3D MHD Simulations of accreting neutron stars: evidence of QPO emission from the surface [article]

Matteo Bachetti, Luciano Burderi Università degli Studi di Cagliari,
2009 arXiv   pre-print
3D Magnetohydrodynamic simulations show that when matter accretes onto neutron stars, in particular if the misalignment angle is small, it does not constantly fall at a fixed spot. Instead, the location at which matter reaches the star moves. These moving hot spots can be produced both during stable accretion, where matter falls near the magnetic poles of the star, and unstable accretion, characterized by the presence of several tongues of matter which fall on the star near the equator, due to
more » ... ayleigh-Taylor instabilities. Precise modeling with Monte Carlo simulations shows that those movements could be observed as high frequency Quasi Periodic Oscillations. We performed a number of new simulation runs with a much wider set of parameters, focusing on neutron stars with a small misalignment angle. In most cases we observe oscillations whose frequency is correlated with the mass accretion rate Ṁ. Moreover, in some cases double QPOs appear, each of them showing the same correlation with Ṁ.
arXiv:0912.0234v1 fatcat:vjbkuj6tejg5flw3cgizch6nsu