Open AccessHeat diffusion in outer crust and X-ray superbursts of accreting neutron stars
Author(s) -
A. D. Kaminker,
D.G. Yakovlev,
A. Y. Potekhin,
P. Haensel
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
astronomy at the epoch of multimessenger studies. proceedings of the vak-2021 conference, aug 23–28, 2021
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
DOI - 10.51194/vak2021.2022.1.1.106
Subject(s) - neutron star , crust , astrophysics , physics , diffusion , stars , thermal diffusivity , low mass , accretion (finance) , astronomy , geophysics , thermodynamics
A simple model is presented of heat diusion after a superburst in deep layers of the outer crust of an accreting neutronstar (10 7 . ρ . 4 × 10 11 g cm −3 ). Since the warm outer crust (T ∼ 10 8 − 10 9 K) has large heat capacity and acts as a heatreservoir, it is able to keep the outburst energy for months. The basic features of thermal afterburst evolution are outlined.They can be useful for interpreting observations of superbursts in low-mass X-ray binaries.