Probing clump accretion onto neutron stars with XMM-Newton

We propose to boost the current sample of flares observed with XMMNewton fromthe Supergiant Fast Xray Transients. Our recent milestone study of allobservations available so far proved that a statistical analysis of these eventcan be exploited to demonstrate that these events are triggered by clumps in thesupergiant wind and to probe the clumpy wind properties. However, the currentnumber of flares is still small and more observations are needed. These flaresoccur randomly at any time with a recurrence time of few ks (25 flares expectedevery 20 ks observation, on average). The unique abilities of XMM needed forthis study are the large effective area at soft Xrays and the possibility ofhaving a truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]