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Can X-ray bursts be caused by substorms at a neutron starA model for X-ray bursts from accreting neutron stars is developed by analogy with geomagnetic substorms. The essential steps in the substorm process are the nearly steady merging or reconnection of the magnetic field in the magnetosphere with the field in the stellar wind, the transport of some of the merged plasma into a magnetically controlled tail, and the explosive release of plasma from the tail into the magnetosphere. The strength of the magnetic field in the stellar wind required to drive a substorm is approximately 0.1 gauss. If the stellar wind is organized into large-scale magnetic sectors, as is the solar wind, topological dissipation will not occur, and the large-scale field will be available for merging at the magnetopause. Once the material is in the tail, the time scales for the Kruskal-Schwarzschild instability and the unidentified instability which drives terrestrial substorms may be comparable. Alternating periods of burst activity and quiescence could be caused by passage from one sector to another with opposite polarity, or be seasonal variations.
Document ID
19790032857
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Neugebauer, M.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Tsurutani, B. T.
(California Institute of Technology Pasadena, Calif., United States)
Date Acquired
August 9, 2013
Publication Date
December 1, 1978
Publication Information
Publication: Astrophysical Journal
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Accession Number
79A16870
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS7-100
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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