The physics of accretion in X-ray binary pulsars - relativistic effects, pulse profiles, and emission properties

X射线脉冲星提供了一个独特的机会来研究在吸积中子星附近达到的极端条件下运行的物理机制，例如温度超过1e7K，磁场超过1e12G，或者初始速度为~0.5C的等离子体如何减速的物理。虽然对这些天体的研究已经使人们对它们复杂的现象学有了基本的了解，但发射区的大小和形状以及入射等离子体与中子星磁场之间相互作用的物理原理等关键问题仍然不清楚。这项申请的目的是全面地研究和理解X射线脉冲星中的吸积现象，特别是回答最近对最明亮的源的观测所带来的问题，这些问题不能在这些系统的当前物理图像的框架内解决。为了实现这一目标，我们将主要集中在目前运行的X射线飞行任务中已经或将观测到的明亮吸积脉冲星的样本，这在很大程度上是我们小组成功的观测建议的结果。这一应用延续了我们三个研究小组之前在图宾根大学天文学和天体物理学研究所(IAAT)、俄勒冈大学埃尔兰根天体粒子物理中心(ECAP)/纽伦堡联邦大学的雷米斯·斯特恩沃特博士和莫斯科洛蒙诺索夫大学的斯特恩伯格天文研究所的成功合作。我们的目标是发展和改进现有的强磁化中子星X射线双星吸积过程的理论模型，并用新的观测方法检验这些模型。

X-ray pulsars provide an unique opportunity to study the physical mechanisms operating under extreme conditions that are reached in the vicinity of accreting neutron stars, such as temperatures above 1e7 K, magnetic fields above 1e12 G, or the physics of how a plasma that has an initial velocity of ~0.5c is decelerated. Although studies of these objects have already led to a basic understanding of their complex phenomenology, key points such as the size and shape of the emitting region or the physics of interaction between the infalling plasma and the neutron star's magnetic field are still unclear.This application aims at a comprehensive effort to further study and understand the accretion phenomena in X-ray pulsars, especially to answer the questions opened by recent observations of the brightest sources, which cannot be resolved in the frame of the current physical picture of these systems. To achieve this goal, we will mostly concentrate on a sample of bright accreting pulsars which have been or will be observed with the currently operating X-ray missions, to large extent as a result of successful observational proposals by our groups. The application continues the previous successful collaboration of our three research groups at the Institut für Astronomie and Astrophysik (IAAT) of the University of Tübingen, the Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics (ECAP)/Dr. Remeis Sternwarte, Bamberg, of FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, and the Sternberg Astronomical Institute of the Lomonosov University of Moscow. Our objectives are to develop and improve current theoretical models for the accretion process in strongly magnetized neutron star X-ray binaries and to test these models with new observational methods.