6 research outputs found
Millisecond Oscillations in X-Ray Binaries
The first millisecond X-ray variability phenomena from accreting compact
objects have recently been discovered with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer.
Three new phenomena are observed from low-mass X-ray binaries containing
low-magnetic-field neutron stars: millisecond pulsations, burst oscillations
and kiloHertz quasi-periodic oscillations. Models for these new phenomena
involve the neutron star spin, and orbital motion closely around the neutron
star and rely explicitly on our understanding of strong gravity and dense
matter. I review the observations of these new neutron-star phenomena and
possibly related ones in black-hole candidates, and describe the attempts to
use them to perform measurements of fundamental physical interest in these
systems.Comment: 40 pages, 17 figures, 4 tables - submitted to the Annual Review of
Astronomy and Astrophysics; to appear September 200
Neutron Stars and Black Holes in X-ray Binaries
Galactic accretion driven stellar X-ray sources can be divided into groups in
different ways. An important division, which covers almost all known X-ray
binaries, can be made according to the mass of the donor star: high-mass X-ray
binaries and low-mass X-ray binaries. Another distinction (partially
overlapping with the previous one) can be made on the basis of the nature of
the accreting object: a strongly magnetized neutron star, a neutron star with a
weak magnetic field, or a black hole. In this review I describe the properties
of these different types of X-ray binaries, and discuss the mass determinations
which are the basis for distinguishing accreting neutron stars from black
holes.Comment: 58 pages, 15 figures. To be published in 'The Many Faces of Neutron
Stars', R. Buccheri, J. van Paradijs, M.A. Alpar (Eds), Kluwer Academic
Publisher