Taking the temperature of the superburster 4U 1608-522 after an outburst
Abstract
Superbursts are rare thermonuclear flashes from accreting neutron stars. One condition for ignition is a sufficiently high temperature of the neutron star crust, which is heated during accretion. Most superbursts take place when the neutron star was accreting continuously above 10% of the Eddington limit for more then 10 years. In 2005 a superburst was observed from the transient system 4U 1608-522, when accretion started 55 days earlier. Crustal heating models predict a significantly lower temperature than the superburst models require. If the superburst models are correct in their prediction of a high temperature, crustal cooling is observable after an accretion outburst. We propose to observe 4U 1608-522 two times for 30 ks triggered after an outburst, to measure the cooling rate.
- Publication:
-
Chandra Proposal
- Pub Date:
- September 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011cxo..prop.3341K