Abstract
We report the detection of series of close type I X-ray bursts consisting of two or three events with a recurrence time much shorter than the characteristic (at the observed mean accretion rate) time of matter accumulation needed for a thermonuclear explosion to be initiated on the neutron star surface during the JEM-X/INTEGRAL observations of several X-ray bursters. We show that such series of bursts are naturally explained in the model of a spreading layer of accreting matter over the neutron star surface in the case of a sufficiently high (Ṁ ≳ 1 × 10−9 M ⊙ yr−1) accretion rate (corresponding to a mean luminosity L tot ≳ 1 × 1037erg s−1). The existence of triple bursts requires some refinement of the model—the importance of a central ring zone is shown. In the standard model of a spreading layer no infall of matter in this zone is believed to occur.
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Original Russian Text © S.A. Grebenev, I.V. Chelovekov, 2017, published in Pis’ma v Astronomicheskii Zhurnal, 2017, Vol. 43, No. 9, pp. 643–654.
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Grebenev, S.A., Chelovekov, I.V. Multiple X-ray bursts and the model of a spreading layer of accreting matter over the neutron star surface. Astron. Lett. 43, 583–594 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S106377371709002X
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S106377371709002X