Erratum: "Determining neutron star masses and radii using energy-resolved waveforms of X-ray burst oscillations" (ApJ, 776, 19 [2013])

TL;DR

This paper corrects a computational error in previous studies of neutron star waveform modeling caused by an incorrect expression for the differential emitting area, significantly impacting the accuracy of prior results.

Contribution

It provides a correction to the relativistic computations of neutron star pulse waveforms, clarifying the impact of the previous error on earlier findings.

Findings

Previous waveform models had systematic errors due to incorrect area calculations.

Corrected computations alter the inferred neutron star masses and radii.

Systematic errors from spectral assumptions likely exceeded those from the area calculation mistake.

Abstract

This erratum addresses an error in the text of Lo et al. (2013) and more importantly corrects a computational error that was made in all previously published relativistic computations of absolute pulse waveform fluxes produced by hot spots on rotating stars that followed the radiation forward in time from the star to the observer. These computations used an incorrect expression for the differential emitting area on the stellar surface, as measured in the comoving frame. This erratum explains this error, lists all the published papers that contain results affected by this error, and summarizes in a general way why and how the results in Lo et al. (2013) were affected by this error, in a way that makes clear why and how the results in the other papers were affected. The idealized radiation spectra, beaming patterns, and spot shapes assumed in many of the previously reported computations of pulse waveforms very likely introduced systematic errors that are much larger than the relatively small errors introduced by using an incorrect expression for the differential emitting area. This erratum also corrects an error in the caption of Figure 5, an error in the text on page 19, and an incomplete description of our results on page 24.