Gravitationally redshifted gamma rays and neutron star masses.
Abstract
Gravitationally redshifted gamma-ray lines emitted from the surface of pulsars and compact X-ray sources are discussed as constraints on neutron-star masses. A recent tentatively identified line at 400 (+ or -1) keV in the direction of the Crab Nebula, presumably due to positron annihilation on the pulsar surface, gives a mass in the range from 1.3 to 1.94 solar masses for a wide range of recent equations of state. The possibility of further restricting this range using gamma-ray spectroscopy of compact X-ray sources in close binary systems is suggested, and its possible importance in eliminating some models of neutron stars is discussed.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- September 1977
- DOI:
- 10.1086/182510
- Bibcode:
- 1977ApJ...216L..63B
- Keywords:
-
- Gamma Rays;
- Gravitational Effects;
- Neutron Stars;
- Pulsars;
- Red Shift;
- Stellar Mass;
- Binary Stars;
- Crab Nebula;
- Equations Of State;
- Line Spectra;
- Stellar Models;
- X Ray Sources;
- Astrophysics