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Register a new userConsistent accretion-induced heating of the neutron-star crust in MXB 1659-29 during two different outbursts
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Monitoring the cooling of neutron-star crusts heated during accretion outbursts allows us to infer the physics of the dense matter present in the crust. We examine the crust cooling evolution of the low-mass X-ray binary MXB 1659-29 up to ~505 days after the end of its 2015 outburst (hereafter outburst II) and compare it with what we observed after its previous 1999 outburst (hereafter outburst I) using data obtained from the Swift, XMM-Newton, and Chandra observatories. The observed effective surface temperature of the neutron star in MXB 1659-29 dropped from ~92 eV to ~56 eV from ~12 days to ~505 days after the end of outburst II. The most recently performed observation after outburst II suggests that the crust is close to returning to thermal equilibrium with the core. We model the crust heating and cooling for both its outbursts collectively to understand the effect of parameters that may change for every outburst (e.g., the average accretion rate, the length of outburst, the envelope composition of the neutron star at the end of the outburst) and those which can be assumed to remain the same during these two outbursts (e.g., the neutron star mass, its radius). Our modelling indicates that all parameters were consistent between the two outbursts with no need for any significant changes. In particular, the strength and the depth of the shallow heating mechanism at work (in the crust) were inferred to be the same during both outbursts, contrary to what has been found when modelling the cooling curves after multiple outburst of another source, MAXI J0556-332. This difference in source behaviour is not understood. We discuss our results in the context of our current understanding of cooling of accretion-heated neutron-star crusts, and in particular with respect to the unexplained shallow heating mechanism.
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The transient neutron star (NS) low-mass X-ray binary MAXI J0556$-$332 provides a rare opportunity to study NS crust heating and subsequent cooling for multiple outbursts of the same source. We examine {it MAXI}, {it Swift}, {it Chandra}, and {it XMM-Newton} data of MAXI J0556$-$332 obtained during and after three accretion outbursts of different durations and brightness. We report on new data obtained after outburst III. The source has been tracked up to $sim$1800 d after the end of outburst I. Outburst I heated the crust strongly, but no significant reheating was observed during outburst II. Cooling from $sim$333 eV to $sim$146 eV was observed during the first $sim$1200 d. Outburst III reheated the crust up to $sim$167 eV, after which the crust cooled again to $sim$131 eV in $sim$350 d. We model the thermal evolution of the crust and find that this source required a different strength and depth of shallow heating during each of the three outbursts. The shallow heating released during outburst I was $sim$17 MeV nucleon$^{-1}$ and outburst III required $sim$0.3 MeV nucleon$^{-1}$. These cooling observations could not be explained without shallow heating. The shallow heating for outburst II was not well constrained and could vary from $sim$0--2.2 MeV nucleon$^{-1}$, i.e., this outburst could in principle be explained without invoking shallow heating. We discuss the nature of the shallow heating and why it may occur at different strengths and depths during different outbursts.
We have monitored the quasi-persistent neutron-star X-ray transient MXB 1659-29 in quiescence using Chandra. The purpose of our observations was to monitor the quiescent behavior of the source after its last prolonged outburst episode and to study the cooling curve of the neutron star in this system. We discuss the results obtained and how they constrain the properties of the neutron star in MXB 1659-29
We show that the neutron star in the transient system MXB~1659-29 has a core neutrino luminosity that substantially exceeds that of the modified Urca reactions (i.e., $n+nto n+p+e^{-}+bar{ u}_{e}$ and inverse) and is consistent with the direct Urca reactions ($nto p+e^{-}+bar{ u}_{e}$ and inverse) occurring in a small fraction of the core. Observations of the thermal relaxation of the neutron star crust following 2.5 years of accretion allow us to measure the energy deposited into the core during accretion, which is then reradiated as neutrinos, and infer the core temperature. For a nucleonic core, this requires that the nucleons are unpaired and that the proton fraction exceed a critical value to allow the direct Urca reaction to proceed. The neutron star in MXB~1659-29 is the first with a firmly detected thermal component in its X-ray spectrum that needs a fast neutrino cooling process. Measurements of the temperature variation of the neutron star core during quiescence would place an upper limit on the core specific heat and serve as a check on the fraction of the neutron star core in which nucleons are unpaired.
In quasi-persistent neutron star transients, long outbursts cause the neutron star crust to be heated out of thermal equilibrium with the rest of the star. During quiescence, the crust then cools back down. Such crustal cooling has been observed in two quasi-persistent sources: KS 1731-260 and MXB 1659-29. Here we present an additional Chandra observation of MXB 1659-29 in quiescence, which extends the baseline of monitoring to 6.6 yr after the end of the outburst. This new observation strongly suggests that the crust has thermally relaxed, with the temperature remaining consistent over 1000 days. Fitting the temperature cooling curve with an exponential plus constant model we determine an e-folding timescale of 465 +/- 25 days, with the crust cooling to a constant surface temperature of kT = 54 +/- 2 eV (assuming D=10 kpc). From this, we infer a core temperature in the range 3.5E7-8.3E7 K (assuming D=10 kpc), with the uncertainty due to the surface composition. Importantly, we tested two neutron star atmosphere models as well as a blackbody model, and found that the thermal relaxation time of the crust is independent of the chosen model and the assumed distance.
The structure and composition of the crust of neutron stars plays an important role in their thermal and magnetic evolution, hence in setting their observational properties. One way to study the crust properties is to measure how it cools after it has been heated during an accretion outburst in a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB). Such studies have shown that there is a tantalizing source of heat, of currently unknown origin, that is located in the outer layers of the crust and has a strength that varies between different sources and different outbursts. With the aim of understanding the mechanism behind this shallow heating, we present Chandra and Swift observations of the neutron star LMXB Aql X-1, obtained after its bright 2016 outburst. We find that the neutron star temperature was initially much lower, and started to decrease at much later time, than observed after the 2013 outburst of the source, despite the fact that the properties of the two outbursts were very similar. Comparing our data to thermal evolution simulations, we infer that the depth and magnitude of shallow heating must have been much larger during the 2016 outburst than during the 2013 one. This implies that basic neutron star parameters that do not change between outbursts, do not play a strong role in shallow heating. Furthermore, it suggests that outbursts with a similar accretion morphology can give rise to very different shallow heating. We also discuss alternative explanations for the difference in quiescent evolution after the 2016 outburst.
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