Bragg diffraction and the Iron crust of Neutron Stars

If neutron stars have a thin atomic crystalline–iron crust, they must diffract X-rays of appropriate wavelength. So that the diffracted beam is visible from Earth, the illuminating source must be very intense and near the reflecting star. An example is a binary system with two neutron stars, one of them inert, the other an X-ray pulsar, in close orbit. The observable to be searched for is a secondary peak added (quasi-) periodically to the main X-ray pulse. The distinguishing feature of this secondary is that it appears at wavelengths related by simple integer numbers, λ, λ/2, λ/3... λ/n because of Bragg’s diffraction law. Subject headings: Bragg difraction, neutron stars, crystalline iron, Bragg peaks