Pulse Profile Modeling of Thermonuclear Burst Oscillations I: The Effect of Neglecting Variability

Abstract

We study the effects of the time-variable properties of thermonuclear X-ray bursts on modeling their millisecond-period burst oscillations. We apply the pulse profile modeling technique that is being used in the analysis of rotation-powered millisecond pulsars by the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) to infer masses, radii, and geometric parameters of neutron stars. By simulating and analyzing a large set of models, we show that overlooking burst time-scale variability in temperatures and sizes of the hot emitting regions can result in substantial bias in the inferred mass and radius. To adequately infer neutron star properties, it is essential to develop a model for the time variable properties or invest a substantial amount of computational time in segmenting the data into non-varying pieces. We discuss prospects for constraints from proposed future X-ray telescopes.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• The Radius of the High-mass Pulsar PSR J0740+6620 with 3.6 yr of NICER Data
• Constraining the Properties of the Thermonuclear Burst Oscillation Source XTE J1814-338 Through Pulse Profile Modelling
• Neutron stars and the dense matter equation of state: from microscopic theory to macroscopic observations
• Dense Matter in Neutron Stars with eXTP
• Pulse Profile Modelling of Thermonuclear Burst Oscillations II: Handling variability
• Parameter constraints for accreting millisecond pulsars with synthetic NICER data
• Scaling relations for the uncertainty in neutron star radius inferred from pulse profile modelling: the effect of spin rate
• Impact of Accretion Assumptions on Pulse Profile Modelling of Superburst Oscillations in 4U 1636-536
• Pulse profile modelling of the accretion-powered millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 using NICER data from its 2019 and 2022 outbursts