Accreting Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars

TL;DR

This review summarizes fifteen years of discoveries and observations of Accreting Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars, highlighting their significance in understanding extreme physics, plasma-magnetic interactions, and thermonuclear processes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of observational and theoretical advances in AMXPs, emphasizing multi-wavelength data and insights into accretion, pulse formation, and burst phenomena.

Findings

Enhanced understanding of plasma-magnetic field interactions

Insights into thermonuclear burst oscillations

Refined models of accretion torque and pulse formation

Abstract

Accreting Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars (AMXPs) are astrophysical laboratories without parallel in the study of extreme physics. In this chapter we review the past fifteen years of discoveries in the field. We summarize the observations of the fifteen known AMXPs, with a particular emphasis on the multi-wavelength observations that have been carried out since the discovery of the first AMXP in 1998. We review accretion torque theory, the pulse formation process, and how AMXP observations have changed our view on the interaction of plasma and magnetic fields in strong gravity. We also explain how the AMXPs have deepened our understanding of the thermonuclear burst process, in particular the phenomenon of burst oscillations. We conclude with a discussion of the open problems that remain to be addressed in the future.