Reuse R&D

Observatory science with eXTP

“…6 Thermonuclear X-ray bursts While thermonuclear ('type-I') X-ray bursts are well understood as a thermonuclear runaway in the upper freshly accreted layers of a neutron star in a low-mass X-ray binary, many important questions are unanswered (e.g., Lewin et al, 1993;Strohmayer & Bildsten, 2006;in 't Zand et al, 2015;José, 2016;Galloway & Keek, 2017, see reviews by). Some of those are fundamental, pertaining to the structure of the neutron star and exotic nuclear processes, while others are related to interesting physical phenomena such as neutron star spins, convection and radiation transport under strong-gravity circumstances, the geometry of accretion and magnetic field, and unusual stellar abundances.…”

“…It is clear that eXTP will provide a rich and novel data set on X-ray bursts. While the primary science motives for X-ray burst observations with eXTP are dense matter physics and gravity in the strong field regime, the secondary motives relevant to observatory science concern their fundamental understanding, in connection with nucleosynthesis, hydrodynamics, flame spreading and accretion flows (see in 't Zand et al, 2015, and reference therein). As a benefit, the outcome of these studies will help reduce the risk of any systematic errors in studies in the primary science goals.…”

“…To explain the science case for eXTP as an observatory in a kaleidoscopic manner in this White Paper, material is drawn from eleven White Papers that were written for the LOFT study by scientists from the community at large (Amati et al, 2015;de Martino et al, 2015;Drake et al, 2015;in 't Zand et al, 2015;Maccarone et al, 2015;Marisaldi et al, 2015;Mignani et al, 2015;Orlandini et al, 2015;Rossi et al, 2015;De Rosa et al, 2015). LOFT was an ESA mission concept with two of the three primary science goals of eXTP and larger versions of the LAD and WFM.…”