Accretion disks and coronae in the X-ray flashlight

Abstract

Plasma accreted onto the surface of a neutron star can ignite due to unstable thermonuclear burning and produce a bright flash of X-ray emission called a Type-I X-ray burst. Such events are very common; thousands have been observed to date from over a hundred accreting neutron stars. The intense, often Eddington-limited, radiation generated in these thermonuclear explosions can have a discernible effect on the surrounding accretion flow that consists of an accretion disk and a hot electron corona. Type-I X-ray bursts can therefore serve as direct, repeating probes of the internal dynamics of the accretion process. In this work we review and interpret the observational evidence for the impact that Type-I X-ray bursts have on accretion disks and coronae. We also provide an outlook of how to make further progress in this research field with prospective experiments and analysis techniques, and by exploiting the technical capabilities of the new and concept X-ray missions ASTROSAT, NICER, HXMT, eXTP, and STROBE-X.

70 pages, 14 figures, 7 tables. Accepted to Space Science Reviews

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• A Black Hole X-ray Binary at $\sim$100 Hz: Multiwavelength Timing of MAXI J1820+070 with HiPERCAM and NICER
• Insight-HXMT observations of 4U~1636-536: Corona cooling revealed with single short type-I X-ray burst
• Burst-induced coronal cooling in GS 1826-24 The clock wagging its tail
• Interactions of Type I X-ray Bursts with Thin Accretion Discs