New Views of Thermonuclear Bursts

Abstract

Since the advent of powerful new X-ray observatories, NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), the Italian - Dutch BeppoSAX mission, XMM-Newton and Chandra, a number of entirely new phenomena associated with thermonuclear burning on neutron stars have been discovered. These include: (i) the discovery of millisecond (300 - 600 Hz) oscillations during bursts, so called ``burst oscillations'', (ii) a new regime of nuclear burning on neutron stars which manifests itself through the generation of hours long flares about once a decade, now referred to as ``superbursts'',(iii) discoveries of bursts from low accretion rate neutron stars, and (iv) new evidence for discrete spectral features from bursting neutron stars. In this article we review our current understanding of thermonuclear bursts on neutron stars, with a focus on these new phenomena.