Neutron stars are a valuable asset to modern nuclear astrophysics in that they provide a unique environment to study matter under extreme conditions. Much of the observational data obtained from neutron stars contains information about the structure and dynamics of the crust. Using such observations to measure crust properties requires understanding the uncertainty range from models of the...
Low Mass X-ray Binaries are star systems in which a neutron star or a small black hole is paired with a companion star with mass comparable to that of the sun. During accretion, the companion star donates matter to the compact object in the system and increases its temperature. When accretion ends, a stage called quiescence, the compact object begins to cool as it moves back toward thermal...
Hydrogen and helium burns explosively and produces a mixture of heavy elements when accreted onto the surface of neutron stars in X-ray binaries. These mixtures then freeze and form a solid crust, which is slowly replaced as new material freezes above it. On astronomically long timescales the entire crust can be replaced. If the astrophysical conditions change the burning may produce different...
We have carried out a suite of over 5 000 detailed X-ray burst models using the Kepler stellar evolution code. While our past work used a limited number of detailed models combined with a full suite of simpler, single-zone models, this new work uses only detailed models -- increasing the number of detailed models by over an order of magnitude. These models are generated by varying thousands...
