SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES IN THE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRON STAR MASSES AND RADII FROM THERMONUCLEAR X-RAY BURSTS. III. ABSOLUTE FLUX CALIBRATION
Many techniques for measuring neutron star radii rely on absolute flux measurements in the X-rays. As a result, one of the fundamental uncertainties in these spectroscopic measurements arises from the absolute flux calibrations of the detectors being used. Using the stable X-ray burster, GS 1826–238...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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IOP Publishing
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109852 |
| _version_ | 1826213621541109760 |
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| author | Güver, Tolga Özel, Feryal Marshall, Herman Psaltis, Dimitrios Guainazzi, Matteo Díaz-Trigo, Maria |
| author2 | MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research |
| author_facet | MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Güver, Tolga Özel, Feryal Marshall, Herman Psaltis, Dimitrios Guainazzi, Matteo Díaz-Trigo, Maria |
| author_sort | Güver, Tolga |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Many techniques for measuring neutron star radii rely on absolute flux measurements in the X-rays. As a result, one of the fundamental uncertainties in these spectroscopic measurements arises from the absolute flux calibrations of the detectors being used. Using the stable X-ray burster, GS 1826–238, and its simultaneous observations by Chandra HETG/ACIS-S and RXTE/PCA as well as by XMM-Newton EPIC-pn and RXTE/PCA, we quantify the degree of uncertainty in the flux calibration by assessing the differences between the measured fluxes during bursts. We find that the RXTE/PCA and the Chandra gratings measurements agree with each other within their formal uncertainties, increasing our confidence in these flux measurements. In contrast, XMM-Newton EPIC-pn measures 14.0 ± 0.3% less flux than the RXTE/PCA. This is consistent with the previously reported discrepancy with the flux measurements of EPIC-pn, compared with EPIC MOS1, MOS2, and ACIS-S detectors. We also show that any intrinsic time-dependent systematic uncertainty that may exist in the calibration of the satellites has already been implicity taken into account in the neutron star radius measurements. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:52:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/109852 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:52:10Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1098522022-10-02T04:45:30Z SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES IN THE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRON STAR MASSES AND RADII FROM THERMONUCLEAR X-RAY BURSTS. III. ABSOLUTE FLUX CALIBRATION Güver, Tolga Özel, Feryal Marshall, Herman Psaltis, Dimitrios Guainazzi, Matteo Díaz-Trigo, Maria MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Marshall, Herman Many techniques for measuring neutron star radii rely on absolute flux measurements in the X-rays. As a result, one of the fundamental uncertainties in these spectroscopic measurements arises from the absolute flux calibrations of the detectors being used. Using the stable X-ray burster, GS 1826–238, and its simultaneous observations by Chandra HETG/ACIS-S and RXTE/PCA as well as by XMM-Newton EPIC-pn and RXTE/PCA, we quantify the degree of uncertainty in the flux calibration by assessing the differences between the measured fluxes during bursts. We find that the RXTE/PCA and the Chandra gratings measurements agree with each other within their formal uncertainties, increasing our confidence in these flux measurements. In contrast, XMM-Newton EPIC-pn measures 14.0 ± 0.3% less flux than the RXTE/PCA. This is consistent with the previously reported discrepancy with the flux measurements of EPIC-pn, compared with EPIC MOS1, MOS2, and ACIS-S detectors. We also show that any intrinsic time-dependent systematic uncertainty that may exist in the calibration of the satellites has already been implicity taken into account in the neutron star radius measurements. 2017-06-14T14:25:17Z 2017-06-14T14:25:17Z 2016-09 2016-07 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1538-4357 0004-637X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109852 Güver, Tolga; Özel, Feryal; Marshall, Herman; Psaltis, Dimitrios; Guainazzi, Matteo and Díaz-Trigo, Maria. “SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES IN THE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRON STAR MASSES AND RADII FROM THERMONUCLEAR X-RAY BURSTS. III. ABSOLUTE FLUX CALIBRATION.” The Astrophysical Journal 829, no. 1 (September 2016): 48 © 2016 The American Astronomical Society en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/829/1/48 Astrophysical Journal Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf IOP Publishing IOP Publishing |
| spellingShingle | Güver, Tolga Özel, Feryal Marshall, Herman Psaltis, Dimitrios Guainazzi, Matteo Díaz-Trigo, Maria SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES IN THE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRON STAR MASSES AND RADII FROM THERMONUCLEAR X-RAY BURSTS. III. ABSOLUTE FLUX CALIBRATION |
| title | SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES IN THE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRON STAR MASSES AND RADII FROM THERMONUCLEAR X-RAY BURSTS. III. ABSOLUTE FLUX CALIBRATION |
| title_full | SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES IN THE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRON STAR MASSES AND RADII FROM THERMONUCLEAR X-RAY BURSTS. III. ABSOLUTE FLUX CALIBRATION |
| title_fullStr | SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES IN THE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRON STAR MASSES AND RADII FROM THERMONUCLEAR X-RAY BURSTS. III. ABSOLUTE FLUX CALIBRATION |
| title_full_unstemmed | SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES IN THE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRON STAR MASSES AND RADII FROM THERMONUCLEAR X-RAY BURSTS. III. ABSOLUTE FLUX CALIBRATION |
| title_short | SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES IN THE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRON STAR MASSES AND RADII FROM THERMONUCLEAR X-RAY BURSTS. III. ABSOLUTE FLUX CALIBRATION |
| title_sort | systematic uncertainties in the spectroscopic measurements of neutron star masses and radii from thermonuclear x ray bursts iii absolute flux calibration |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109852 |
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