Abstract
Type-I X-ray bursts are frequently occurring thermonuclear runaways on the surface of an accreting neutron star. The different nuclear reactions that empower the cataclysmic event play a key role in accurately comparing theoretical models and observations. We investigate the effect of the uncertainties in the nuclear reactions using a ONEZONE model for a set of different compositions and accretion rates that are within the range of the standard observed burst sources. A combination of a full-reaction network and a semi-analytic model is used to obtain the conditions at the time of X-ray burst ignition via simulating the settling process of the accreted material. We then evaluate the sensitivity of the X-ray burst model by varying the proton and alpha-induced reaction rates in JINA REACLIBV2.2 within representative nuclear physics uncertainties.
Highlights
Neutron stars in a low mass X-ray binary accreting hydrogen-rich or helium-rich materials on the surface can frequently produce thermonuclear runaways, known as Type-I X-ray bursts (XRBs) [1] [2] [3]
We study the sensitivity of the XRB model to nuclear reaction rates in two steps
We obtain the conditions at burst ignition by combining a semi-analytic model (SETTLE code) [11] with a single-zone reaction network code (NucNet Tools) [12]
Summary
Neutron stars in a low mass X-ray binary accreting hydrogen-rich or helium-rich materials on the surface can frequently produce thermonuclear runaways, known as Type-I X-ray bursts (XRBs) [1] [2] [3]. Data from different X-ray observatory satellites (e.g. EXOSAT, RXTE, BeppoSAX, and Chandra) play an important role in probing the binary system properties with model-observation comparison [5]. Both observations and models show dependence on the accretion rate and composition of the accreted materials [6]. These previous studies investigated a limited set of specific models. We use the one-zone model (ONEZONE) [9] to determine the sensitivity of burst observables to nuclear reactions for a broad range of accreted compositions and accretion rates
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