A comprehensive look at a mysterious X-ray binary
Tullio Bagnoli
University of Amsterdam
I will report on my work on the Rapid Burster, a neutron star (NS)
X-ray binary that has puzzled astronomers for almost 40 years because
of its burst-like accretion behaviour. Studying the entire sample of
RXTE data on this source, we have discovered that it probably hosts a
slow-spinning NS; that its thermonuclear (type I) bursts can cause disc
disturbances that sometimes eclipse the entire stellar surface; that it
occasionally reproduces variability patterns seen in another unique source,
the black-hole X-ray binary GRS 1915+105; that new models of magnetospheric
accretion can account for the accretion (type II) bursts; and that it is
a promising candidate for the detection of the redshift z at the stellar
surface, an important step in constraining the NS equation of state.
Date: | Wednesday, 22 April 2015 |
Time: | 15:30 |
Where: | McGill University |
| McGill Space Institute (3550 University), Conference Room |
Contact: | Robert Rutledge |
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