Samenvatting
White dwarfs, neutron stars and stellar mass black holes are key
laboratories to study matter in most extreme conditions of gravity and
magnetic field. The unprecedented effective area of Athena+ will allow
us to advance our understanding of emission mechanisms and accretion
physics over a wide range of mass accretion rates, starting from lower
and sub-luminous quiescent X-ray binaries up to super-Eddington
ultra-luminous sources. Athena+ will measure stellar black hole spins in
a much higher number of binaries than achievable now, opening the
possibility to study how spin varies with black hole history. The high
throughput and energy resolution of the X-IFU will be instrumental in
establishing how disc wind properties depend on accretion state, in
determining wind launching mechanism and in quantifying the impact of
the wind induced mass loss on binary evolution and environment. Triggers
and high quality optical and radio data originating from large wide
field contemporaneous instruments will provide essential complementary
information on jet launching mechanisms and on the physics of rotation
powered pulsars, for instance. In addition, Athena+ will furnish
multiple, independent measurements of the neutron star mass/radius
relation in a wide range of environments and conditions so as to
constrain the debated equation of state.
Originele taal-2 | English |
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Pagina's (van-tot) | 2334 |
Tijdschrift | ArXiv |
Volume | 1306 |
Status | Published - 1-jun.-2013 |