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X-ray astronomy is the prime available window on astrophysical compact objects: black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs. In this book, prominent experts provide a comprehensive overview of the observations and astrophysics of these objects. This is a valuable reference for graduate students and active researchers.
X-ray binaries are some of the most varied and perplexing systems known to astronomers. The compact object which accretes mass from its companion star may be a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole, whereas the donor star can be a 'normal' star or a white dwarf. The various combinations differ widely in their behaviour, and this timely volume provides a unique reference of our knowledge to date of all of them.Fifteen specially written chapters by a team of the world's foremost researchers in the field explore all aspects of the X-ray binaries. They cover the X-ray, ultraviolet, optical and radio properties of these violent systems and address key issues such as: how were these systems formed, and what will be their fate; how can we understand X-ray bursts, and how the quasi-periodic oscillations; what is the connection between millisecond radio pulsars and low-mass X-ray binaries; and how does the magnetic field of a neutron star decay?This long awaited review provides graduate students and researchers with the standard reference on X-ray binaries for many years to come.
A collection of papers using the relative advantages of studying stellar mass and supermassive black holes. The topics discussed here include the state of the art in black hole observational and theoretical work-variability, spectroscopy, disk-jet connections, and multi-wavelength campaigns on black holes.
Stellar Astrophysics contains a selection of high-quality papers that illustrate the progress made in research into the structure and evolution of stars. Senior undergraduates, graduates, and researchers can now be brought thoroughly up to date in this exciting and ever-developing branch of astronomy.
One of the remarkable phenomena, characterizing both Galactic and extra-Galactic Xray binary systems, is the substantial variability of a photon ux, detectable in a very broad range of timescales. For instance, the accretion ow near a black hole event horizon can produce X-ray variability on a millisecond timescale. At the same time aperiodic changes from the extended accretion disk formed around the same black hole can occur on timescales of order of several months to years. A complex structure, involving high and low frequency nearly periodic oscillations and aperiodic features, observed in X-ray lightcurves, is the subject of intensive studies. The characteristic quantities, extracted from temporal analysis, carry speci c physical meaning and contain direct observational information about dynamics of the accreting X-ray source. It is the established fact that X-ray spectral and timing properties are tightly correlated. Combined together, the photon energy spectrum and the power density spectrum analyses, form a powerful framework that brings up the complete (in the energy/space domain) picture of the physical processes at work in the accreting system. Simultaneous study of spectral and timing characteristics allows for comprehensive probing of the geometry of accretion ows, reliable identification of the type of an X-ray source (black hole vs neutron star), constraining mass, size, and spin of accreting stellar-mass compact objects. Up until now there is no self-consistent physical model of the formation and evolution of the X-ray variability. This leaves a relative freedom in interpretation of the characteristic quantities obtained from the timing analysis. The current work aims at development of the physical alternative to the commonplace ad hoc description of the Fourier power density spectrum of X-ray timing signal. In the following study we employ the diffusion theory to directly solve for the X-ray luminosity fluctuations. The basic underlying physical assumption is that the observed variability of X-ray luminosity originates as the result of local fluctuations of the accretion rate, at all radii in the disk, that diffusively propagate outward. Energy dissipation (and X-ray emission) occurs in a narrow, shock-like region, called the transition layer, where the Keplerian ow becomes non-Keplerian in order to adjust itself to the slowly-rotating surface of a neutron star or the innermost stable orbit around a black hole. The X-ray time signal from the transition region, as seen by a remote observer, is obtained by integrating over the emission zone. The signal's power spectrum is then calculated and analyzed. Our diffusion model of the power spectrum formation operates with parameters that are physical characteristics of the accretion ow: the diffusion time scale, the Reynolds number (which is connected to the viscosity -parameter), Keplerian and magnetosonic quasi-periodic oscillation frequencies, radial size of the transition layer, and viscosity index, related to the viscosity distribution law in the system. These quantities constitute the core of temporal data used along with the spectral information to study physics of accretion. The proposed propagating fluctuation model can reproduce fundamental properties of the variability observed in X-ray light curves of accreting black hole and neutron star systems, as well as explain the power spectrum evolution during the spectral state transitions of the source.
The idea to hold a conference on the Evolution of Close-Binary X-ray sources grew in the summer of 1984. At that time we were hoping that some new results would be harvested in the months to come which would stimulate further work. We were particularly looking towards the Euro pean X-ray Observatory, EXOSAT, for new contributions. How lucky we were; quite unexpected developments took place. Just prior to the conference, quasi-periodic oscillations (now known as QPO) were discovered in three bright low-mass X-ray binaries: GX 5-1, Sco X-1, and Cyg X-2. They played an important role at the meeting. The possibility that QPOs imply a neutron star magnetic dipole field, and a neutron star rotation period in the millisecond range, received a lot of attention. This is not surprising, as it lends support to the idea, suggested earlier, that the 6-msec binary radio pulsar PSR 1953+29 evolved from a stage in which it was a bright low-mass X-ray binary. There was special interest in the possibility of white dwarf collapse into a neutron star. This is a. particularly attractive way to form the bright low-mass X-ray binaries, often referred to as galactic bulge sources. It would allow for the possibility of a very young neutron star in a very old binary system. The relatively high magnetic fields that one could infer from QPO could then be explained.