Thermonuclear burst oscillations

Understand

Burst oscillations, a phenomenon observed in a significant fraction of Type I (thermonuclear) X-ray bursts, involve the development of highly asymmetric brightness patches in the burning surface layers of accreting neutron stars.

• Intrinsically interesting as nuclear phenomena, they are also important as probes of dense matter physics and the strong gravity, high magnetic field environment of the neutron star surface.
• Burst oscillation frequency is also used to measure stellar spin, and doubles the sample of rapidly rotating (above 10 Hz) accreting neutron stars with known spins.
• Although the mechanism remains mysterious, burst oscillation models must take into account thermonuclear flame spread, nuclear processes, rapid rotation, and the dynamical role of the magnetic field.