LA PLACA, Riccardo, Luigi STELLA, Alessandro PAPITTO, Pavel BAKALA, Tiziana DI SALVO, Maurizio FALANGA, Vittorio DE FALCO and Alessandra DE ROSA. Neutron Star Radius-to-mass Ratio from Partial Accretion Disk Occultation as Measured through Fe K alpha Line Profiles. Astrophysical Journal. 2020, vol. 893, No 2, p. "129-1"-"129-12", 12 pp. ISSN 0004-637X. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab8017.
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Basic information
Original name Neutron Star Radius-to-mass Ratio from Partial Accretion Disk Occultation as Measured through Fe K alpha Line Profiles
Authors LA PLACA, Riccardo (380 Italy, belonging to the institution), Luigi STELLA (380 Italy), Alessandro PAPITTO, Pavel BAKALA (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Tiziana DI SALVO, Maurizio FALANGA, Vittorio DE FALCO (380 Italy, belonging to the institution) and Alessandra DE ROSA.
Edition Astrophysical Journal, 2020, 0004-637X.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Article in a journal
Field of Study 10308 Astronomy
Country of publisher United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW URL
RIV identification code RIV/47813059:19630/20:A0000082
Organization unit Institute of physics in Opava
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab8017
UT WoS 000529874600001
Keywords in English Neutron stars; Low-mass X-ray binary stars; Stellar accretion disks; General relativity; X-ray sources
Tags FÚ, FÚ2020, RIV21
Tags International impact, Reviewed
Changed by Changed by: Mgr. Pavlína Jalůvková, učo 25213. Changed: 31/3/2022 10:13.
Abstract
We present a new method to measure the radius-to-mass ratio (R/M) of weakly magnetic, disk-accreting neutron stars by exploiting the occultation of parts of the inner disk by the star itself. This occultation imprints characteristic features on the X-ray line profile that are unique and are expected to be present in low-mass X-ray binary systems seen under inclinations higher than 65 degrees. We analyze a Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array observation of a good candidate system, 4U 1636-53, and find that X-ray spectra from current instrumentation are unlikely to single out the occultation features owing to insufficient signal-to-noise. Based on an extensive set of simulations we show that large-area X-ray detectors of the future generation could measure R/M to 2 3% precision over a range of inclinations. Such is the precision in radius determination required to derive tight constraints on the equation of state of ultradense matter and it represents the goal that other methods also aim to achieve in the future.
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