Abstract
ALCOCK AND HATCHETT1 recently proposed that the tails of X-ray bursts2,3 observed during burst decay (time scales typically tens of seconds) are due to the small-angle scattering of the original pulse of X rays on interstellar dust grains. To produce the desired tails, and obey constraints set by optical interstellar reddening data, their model uses grains with a typical size of ∼3 µm. Here we give four independent reasons which rule out their model (see also ref. 3).
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VAN PARADIJS, J., LEWIN, W. Interpretation of tails of X-ray bursts. Nature 276, 249 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/276249a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/276249a0
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