Prof. Biswajit Paul

Neutron stars show a wide variety of timing, spectral, and spectro-temporal characteristics. We have investigated many X-ray binaries with instruments having quite different instrumental properties. Some instruments are particularly suited for timing, some are for spectroscopy, some provide a mix of both while some others cover a wide energy band. A unique class of instruments that are available only in the high energy bands, are the all sky X-ray monitors. While most of our studies have been small steps towards better understanding of individual X-ray objects, every now and then we had surprises. In this talk we shall dwell mostly upon some of the unexpected results that we had over the years including discovery of a massive circumbinary planet, orbital period glitches in X-ray binaries, partial eclipse of a compact object etc. Scientific prospects with a soon to be launched X-ray polarimetry instrument POLIX will also be briefly discussed.