2019/09/10 by Jan-Uwe Ness, Jan‐Uwe Ness · 9 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Artificial intelligence #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Atmosphere (unit) #Computational physics #Computer science #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Meteorology #Nuclear Physics and Applications #Optics #Physics #Radiation #SSS* #Spectral line #Stars #White dwarf #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.asr.2019.09.002
published in Advances in Space Research 66(5), 1202-1208 (Elsevier BV) · Accepted in JASR. 7 pages, 6 figure
openalex publication_date 2019/09/10 · arxiv created 2019/09/20 · arxiv updated 2019/09/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Super Soft X-ray Sources (SSS) are powered by nuclear burning on the surface of an accreting white dwarf, they are seen around 0.1-1 keV (thus in the soft X-ray regime), depending on effective temperature and the amount of intervening interstellar neutral hydrogen NH. The most realistic model to derive physical parameters from observed SSS spectra would be an atmosphere model that simulates the radiation transport processes. However, observed SSS high-resolution grating spectra reveal highly complex details that cast doubts on the feasibility of achieving unique results from atmosphere modeling. In this article, I discuss two independent atmosphere model analyses of the same data set, leading to different results. I then show some of the details that complicate the analysis and conclude that we need to approach the interpretation of high-resolution SSS spectra differently. We need to focus more on the data than the models and to use more phenomenological approaches as is traditionally done with optical spectra.