Cooper, Randall L.Narayan, Ramesh2019-09-222006Cooper, Randall L., and Ramesh Narayan. 2006. “On the Physics of Type I X-Ray Bursts on Accreting Neutron Stars at High Accretion Rates.” The Astrophysical Journal 648 (2): L123–26. https://doi.org/10.1086/508167.0004-637X1538-4357http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41384974We investigate the effect of the hot CNO cycle breakout reaction O-15(alpha, gamma)Ne-19 on the occurrence of type I X-ray bursts on accreting neutron stars. For f(rp) less than or similar to 0.1 where f(rp) is a dimensionless factor by which we multiply the O-15(alpha, gamma)Ne-19 reaction rate of Caughlan & Fowler, our model predicts that bursts should occur only for accretion rates below a critical value approximate to 0.3M(Edd). This agrees with observations. For larger values of f(rp), including the standard choice, the model switches to a new regime in which bursts occur all the way up to M rp. Since the latter regime disagrees with observations, we suggest that the true O-15(alpha, gamma)Ne-19 reaction rate is. M Edd lower than usually assumed.en-USJournal Article2019-09-2210.1086/508167