IACS Affiliate, Michael Zingale, a part of the team at SBU who used ORNL's Summit supercomputer to model x-ray burst flames spreading across the surface of dense neutron stars

A team of nuclear astrophysicists at Stony Brook University used the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to model x-ray burst flames spreading across the surface of dense neutron stars. This team is led by IACS Affiliate faculty member, Michael Zingale, and includes his postdoc, Alice Harpole.  "Astronomers can use x-ray bursts to measure the radius of a neutron star, which is a challenge because it's so small," said Zingale.  The team found that different initial models and physics led to different results.  As part of the next phase of this project, they plan to run one large 3D simulation based on the results from the study to obtain a more accurate picture of the x-ray burst phenomenon.  

To read the full story by ORNL's Rachel McDowell, click here!