X-RAY BURSTS FROM THE TERZAN 5 TRANSIENT IGR J17480-2446: NUCLEAR RATHER THAN GRAVITATIONAL

The 2010 outburst of the transient neutron star low-mass X-ray binary IGR J17480-2446 has exhibited a series of unique X-ray bursts as well as millihertz (mHz) quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) related to these bursts. It has been recently proposed that these are type-II bursts, powered by the gravitational energy. This implies that the current nuclear-burning-based model of mHz QPOs is not correct, and this timing feature cannot be used as a tool to measure the neutron star parameters. We report the analysis of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer data of IGR J17480-2446 to show that the burst properties of this source are quite different from the properties of the type-II bursts observed from the rapid burster and GRO J1744-28. For example, the inferred ratio (similar to 50-90) of the non-burst fluence to burst fluence is consistent with the thermonuclear origin of IGR J17480-2446 bursts and is significantly different from this ratio (less than or similar to 4) for type-II bursts. Our results suggest that the bursts and the mHz QPOs from IGR J17480-2446 are powered by the nuclear energy.