The Mass and Radius of the Neutron Star in 4U 1820-30
Tolga Guver, Patricia Wroblewski, Larry Camarota, Feryal Ozel
TL;DR
This paper measures the mass and radius of the neutron star in 4U 1820-30 using spectroscopic data from thermonuclear bursts, providing precise constraints on its fundamental properties.
Contribution
It presents a novel method combining spectroscopic measurements and cluster distance to accurately determine neutron star mass and radius.
Findings
Mass = 1.58 +/- 0.06 M_sun
Radius = 9.11 +/- 0.40 km
Provides tight constraints on neutron star equation of state
Abstract
We report on the measurement of the mass and radius of the neutron star in the low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1820-30. The analysis of the spectroscopic data on multiple thermonuclear bursts yields well-constrained values for the apparent emitting area and the Eddington flux, both of which depend in a distinct way on the mass and radius of the neutron star. The distance to the source is that of the globular cluster NGC 6624, where the source resides. Combining these measurements, we uniquely determine the probability density over the stellar mass and radius. We find the mass to be M = 1.58 +/- 0.06 M_sun and the radius to be R = 9.11 +/- 0.40 km.
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