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Fermi-GBM type I X-ray burst project: An all-sky view of thermonuclear bursts.
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Fermi-GBM type I X-ray burst project:An all-sky view of thermonuclear bursts. M. Linares (MIT, Rubicon Fellow)V. Connaughton (CSPAR/UAH), P. Jenke (ORAU), A. Camero-Arranz (FECYT), E. Beklen (METU), M. H. Finger (USRA), C. Wilson-Hodge, C. Kouveliotou (NASA/MSFC), A. J. van der Horst (NASA/MSFC/ORAU), D. Chakrabarty (MIT), A. L. Watts (Amsterdam)
World English Dictionary • monitor — n 1. a person or piece of equipment that warns, checks, controls, or keeps a continuous record of something • Dictionary.com • monitor — 6. an instrument for detecting dangerous gases, radiation, etc.
Thermonuclear bursts from NS-LMXBs http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0220stardisk.html
Fermi-GBM • Field of view: all unocculted (75%) sky. • X-ray response: down to 8 keV. • Optimal instrument to detect rare & bright thermonuclear bursts.
GBM and X-ray bursts Systematic X-ray burst search and processing at NSSTC & MIT. So far (March 2010 – November 2010): ~346 XRB candidates (~1.3/day)
GBM and X-ray bursts Durations: 20-400 s; Av. net rates: 5-100 c/s (11-27 keV band)
GBM and thermonuclear bursts: 4U 0614+09 7 type I X-ray bursts from 4U 0614+09 between March and October, 2010. 51% observation duty cycle: Burst recurrence time = 16 +/- 6 d
GBM and thermonuclear bursts: 4U 0614+09 Kuulkers et al. (2009) 7 GBM bursts in ~8 months!
GBM and thermonuclear bursts: 4U 0614+09 Falanga et al. (2009) Linares et al. (2009) Long (aka ‘intermediate duration’) type I burst from XTE J1701-407:XRT ~15x longer than BAT
GBM and thermonuclear bursts: 4U 0614+09 Observations of bursts have been strongly biased towards bright (and therefore high Mdot ) states of LMXBs. Recurrence times of low-Mdot bursts have proven extremely difficult to measure. A scenario has been proposed to explain short low-Mdot bursts that involves stable(unstable) hydrogen burning that builds up(ignites) a pure helium layer (Fujimoto et al. 1981; Bildsten 1998). On the other hand, sedimentation of heavy elements is thought to play an important role in the production of long low-Mdot bursts (Peng et al. 2007). GBM is measuring their recurrence time to provide crucial missing info: how much mass is accreted to reach ignition? (see Cir X-1 poster for high Mdot bursts)
MAXI and thermonuclear bursts MAXI: -”Normal” type I bursts. -Well suited to superbursts (duration ~day). -Well sampled long-term accretion rate history.
Summary • GBM: Also an X-ray burst monitor, building a valuable archive of several transient high-energy phenomena. • GBM has opened new ways in the study of thermonuclear bursts, low-Mdot bursts in particular. • 4U 0614+09 bursts every ~16 days during 2010, while Mdot keeps close to 1% Eddington.