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Accretion of neutral hydrogen and helium onto a neutron star. The X-ray and gamma-ray radiation of cool neutron stars

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Abstract

The accretion of neutral gas (hydrogen and helium) onto a neutron star is studied. The gas is gravitationally captured into the magnetosphere of the star, where it is ionized by thermal radiation from the stellar surface and accelerated by the electric field at the light cylinder and in a tube of open magnetic lines. Particles accelerated at light cylinder generate gamma-ray, some particles move to the star and heat its polar regions, resulting in the emission of X-rays. Our calculations of the model parameters of the X-ray and gamma-ray radiation indicate that the radiation intensities should be sufficient to be observed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Politekhnicheskaya ul. 26, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia

    E. M. Kantor & A. I. Tsygan

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  1. E. M. Kantor
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  2. A. I. Tsygan
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Original Russian Text © E.M. Kantor, A.I. Tsygan, 2006, published in Astronomicheskiĭ Zhurnal, 2006, Vol. 83, No. 2, pp. 177–183.

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Kantor, E.M., Tsygan, A.I. Accretion of neutral hydrogen and helium onto a neutron star. The X-ray and gamma-ray radiation of cool neutron stars. Astron. Rep. 50, 152–158 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063772906020089

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063772906020089

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