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WE PROPOSE TO ANALYZE THE LARGE ARCHIVE OF RXTE XMM-NEWTON AND CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS OF X-RAY BINARY PULSARS IN THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS AND MILKY WAY. THERE ARE SOME 2000 INDIVIDUAL RXTE PCA POINTINGS ON THE SMC SPANNING 15 YEARS AND A SMALLER NUMBER ON THE LMC. EACH PCA OBSERVATION COVERS A LARGE FRACTION OF THE WHOLE SMC (OR LMC) POPULATION AND WE ARE ABLE TO DECONVOLVE THE SOMETIMES SIMULTANEOUS SIGNALS TO CREATE AN UNRIVALED RECORD OF PULSARTEMPORAL BEHAVIOR. MORE THAN 200 XMM-NEWTON AND CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS OF THE SMC/LMC AND INDIVIDUAL GALACTIC PULSARS PROVIDE INFORMATION AT LOWER LUMINOSITY LEVELS. TOGETHER THESE DATASETS COVER THE ENTIRE RANGE OF VARIABILITY TIMESCALES AND ACCRETION REGIMES IN HIGH MASS X-RAY BINARIES. WE WILL PRODUCE A COMPREHENSIVE LIBRARY OF ENERGY- RESOLVED PULSE PROFILES COVERING THE ENTIRE LUMINOSITY AND SPIN-PERIOD PARAMETER SPACE AND MAKE THIS AVAILABLE TO THE COMMUNITY. WE WILL THEN MODEL THESE PULSE PROFILES USING STATE OF THE ART TECHNIQUES TO PARAMETERIZE THE MORPHOLOGY AND PUBLISH THE RESULTING DATA-CUBE. THIS RESULT WILL INCLUDE FOR EXAMPLE THE DISTRIBUTION OF OFFSETS BETWEEN MAGNETIC AND SPIN AXES. THESE PRODUCTS ARE NEEDED FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF ADVANCES IN NEUTRON STAR THEORY AND MODELING. THE UNIQUE DATASET WILL ALSO ENABLE US TO DETERMINE THE UPPER AND LOWER LIMITS OF ACCRETION POWERED LUMINOSITY IN A LARGE STATISTICALLY COMPLETE SAMPLE OF NEUTRON STARS AND HENCE MAKE SEVERAL DIRECT TESTS OF FUNDAMENTAL NS PARAMETERS AND ACCRETION PHYSICS. IN ADDITION THE LONG-DURATION OF THE DATASET AND WHOLE-GALAXY NATURE OF THE SMC SAMPLE MAKE POSSIBLE A NEWSTATISTICAL APPROACH TO UNCOVER THE DUTY-CYCLE DISTRIBUTION AND HENCE POPULATION DEMOGRAPHICS OF TRANSIENT HIGH MASS X-RAY BINARY (HMXB) POPULATIONS.

$288,624FY2014National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

University Of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell MA

Investigators

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