Speaker
Dr
Anthea Francesca Fantina
(Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds (GANIL))
Description
X-ray observations of soft X-ray transients in quiescence suggest the existence of heat sources in the crust of accreted neutron stars. The heat is thought to be released by electroweak and nuclear processes triggered by the burying of ashes of X-ray bursts.
In this talk, the heating in the crust of accreting neutron stars will be discussed. In particular, the importance of nuclear physics inputs and the impact of the details of the nuclear structure (e.g. shell effects) on the crustal heating will be assessed. Indeed, we will show that the evolution of an accreted matter element and therefore the location of heat sources are governed to a large extent by the existence of nuclear shell closures. The question of the shallow heat sources will also be discussed.
Primary author
Dr
Anthea Francesca Fantina
(Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds (GANIL))
Co-authors
Prof.
J. Leszek Zdunik
(N. Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Prof.
John Michael Pearson
(Dépt. de Physique, Université de Montréal)
Prof.
Nicolas Chamel
(Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Prof.
Pawel Haensel
(N. Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Dr
Stéphane Goriely
(Université Libre de Bruxelles)
