Nonextensivity and entropy of astrophysical sources

Abstract

Westudy the X-ray intensities of 142 light curves of cataclysmic variables, galaxies, pulsars, supernova remnants and other X-ray sources present in the public data collected by the instrument All Sky Monitor on board the satellite Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. We show that the X-ray light curves coming from astrophysical systems obey Tsallis’s q-Gaussian distribution as probability density. This fact strongly suggests that these astrophysical systems behave in a non-extensive manner. Furthermore, the q entropic indices for these systems were obtained and they provide an indication of the nonextensivity degree of each of these astrophysical systems. The q-value increases for systems if the Tsallis entropy decreases.