Soft x-ray emission from classical novae in outburst

Conference · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-53500-4_143· OSTI ID:5012912

Starrfield, S ^[1]; Truran, J W ^[2]; Sparks, W M ^[3]; Krautter, J ^[4]; MacDonald, J ^[5]

---

1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA) Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (USA). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
2. Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL (USA). Dept. of Astronomy
3. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
4. Landessternwarte auf dem Koenigstuhl bei Heidelberg (Germany, F.R.)
5. Delaware Univ., Newark, DE (USA). Dept. of Physics and Ast

Theoretical modeling of novae in outburst predicts that they should be active emitters of radiation at soft x-ray wavelengths twice during their outburst. The first time occurs very early in the outburst when only a very sensitive all sky survey will be able to detect them. This period lasts only a few hours for the very fastest novae. They again become bright in x-rays late in the outburst when the remnant object becomes very hot and is still luminous. Both simulations and observations show that novae can remain very hot for months to years. It is important to observe them at these late times because a measurement both of the flux and temperature can provide information about the mass of the white dwarf, the turn-off time scale, and the energy budget of the outburst. 8 refs., 2 figs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/MA; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5012912
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-90-138; CONF-8906225-2; ON: DE90006480; CNN: AST85-16173; AST88-18215; AST86-11500; TRN: 90-004963
• Resource Relation: Journal Volume: 369; Conference: Physics of classical novae: IAU colloquium no. 122, Madrid (Spain), 27-30 Jun 1989
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
NOVAE
X-RAY EMISSION ANALYSIS
EDDINGTON THEORY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
LUMINOSITY
WHITE DWARF STARS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DWARF STARS
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
STARS
VARIABLE STARS
640102* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources