The Nature of Quiescent Emission from Soft X-ray Transients

GTWe propose to observe a sample of soft Xray transients in order tounderstand the mechanism responsible for the quiescent emission. The differentproposed models include accretion (down to the ns surface or stopped at themagnetospheric radius), shock emission from a relativistic pulsar wind, thermalemission from a cooling ns.Detailed spectral information capable of discriminating among the above modelscan only be provided with EPIC for these weak sources.