Understanding High-Density Matter Through Analysis of Surface Spectral Lines and Burst Oscillations from Accreting Neutron Stars
arXiv:astro-ph/0512419 · doi:10.1016/j.asr.2005.10.049
Abstract
We discuss millisecond period brightness oscillations and surface atomic spectral lines observed during type I X-ray bursts from a neutron star in a low mass X-ray binary system. We show that modeling of these phenomena can constrain models of the dense cold matter at the cores of neutron stars. We demonstrate that, even for a broad and asymmetric spectral line, the stellar radius-to-mass ratio can be inferred to better than 5%. We also fit our theoretical models to the burst oscillation data of the low mass X-ray binary XTE J1814-338, and find that the 90% confidence lower limit of the neutron star's dimensionless radius-to-mass ratio is 4.2.
4 pages, To be published in the proceedings of COSPAR Colloquium "Spectra & Timing of Compact X-ray Binaries", January 17-20, 2005, Mumbai, India