Neutron stars in globular clusters as tests of nuclear physics
Abstract
I present a re-analysis of the X-ray spectra of quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries hosted in globular clusters. Because their distances are known, and because these neutron stars (NSs) are non-variable on long time scales and display purely thermal emission from their surface, they have been routinely used to measure the radii of NSs as a way to constrain the equation of state of dense matter. In this re-analysis, I used updated measurements of globular cluster distances which changes significantly the resulting measured radius of NSs, under the assumption that all NSs have the same radius. This assumption corresponds to a toy-model representation of most nucleonic dense matter equations of state. The value found, R_NS=10.3 {1.2}{1.1} km, is about ∼10% higher than previously measured.
- Publication:
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Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana
- Pub Date:
- 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016MmSAI..87..521G
- Keywords:
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- Stars: neutron