Abstract
IT has been natural to suggest that the several pulsating X-ray sources1–5 with periods ∼ 1 s are associated with matter at high densities and in particular with white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes. But pulsars are primarily radio sources and no radio pulsations have been observed from these objects. Further, the timing of the pulses does not appear to have the essential constancy of that of the pulsars. This suggests that rotation is not the most likely explanation of the pulsations. But neutron stars have periods of oscillation which are too short, and it is difficult to explain the short period X-ray sources in terms of oscillating white dwarfs. Here I suggest that these X-ray sources are stars with central densities intermediate to those of neutron stars and white dwarfs.
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CHANMUGAM, G. Pulsating X-ray Sources. Nature 237, 449–450 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/237449a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/237449a0
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