1996/01/20 by Robin H. D. Corbet, R. H. D. Corbet · 61 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Earthquake Detection and Analysis #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Luminosity #Neutron star #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #RADIUS #Stars #Stellar evolution #Stellar mass loss #X-ray binary #X-ray burster
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/309890
published in The Astrophysical Journal 457(1) (IOP Publishing)
openalex publication_date 1996/01/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
A simple model of accretion onto magnetized neutron stars predicts a large luminosity change during a transition from magnetospheric accretion to neutron star accretion. It is pointed out that, for this model, the ratio of the minimum neutron star accretion luminosity and maximum magnetospheric accretion luminosity depends on just the neutron star density and rotation period. Hence, the detection of such a luminosity gap would, at least in principle, give direct insight into the mass-radius relationship of neutron stars. Some potential problems that may affect this measurement are also discussed and some observational results are briefly reviewed.