Physical Environment of Accreting Neutron Stars

Abstract

Neutron stars (NSs) powered by accretion, which are known as accretion-powered NSs, always are located in binary systems and manifest themselves as X-ray sources. Physical processes taking place during the accretion of material from their companions form a challenging and appealing topic, because of the strong magnetic field of NSs. In this paper, we review the physical process of accretion onto magnetized NS in X-ray binary systems. We, firstly, give an introduction to accretion-powered NSs and review the accretion mechanism in X-ray binaries. This review is mostly focused on accretion-induced evolution of NSs, which includes scenario of NSs both in high-mass binaries and in low-mass systems.