Constraints on Bygone Nucleosynthesis of Accreting Neutron Stars

Meisel, Zach; Deibel, Alex

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa618d

Title: Constraints on Bygone Nucleosynthesis of Accreting Neutron Stars

Journal Article · Mon Mar 06 00:00:00 EST 2017 · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa618d· OSTI ID:1454430

Meisel, Zach ^[1];

^[2]

Ohio Univ., Athens, OH (United States). Inst. of Nuclear and Particle Physics and Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA), East Lansing, MI (United States). Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE)
Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA), East Lansing, MI (United States). Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE); Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

Nuclear burning near the surface of an accreting neutron star produces ashes that, when compressed deeper by further accretion, alter the star’s thermal and compositional structure. Bygone nucleosynthesis can be constrained by the impact of compressed ashes on the thermal relaxation of quiescent neutron star transients. In particular, Urca cooling nuclei pairs in nuclear burning ashes that cool the neutron star crust via neutrino emission from e^--capture/β^--decay cycles and provide signatures of prior nuclear burning over the ~century timescales it takes to accrete to the e^--capture depth of the strongest cooling pairs. By using crust cooling models of the accreting neutron star transient MAXI J0556-332, we show that this source likely lacked Type I X-ray bursts and superbursts ≳120 years ago. Reduced nuclear physics uncertainties in rp-process reaction rates and e^--capture weak transition strengths for low-lying transitions will improve nucleosynthesis constraints using this technique.

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Research Organization:: Ohio Univ., Athens, OH (United States); Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Science Foundation (NSF); International Space Science Inst. (ISSI), Bern (Switzerland); Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Inst. for Nuclear Theory (INT)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-88ER40387; AST-1516969; PHY-1430152

OSTI ID:: 1454430

Journal Information:: The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 837, Issue 1; ISSN 1538-4357

Publisher:: Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 14 works

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Cooling of Accretion-Heated Neutron Stars Wijnands, Rudy; Degenaar, Nathalie; Page, Dany Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy, Vol. 38, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12036-017-9466-5	journal	September 2017
Nuclear physics of the outer layers of accreting neutron stars Meisel, Zach; Deibel, Alex; Keek, Laurens Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, Vol. 45, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6471/aad171	journal	July 2018
Neutron transfer reactions in accreting neutron stars Chugunov, A. I. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Vol. 483, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/sly218	journal	November 2018
Nuclear Reactions in the Crusts of Accreting Neutron Stars Lau, R.; Beard, M.; Gupta, S. S. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 859, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aabfe0	journal	May 2018
Crust-cooling Models Are Insensitive to the Crust–Core Transition Pressure for Realistic Equations of State Lalit, Sudhanva; Meisel, Zach; Brown, Edward F. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 882, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab338c	journal	September 2019
Spallation-altered Accreted Compositions for X-Ray Bursts: Impact on Ignition Conditions and Burst Ashes Randhawa, J. S.; Meisel, Z.; Giuliani, S. A. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 887, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab4f71	journal	December 2019
Cooling of Accretion-Heated Neutron Stars Wijnands, Rudy; Degenaar, Nathalie; Page, Dany arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1709.07034	text	January 2017
Nuclear Reactions in the Crusts of Accreting Neutron Stars Lau, R.; Beard, M.; Gupta, S. S. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1803.03818	text	January 2018
Nuclear Physics of the Outer Layers of Accreting Neutron Stars Meisel, Zach; Deibel, Alex; Keek, Laurens arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1807.01150	text	January 2018
Spallation-altered accreted compositions for X-ray bursts: Impact on ignition conditions and burst ashes Randhawa, J. S.; Meisel, Z.; Giuliani, S. A. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1908.07614	text	January 2019
Modelling Thermonuclear X-ray Bursts on Accreting Neutron Stars Johnston, Zac arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2004.00012	text	January 2020

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