X-ray bursts and superbursts: what can MAXI do?
Abstract
Research in the field of thermonuclear flashes on neutron stars, visible as X-ray bursts, has made a considerable development in the past decade thanks to high-throughput measurements with RXTE-PCA and wide field imaging with BeppoSAX-WFC, RXTE-ASM, HETE-WXM and INTEGRAL. The latter category of observations has surfaced very rare kinds of X-ray bursts such as superbursts. MAXI falls in the same category and one may expect a significant contribution from this instrument. I will review current hot topics in X-ray bursts and superbursts and address the question what MAXI can do.
- Publication:
-
The First Year of MAXI: Monitoring Variable X-ray Sources
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010fym..confE..19I