2005/10/02 by Y. L. Yue, X. H. Cui, Yue, Y. L. +5
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0510020
12 pages, 3 figures, or at: http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/rxxu/publications/index_P.htm
arxiv created 2005/10/02 · openalex publication_date 2005/10/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The enigma source, RX J1856.5-3754, is one of the so-called dim thermal neutron stars. Two puzzles of RXJ1856.5-3754 exist: (1) the observational X-ray spectrum is completely featureless; (2) the UV-optical intensity is about seven times larger than that given by the continuation of the blackbody model yielded by the X-ray data. Both the puzzles would not exist anymore if RX J1856.5-3754 is a low mass bare strange quark star, which is in a propeller phase with a low accretion rate. A boundary layer of RX J1856.5-3754 is suggested and modelled, from which the UV-optical emission is radiated. Free-free absorption dominates the opacity of the boundary layer, which results in the opacity to be high in UV-optical but low in X-ray bands. The star's magnetic field, spin period, as well as the accretion rate are constrained by observations.