Department - Author 1
Physics Department
Degree Name - Author 1
BS in Physics
Date
6-2010
Primary Advisor
Michelle Ouellette
Abstract/Summary
Neutron stars are intriguing stellar laboratories that are very exciting to study due to the presence of matter in an extreme state. The luminosity of some neutron star transients in low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) systems is known to have quiescent intervals that may be affected by the rate and duration of accretion from the companion star onto the neutron star. We refined a model of the luminosity of the neutron star to allow for possibility that the accretion rate declines at a steady rate until it reaches zero. After a neutron star goes through an outburst, the quiescent period has a higher luminosity if a longer accretion decay length is used. The luminosity does not vary if the accretion decay is exponential or linear. The present model does not match observation of well-known neutron star transient KS 1731-260.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/physsp/20