Abstract
Many bright X-ray sources were recently found to undergo quasi-periodic oscillations1–4. None of the sources is an X-ray pulsar which indicates that the accreting neutron stars have no magnetos-pheres. Most neutron star models have radii smaller than 3 Schwar-zschild radii5, Between 69% and 86% of the accretion energy is liberated when matter falls from the marginally stable orbit with a radius rms = 3rSch onto the neutron star surface6. The accretion flow through rms is known to be complicated, and a steady-state flow may not be possible when the viscosity parameter α > αcr≈ 0.037,8. Here I suggest that the unsteady flow would make the boundary-layer luminosity variable, possibly giving rise to the X-ray quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) phenomenon.
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References
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Paczyński, B. Possible relation between the X-ray QPO phenomenon and general relativity. Nature 327, 303–304 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/327303a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/327303a0
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