Astrophysics and Astroparticles; Corona; Explosions; Flashlights; Gamma rays; Missions; Neutron stars; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Planetology; Radiation; Space Exploration and Astronautics; Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics; Thermonuclear explosions; X-ray bursts; X-ray emissions; Stars: coronae; Stars: jets; X-rays: binaries; Stars: neutron; Accretion, accretion disks; X-rays: bursts

Plasma accreted onto the surface of a neutron star can ignite due to unstable thermonuclear burning and produce a bright flash of X-ray emission called a Type-I X-ray burst. Such events are very common; thousands have been observed to date from over a hundred accreting neutron stars. The intense, of...