Radiation Driven Warping of Accretion Discs Due to X-ray Bursts

Abstract

The outpouring of radiation during an X-ray burst can affect the properties of accretion discs around neutron stars: the corona can cool and collapse, the inner regions can be bled away due to enhanced accretion, and the additional heating will lead to changes in the disc height. In this paper, we investigate whether radiation from bursts can cause the disc to distort through a warping instability. Working in the limit of isotropic viscosity and linear growth, we find that bursts are more likely to drive disc warps when they have larger luminosities and longer durations. Therefore, warps will be most probable during intermediate duration bursts (IMDBs) and superbursts with evidence for photospheric radius expansion. Further, the development of warps depends on the disc viscosity with larger values of $α$ increasing the likelihood of warp growth. We perform time-dependent evolution calculations of the development of warps during Type I bursts and IMDBs. Depending on the initial warp prior to the burst, we find the burst produces warps at $r$ < 50 $r_g$