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The Einstein Probe (EP) is an interdisciplinary mission of time-domain and X-ray astronomy. Equipped with a wide-field lobster-eye X-ray focusing imager, EP will discover cosmic X-ray transients and monitor the X-ray variability of known sources in 0.5-4 keV, at a combination of detecting sensitivity and cadence that is not accessible to the previous and current wide-field monitoring missions. EP can perform quick characterisation of transients or outbursts with a Wolter-I X-ray telescope onboard. In this paper, the science objectives of the Einstein Probe mission are presented. EP is expected to enlarge the sample of previously known or predicted but rare types of transients with a wide range of timescales. Among them, fast extragalactic transients will be surveyed systematically in soft X-rays, which include {\gamma}-ray bursts and their variants, supernova shock breakouts, and the predicted X-ray transients associated with binary neutron star mergers. EP will detect X-ray tidal disruption events and outbursts from active galactic nuclei, possibly at an early phase of the flares for some. EP will monitor the variability and outbursts of X-rays from white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes in our and neighbouring galaxies at flux levels fainter than those detectable by the current instruments, and is expected to discover new objects. A large sample of stellar X-ray flares will also be detected and characterised. In the era of multi-messenger astronomy, EP has the potential of detecting the possible X-ray counterparts of gravitational wave events, neutrino sources, and ultra-high energy {\gamma}-ray and cosmic ray sources. EP is expected to help advance the studies of extreme objects/phenomena and their underlying physical processes revealed in the dynamic X-ray universe, as well as studies in other areas of X-ray astronomy., Comment: 67 pages, 24 figures, accepted for publication in SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy

We report the superburst from 4U 1820--30 in 2021 observed by Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) and Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). During the tail of the superburst, we found that the NICER light curve unexpectedly increased from 1080 to 2204 ${\rm cts~s^{-1}}$ over 6.89 hr. From the time-resolved superburst spectra, we estimated the burst decay time of $\sim2.7$ hr, the ignition column depth of $\sim0.3\times 10^{12}~{\rm g ~cm^{-2}}$, the energy release per unit mass of $\sim1.7\times 10^{17}~{\rm erg~g^{-1}}$, the fluence of $\sim4.5\times 10^{-4}~{\rm erg~cm^{-2}}$, and the total energy release of $\sim3.8\times10^{42}$ erg. Notably, we found a gradual increase in the Componization flux from $8.9\times 10^{-10}~{\rm erg~s^{-1}~cm^{-2}}$ to the pre-burst level during the superburst. This increase can be interpreted as a consequence of superburst radiation depleting the inner accretion disk, leading to a near-complete quenching of the persistent emission. As the burst radiation decayed, the inner accretion disk gradually returned to its pre-burst state, as evidenced by the best-fit spectral parameters. Additionally, we observed a prominent absorption line that exhibited a gravitational redshift, shifting from 4.16 to 3.60 keV during the recovery phase of persistent emission. This absorption feature likely originates from the inner accretion disk rather than from burst emission on the neutron star (NS) surface. The observed changes in the absorption line energy suggest that the inner disk approached the NS to a distance as close as $\sim16$ km., Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, submitted to ApJ, comments are welcome

We report analysis of $\textit{Insight}$-HXMT observations of the newly discovered accreting millisecond pulsar SRGA J144459.2$-$604207. During the outburst, detected in 2024 February by $\textit{eROSITA}$, the broadband persistent spectrum was well fitted by an absorbed Comptonization model. We detected 60 type I X-ray bursts in the $\textit{Insight}$-HXMT medium energy (ME) data, and 37 were also detected with the low-energy (LE) telescope. By superimposing the $\textit{Insight}$-HXMT/LE/ME/HE light curves of 37 bursts with similar profiles and intensities, we measured a deficit of X-rays in the 40$-$70 keV energy band. By analyzing the time-resolved X-ray burst spectra, we determine the mean ratio of persistent to burst flux of $\alpha=71\pm7$. We estimate the average hydrogen mass fraction in the fuel at ignition, as $\bar{X} = 0.342 \pm 0.033$, and constrain the burst fuel composition as $X_0\lesssim0.4$. We found that 14 out of 60 X-ray bursts exhibited photospheric expansion, and thus we estimated the distance to the source as $10.03\pm 0.71$ kpc. Combined with $\textit{IXPE}$ observations, the burst recurrence time were increasing from 1.55 to 8 hr as the local mass accretion rate decreasing, which can be described as $\Delta T_{\rm rec}\sim \dot{m}^{-0.91\pm0.02}$., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ApJ, comments are welcome

We performed a systematic investigation of millihertz quasi-periodic oscillations (mHz QPOs) in the low-mass X-ray binary GS 1826$-$238 observed with NICER and Insight-HXMT. We discovered 35 time intervals exhibiting mHz QPOs out of 106 GTI samples in the frequency range of 4.2-12.8 mHz at a significance level of $>5\sigma$. The source remains in a soft state in our study. No significant differences are found between the samples with and without mHz QPOs according to positions in the color-color and hardness-intensity diagrams. These QPOs were discovered at an accretion rate of $\sim 0.1 \dot{M}_{\rm Edd}$, similar to other sources. The broadband spectrum of GS 1826$-$238 can be modeled as a combination of a multi-color blackbody from the accretion disk and a Comptonization with seed photons emitted from the NS surface. The flux modulations of mHz QPOs are related to variations of the temperature of Comptonization seed photons, consistent with the marginally stable burning theory., Comment: 10 figures, 1 table, submitted to Apj

We report on the broadband spectral and timing properties of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J17498$-$2921 during its April 2023 outburst using data from NICER (1$-$10 keV), NuSTAR (3$-$79 keV), Insight-HXMT (2$-$150 keV), and INTEGRAL (30$-$150 keV). We detect significant 401 Hz pulsations across the 0.5$-$150 keV band. The pulse fraction increases from $\sim$2% at 1 keV to $\sim$13% at 66 keV. Five type-I X-ray bursts have been detected, including three photospheric radius expansion bursts, with a rise time of $\sim$2 s and an exponential decay time of $\sim$5 s. The recurrence time is $\sim$9.1 h, which can be explained by unstable thermonuclear burning of hydrogen-deficient material on the neutron star surface. The quasi-simultaneous 1$-$150 keV broadband spectra from NICER, NuSTAR, and INTEGRAL can be well fitted by an absorbed reflection model, relxillCp, and a Gaussian line of instrumental origin. The Comptonized emission from the hot corona is characterized by a photon index $\Gamma$ of $\sim$1.8 and an electron temperature $kT_{\rm e}$ of $\sim$40 keV. We obtain a low inclination angle $i\sim34^{\circ}$. The accretion disk shows properties of strong ionization, $\log(\xi/{\rm erg~cm~s^{-1}})\sim4.5$, over-solar abundance, $A_{\rm Fe}\sim 7.7$, and high density, $\log(n_{\rm e}/{\rm cm^{-3}})\sim 19.5$. However, a lower disk density with normal abundance and ionization could also be possible. From the inner disk radius $R_{\rm in}=1.67R_{\rm ISCO}$ and the long-term spin-down rate of $-3.1(2)\times10^{-15}~{\rm Hz~s^{-1}}$, we constrain the magnetic field of IGR J17498$-$2921 in the range of $(0.9-2.4)\times10^8$ G., Comment: Published in A&A

We report the detection of a long X-ray burst triggered on MJD 60171.65 from the ultra-compact binary 4U 1850$-$087 by the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). We analyse the NICER data observed in between MJD 60095.19$-$60177.43, including one observation covered part of the long X-ray burst tail, i.e., $0.15-3.8$ hr after the trigger. The persistent spectra are quite similar and well described by a combination of multi-color disk blackbody, with the inner temperature of 0.5 keV, and a thermally comptonized continuum with the asymptotic power-law photon index of $\Gamma\sim2.2$, and electron temperature of $kT_{\rm e}\sim20-30$ keV. The persistent fluxes were around $3.8\times10^{-10}~{\rm erg~cm^{-2}~s^{-1}}$, corresponding to a local accretion rate of $1\%~\dot{m}_{\rm Edd}$. Part of time-resolved burst spectra show a clear deviation from the blackbody model, which can be improved by considering the enhanced persistent emission due to the Poynting-Robertson drag, or the reflected disk emission illuminated by the burst. From the burst flux during the cooling tail, we estimate the burst duration, $\tau \approx 0.78$ hr, the burst fluence, $E_\mathrm{b} \approx 4.1 \times 10^{41}$ ergs, and the ignition column depth, $y_{\rm ign}\approx 3.5\times10^{10}~{\rm g~cm^{-2}}$. We propose that the long X-ray burst is powered by unstable burning of pure helium in deep layer. Moreover, we identify significant 1 keV emission lines in the burst spectra, which may originate from the surrounding disk., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, to match the published version in ApJ

We report accretion-powered pulsations for the first time during thermonuclear bursts in hard X-rays, which were observed with Insight-HXMT in 2022 during the outburst of the accreting X-ray millisecond pulsar MAXI J1816-195. By stacking 73 bursts, we detected pulse profiles in 8-30 keV and 30-100 keV during bursts, which are identical to those obtained from the persistent (non-burst) emission. On average, no significant phase lag was observed between burst and persistent pulse profiles. In addition, we suggest that the interaction with burst photons can be used as a direct diagnostic to distinguish contributions from the hot plasma near polar caps and the corona around the accretion disk, which are highly degenerate in their spectral shapes., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

MAXI J1816-195 is an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar (AMXP) discovered in 2022. According to the Insight-HXMT data, the pulsations of this source extend all the way to over 100 keV, and its pulse profiles change from a single peak in low-energy range to double peaks in high-energy range. In this work, we simulate its energy spectra and pulse profiles with a Compton scattering Monte Carlo program. The simulation results suggest that the low energy X-ray source on the neutron star surface should be pencil-beamed radiations from the magnetic poles, and there should be a boundary layer in a hollow cylinder shape between the accretion disc and the neutron star surface: the up-scattering of the polar radiations in the boundary layer leads to the double peak structure of the high-energy pulse profile. Under this boundary layer geometry, we suggest that the rarity of AMXPs can be caused by the smearing of the boundary layer. To estimate the mass M and radius R of accretion-powered millisecond pulsars whose surface radiations are badly polluted by the accretion disk and boundary layer, the impact of Compton scattering in the boundary layer on the radiation should be removed before employing the X-ray pulse profile modeling method., Comment: 14 pages and 16 figures in total. Please note that there is a GIF version of Figure. 8 (page 9) in the attachments: ~/figures/mspulsar.gif, we hope that this GIF could help the reader to understand our work more clearly

Type I X-ray bursts in the ultracompact X-ray binary 4U 1820$-$30 are powered by the unstable thermonuclear burning of hydrogen-deficient material. We report the detection of 15 type I X-ray bursts from 4U 1820$-$30 observed by NICER in between 2017 and 2023. All these bursts occurred in the low state for the persistent flux in the range of $2.5-8\times10^{-9}~{\rm erg~s^{-1}~cm^{-2}}$ in 0.1$-$250 keV. The burst spectra during the tail can be well explained by blackbody model. However, for the first $\sim$5 s after the burst onset, the time-resolved spectra showed strong deviations from the blackbody model. The significant improvement of the fit can be obtained by taking into account of the enhanced persistent emission due to the Poynting-Robterson drag, the extra emission modelled by another blackbody component or by the reflection from the surrounding accretion disk. The reflection model provides a self-consistent and physically motivated explanation. We find that the accretion disk density changed with 0.5 s delay as response to the burst radiation, which indicates the distortion of the accretion disk during X-ray bursts. From the time-resolved spectroscopy, all bursts showed the characteristic of photospheric radius expansion (PRE). We find one superexpansion burst with the extreme photospheric radius $r_{\rm ph}>10^3$ km and blackbody temperature of $\sim 0.2$ keV, thirteen strong PRE bursts for $r_{\rm ph}>10^2$ km, and one moderate PRE burst for $r_{\rm ph}\sim55$ km., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables. It matches the published version in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We studied the frequency and critical mass accretion rate of millihertz quasi-periodic oscillations (mHz QPOs) using a one-zone X-ray burst model. The surface gravity is specified by two kinds of equation of states: neutron star (NS) and strange star (SS). The base flux, $Q_{b}$, is set in the range of 0-2 MeV nucleon$^{-1}$. It is found that the frequency of mHz QPO is positively correlated to the surface gravity but negatively to the base heating. The helium mass fraction has a significant influence on the oscillation frequency and luminosity. The observed 7-9 mHz QPOs can be either explained by a heavy NS/light SS with a small base flux or a heavy SS with a large base flux. As base flux increases, the critical mass accretion rate for marginally stable burning is found to be lower. Meanwhile, the impact of metallicity on the properties of mHz QPOs was investigated using one-zone model. It shows that both the frequency and critical mass accretion rate decrease as metallicity increases. An accreted NS/SS with a higher base flux and metallicity, combined with a lower surface gravity and helium mass fraction, could be responsible for the observed critical mass accretion rate ($\dot{m}\simeq 0.3\dot{m}_{\rm Edd}$). The accreted fuel would be in stable burning if base flux is over than $\sim$2 MeV nucleon$^{-1}$. This finding suggests that the accreting NSs/SSs in low-mass X-ray binaries showing no type I X-ray bursts possibly have a strong base heating., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The Hot Universe Baryon Surveyor (HUBS) is a proposed space-based X-ray telescope for detecting X-ray emissions from the hot gas content in our universe. With its unprecedented spatially-resolved high-resolution spectroscopy and large field of view, the HUBS mission will be uniquely qualified to measure the physical and chemical properties of the hot gas in the interstellar medium, the circumgalactic medium, the intergalactic medium, and the intracluster medium. These measurements will be valuable for two key scientific goals of HUBS, namely to unravel the AGN and stellar feedback physics that governs the formation and evolution of galaxies, and to probe the baryon budget and multi-phase states from galactic to cosmological scales. In addition to these two goals, the HUBS mission will also help us solve some problems in the fields of galaxy clusters, AGNs, diffuse X-ray backgrounds, supernova remnants, and compact objects. This paper discusses the perspective of advancing these fields using the HUBS telescope., Comment: 52 pages, 22 figures. Accepted for publication in Science China: Physics, Mechanics and Astronomy

We studied the broadband X-ray timing and spectral behaviors of the newly confirmed accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar MAXI J1816$-$195 during its 2022 outburst. We used the data from Insight-HXMT ME/HE, NICER and NuSTAR which cover the energy range between 0.8$-$210 keV. A coherent timing analysis of solely Insight-HXMT HE data across the full outburst revealed a complex behavior of the timing residuals, also prominently visible in independent Insight-HXMT ME and NICER data, particularly at rising part of the outburst and at the very end in NICER data. Therefore, we broke down the full outburst into a (noisy) rising part, covering only about five days from MJD 59737.0 to 59741.9, and a decaying part lasting for 19 days across MJD 59741.9$-$59760.6. Fitting for the decaying part a timing model including a frequency $\nu$ and frequency time derivative $\dot{\nu}$ component yielded a value of $(+9.0\pm2.1)\times10^{-14}~{\rm Hz~s^{-1}}$ for $\dot{\nu}$, which could be interpreted as a spin-up under our model assumptions. We detected the X-ray pulsations up to $\sim$95 keV in a combination of Insight-HXMT HE observations. The pulse profiles were quite stable over the whole outburst and could be well described by a truncated Fourier series using two harmonics, the fundamental and the first overtone. Both components kept alignment in the range 0.8$-$64 keV. The joint and time-averaged NICER and Insight-HXMT spectra in the energy range 1$-$150 keV were well fitted by the absorbed Comptonization model compps plus disk blackbody with two additional Gaussian components. Using the bolometric flux and spin-up values both evaluated during the decay phase, we determined a magnetic field strength of $(0.2-2)\times10^8$ G for MAXI J1816$-$195., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted version

NICER observed two outbursts from the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary 4U~1730$-$22 in 2021 and 2022, which showed a similar spectral evolution in the hardness-intensity diagram. Seventeen type I X-ray bursts were identified in both outbursts. The X-ray burst spectra showed clear deviations from the blackbody model, firstly $\sim10$ s after onset. Adding the enhanced persistent emission due to the Poynting-Robertson drag or the reflection from the accretion disk both significantly improved the fitting results. We found that 12 out of 17 X-ray bursts showed the photospheric radius expansion (PRE) characteristic. Considering the nine PRE bursts out of ten X-ray bursts observed by Insight-HXMT, 78\% of bursts from 4U~1730--22 exhibited PRE. According to the burst rise time, the duration, the local accretion rate, and the burst fuel composition estimated from recurrence time, we propose that these PRE bursts were powered by pure helium. From the touchdown flux of PRE bursts, we estimate the source distance of $ d=7.54\pm{0.46} (X=0)$ kpc for a canonical neutron star with $M_{\rm NS}=1.4M_\odot$ and $R_{\rm NS}=10~{\rm km}$., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures; Matches the version published in A&A

Type-I X-ray burst oscillations are powered by thermonuclear released on the neutron star (NS) surface in low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), where the burst oscillation frequencies are close to the NS spin rates. In this work, we report the detection of oscillation at 584.65 Hz during the cooling tail of a type-I X-ray bursts observed from the accreting NS LMXB 4U~1730--22 in 2022 March 20, by the \textit{ Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer} (\textit{NICER}) telescope. The oscillation signal showed a strong Leahy power, $P_{\rm m}\sim54.04$, around 584.65 Hz, which has single trial and multiple trials confidence levels of $7.05\sigma$ and $4.78\sigma$, respectively. The folded pulse profile of the oscillation in the 0.2--10 keV band showed a sinusoidal shape with the fraction amplitude rms of $(12.5\pm1.8)\%$. We found the oscillation frequency showed insignificant upward drifting, i.e., less than 0.3 Hz, during the cooling tail, similar as the behavior appearing in accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars (AMXP), and indicate the source could be an AMXP spinning at 1.71 ms., Comment: matches published version

Type I X-ray bursts are the result of an unstable thermonuclear burning of accreting matter on the neutron star (NS) surface. The quick release of energetic X-ray photons during such bursts interacts with the surrounding accretion disk, which raises the accretion rate due to Poynting-Robertson drag and, thus, a fraction of the burst emission is reflected. We analyzed two photospheric radius expansion bursts in the NS low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1636--536 that took place in 2017, using data from Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer. The time-resolved burst spectra showed clear deviations from a blackbody model. The spectral fitting can be significantly improved by introducing either the enhanced persistent emission (the $f_a$ model) or the reflection from the accretion disk (the \texttt{relxillNS} model). The $f_a$ model provides a higher blackbody temperature and higher burst flux compared with the \texttt{relxillNS} model. The peak fluxes of two bursts from the $f_a$ model, $4.36\times10^{-8}~\mathrm{erg~cm^{-2}~s^{-1}}$ and $9.10\times10^{-8}~\mathrm{erg~cm^{-2}~s^{-1}}$, are slightly higher than the Eddington limits of mixed hydrogen-helium and pure helium bursts from previous observations, respectively. When the disk reflections have been taken into account simultaneously, the peak fluxes are lower to match the preferred values. We find evidence to support the finding that both the Poynting-Robertson drag and disk reflection have been appeared during these two X-ray bursts. Moreover, the disk reflection may contribute $\sim20-30\%$ of the total burst emissions., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. This version matches the published version

Superbursts are long duration, rare, and extremely energetic thermonuclear explosions of neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (NS LMXBs), which are proposed to be due to unstable carbon ignition. We report the superburst properties and consequences from Aql X-1 observed by the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image, Swift, and Insight Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) on the MJD 59130.7. We found two faint type I X-ray bursts 9.44 days after the superburst with a short recurrence time of 7.6 minutes, which is the most accurate measurement of the quenching time in all NS LMXBs with observed superbursts. We also discovered mHz quasi-periodic oscillations in the frequency range 2.7--11.3 mHz immediately after the superburst, before and after the resumption of the first type I X-ray burst from NICER, Swift, and Insight-HXMT observations. For the first time, we observed the transition from superburst, via marginally stable burning to unstable burning in NS LMXBs. We compared the quenching time and the recurrence time of type I X-ray bursts with simulations., Comment: Minor changes to match version published in ApJ

We calculate steady-state models of radiation-driven super-Eddington winds and static expanded envelopes of neutron stars caused by high luminosities in type I X-ray bursts. We use flux-limited diffusion to model the transition from optically thick to optically thin, and include effects of general relativity, allowing us to study the photospheric radius close to the star as the hydrostatic atmosphere evolves into a wind. We find that the photospheric radius evolves monotonically from static envelopes ($r_{\rm ph}\lesssim 50-70$ km) to winds ($r_{\rm ph}\approx 100-1000$ km). Photospheric radii of less than $100$ km, as observed in most photospheric radius expansion bursts, can be explained by static envelopes, but only in a narrow range of luminosity. In most bursts, we would expect the luminosity to increase further, leading to a wind with photospheric radius $\gtrsim 100$ km. In the contraction phase, the expanded envelope solutions show that the photosphere is still $\approx 1$ km above the surface when the effective temperature is only $3\%$ away from its maximum value. This is a possible systematic uncertainty when interpreting the measured Eddington fluxes from bursts at touchdown. We also discuss the applicability of steady-state models to describe the dynamics of bursts. In particular, we show that the sub to super-Eddington transition during the burst rise is rapid enough that static models are not appropriate. Finally, we analyze the strength of spectral shifts in our models. Expected shifts at the photosphere are dominated by gravitational redshift, and are therefore predicted to be less than a few percent., Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures. Published in ApJ (June 2021)

In this paper we present the science potential of the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) mission for studies of strongly magnetized objects. We will focus on the physics and astrophysics of strongly magnetized objects, namely magnetars, accreting X-ray pulsars, and rotation powered pulsars. We also discuss the science potential of eXTP for QED studies. Developed by an international Consortium led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the eXTP mission is expected to be launched in the mid 2020s., Comment: Accepted for publication on Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. (2019)

In this White Paper we present the potential of the Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) mission for determining the nature of dense matter; neutron star cores host an extreme density regime which cannot be replicated in a terrestrial laboratory. The tightest statistical constraints on the dense matter equation of state will come from pulse profile modelling of accretion-powered pulsars, burst oscillation sources, and rotation-powered pulsars. Additional constraints will derive from spin measurements, burst spectra, and properties of the accretion flows in the vicinity of the neutron star. Under development by an international Consortium led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science, the eXTP mission is expected to be launched in the mid 2020s., Comment: Accepted for publication on Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. (2019)

SAX J1748.9-2021 is a transiently accreting X-ray millisecond pulsar. It is also known as an X-ray burster source discovered by Beppo-SAX. We analysed the persistent emission and type-I X-ray burst properties during its 2015 outburst. The source varied from hard to soft state within half day. We modeled the broad-band spectra of the persistent emission in the 1 - 250 keV energy band for both spectral states using the quasi-simultaneous INTEGRAL and Swift data. The broad-band spectra are well fitted by an absorbed thermal Componization model, compps, in a slab geometry. The best-fits for the two states indicate significantly different plasma temperature of 18 and 5 keV and the Thomson optical depth of 3 and 4, respectively. In total, 56 type-I X-ray bursts were observed during the 2015 outburst, of which 26 detected by INTEGRAL in the hard state, 25 by XMM-Newton in the soft state, and 5 by Swift in both states. As the object transited from the hard to the soft state, the recurrence time for X-ray bursts decreased from $\approx 2$ to $\approx1$ hr. The relation between the recurrence time, $ \Delta t_{\rm rec}$, and the local mass accretion rate per unit area onto the compact object, $\dot m$, is fitted by a power-law model, and yielded as best fit at $\Delta t_{\rm rec} \sim \langle \dot{m} \rangle^{-1.02\pm0.03}$ using all X-ray bursts. In both cases, the observed recurrence times are consistent with the mixed hydrogen/helium bursts. We also discuss the effects of type-I X-ray bursts prior to the hard to soft transition., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 6 pages, 4 figures

Thermonuclear X-ray bursts on the surface of neutron stars (NSs) can enrich photosphere with metals, which may imprint the photoionization edges on the burst spectra. We report here the discovery of absorption edges in the spectra of the type I X-ray burst from the NS low-mass X-ray binary GRS 1747$-$312 in Terzan 6 during observations by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. We find that the edge energy evolves from $9.45\pm0.51$ keV to $\sim6$ keV and then back to $9.44\pm0.40$ keV during the photospheric radius expansion phase and remains at $8.06\pm0.66$ keV in the cooling tail. The photoionization absorption edges of hydrogen-like Ni, Fe or Fe/Ni mixture and the bound-bound transitions of metals may be responsible for the observed spectral features. The ratio of the measured absorption edge energy in the cooling tail to the laboratory value of hydrogen-like Ni(Fe) edge energy allows us to estimate the gravitational redshift factor $1+z=1.34\pm0.11$($1+z=1.15\pm0.09$). The evolution of the spectral parameters during the cooling tail are well-described by the metal-rich atmosphere models. The combined constraints on the NS mass and radius from the direct cooling method and the tidal deformability strongly suggest very high atmospheric abundance of the iron group elements and limit the distance to the source to $11\pm1$ kpc., Comment: matches the published version

The measurement of neutron star mass and radius is one of the most direct way to distinguish between various dense matter equations of state. The mass and radius of accreting neutron stars hosted in low mass X-ray binaries can be constrained by several methods, including photospheric radius expansion from type-I X-ray bursts and from quiescent spectra. In this paper, we apply for the first time these two methods simultaneously to constrain the mass and radius of Aql X-1, as a reliable distance estimation, high signal-to-noise ratio quiescent spectra from Chandra and XMM-Newton, and photospheric radius expansion bursts from RXTE are available. This is also used to verify the consistency between the two methods, and to narrow down the uncertainties of the neutron star mass and radius. It is found that the distance to Aql X-1 should be in the range of $4.0-5.75$ kpc, based on the overlapping confidence regions between photospheric radius expansion burst and quiescent spectra methods. In addition, we show that the mass and radius determined for the compact star in Aql X-1 are compatible with strange star equations of state and conventional neutron star models., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted by ApJ

X-ray dim isolated neutron stars (XDINSs) are characterized by Planckian spectra in X-ray bands, but show optical/ultraviolet(UV) excesses which are the measured photometry exceeding that is extrapolated from X-ray spectra. To solve this problem, a radiative model of bremsstrahlung emission from a plasma atmosphere is established in the regime of strangeon star. A strangeon star atmosphere could simply be regarded as the upper layer of a normal neutron star. This plasma atmosphere, formed and maintained by the ISM-accreted matter due to the so-called strangeness barrier, is supposed to be of two-temperature. All the seven XDINS spectra could be well fitted by the radiative model, from optical/UV to X-ray bands. The fitted radiation radii of XDINSs are from 7 to 13km, while the modelled electron temperatures are between 50 and 250eV, except RX J0806.4-4123 with a radiation radius ~3.5km, indicating that this source could be a low-mass strangeon star candidate. This strangeon star model could further be tested by soft X-ray polarimetry, such as the Lightweight Asymmetry and Magnetism Probe which is expected to work on Chinese space station around 2020., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, ApJ submitted