CAREER: Reflection and reverberation in neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries

该奖项将使韦恩州立大学的Edward Cackett教授能够分析档案X射线数据，并对低质量X射线双星进行新的观测。 他将使用时间和光谱信息来探测吸积盘内部区域的运动学和几何学。他的程序包括模拟来自日冕或边界层的辐射反射离开内部吸积盘的反射。这一过程的模型将受到两个排放成分的光谱相关时间滞后的限制。 PI是将这些技术应用于活动星系核和恒星质量黑洞吸积的关键参与者，他将把这项工作扩展到低质量X射线双星中的中子星。中子星提供了唯一的方法来探索最极端条件下物质行为的基本问题，其中心密度是核密度的许多倍。该奖项将有助于更好地测量中子星的半径，并将使用具有低质量伴星的中子星作为实验室，研究在广泛的天体物理背景下发生的吸积物理过程。 Cackett教授正在韦恩州立大学积极建立一个综合研究和教育项目。作为该奖项的一部分，他将制定一项计划，为底特律大都市地区的高中提供太阳望远镜，以在他们的科学课程中增加动手的日间观测方面。为了提高效率，他将为高中教师举办讲习班，并提供课程材料样本和独立的研究项目。 这些研讨会还将包括高中科学标准中所有天文学主题的审查，特别关注与该奖项资助的原创性和创造性研究相关的当代感兴趣的主题。

This award will enable Professor Edward Cackett at Wayne State University to analyze archival X-ray data and carry out new observations of low-mass X-ray binaries. He will use both timing and spectral information to probe the kinematics and geometry of the inner regions of accretion disks. His procedure involves modeling the reverberation of emission from a corona or boundary layer as it reflects off the inner accretion disk. Models of this process will be constrained by the spectral-dependent time lag of two emission components. The PI has been a key player in applying these techniques to active galactic nuclei and stellar-mass black-hole accretion, and he will extend this work to neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries.Neutron stars provide the only way to probe fundamental questions regarding the behavior of matter under the most extreme conditions, with densities at their center being many times nuclear density. This award will facilitate a better measurement of the radius of neutron stars, and it will use neutron stars with low-mass companions as laboratories to study the physical process of accretion, which happens in a wide range of astrophysical contexts. Professor Cackett is actively building an integrated research and education program at Wayne State University. As part of this award, he will develop a program to provide solar telescopes to metropolitan Detroit area high schools to add a hands-on daytime observing aspect to their science curricula. To multiply the effectiveness, he will conduct workshops for high-school teachers and provide sample curricular materials and independent research projects. These workshops will also include a review of all astronomy topics in the high school science standards, with a particular focus on contemporary topics of interest that are associated with the original and creative research funded by this award.