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Neutron Stars/X-ray Binaries
The source of the power is the rapidly rotating magnetic field, so these pulsars
are sometimes called rotationally powered pulsars, to distinguish them from
another type of pulsar discovered by X-ray astronomers, the accretion powered
pulsars.
Accretion powered pulsars
If a neutron star is in a close orbit around a normal companion star, it can
capture matter flowing away from that star. This captured matter will form a disk
around the neutron star from which it will spiral down and fall, or accrete, onto
the neutron star.
The infalling matter will gain an enormous amount of energy as it accelerates.
Much of this energy will be radiated away at X-ray energies. The magnetic field
of the neutron star can funnel the matter toward the magnetic poles, so that the
energy release is concentrated in a column, or spot of hot matter. As the neutron
star rotates, the hot region moves into and out of view and produces X-ray
pulses.
If you have a java enabled browser, you can view our animation and discussion of X-ray
pulsars.
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