Accretion influences cooling of neutron star atmospheres during type-I X-ray bursts
Abstract
Observations of type-I X-ray bursts provide a way of measuring neutron star (NS) masses and radii. The derived mass-radius values depend on the colour-correction factor of the NS photosphere, the photospheric chemical composition and the distance. We have studied 11 bursting low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXB) with RXTE/PCA. We find a correlation between the time evolution of the apparent NS radii during the early cooling phases of X-ray bursts and the spectral properties of the persistent emission before the bursts. NS atmosphere models predict that the colour-correction factor decreases in the early cooling phases when the emitted luminosity drops from the Eddington value. Therefore, the apparent NS radii should be variable during this phase as it depends on this factor. We find that the model predictions agree with the data only when X-ray bursts occur during the hard (island) state of LMXBs. We take this as evidence that the accretion flow - that surrounds the NS - changes the photospheric colour-correction factor during the soft (banana) states, where the atmosphere model predictions never agree with the data. This finding is important as even slight variations in the colour-correction factors cause large errors in the derived neutron star radii.
- Publication:
-
The X-ray Universe 2014
- Pub Date:
- July 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014xru..confE.262K