A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation

We report on Bayesian parameter estimation of the mass and equatorial radius of the millisecond pulsar PSR J0030+0451, conditional on pulse-profile modeling of Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer X-ray spectral-timing event data. We perform relativistic ray-tracing of thermal emission from ho...

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Main Author: Chakrabarty, Deepto
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Astronomical Society 2020
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125899
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author Chakrabarty, Deepto
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Chakrabarty, Deepto
author_sort Chakrabarty, Deepto
collection MIT
description We report on Bayesian parameter estimation of the mass and equatorial radius of the millisecond pulsar PSR J0030+0451, conditional on pulse-profile modeling of Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer X-ray spectral-timing event data. We perform relativistic ray-tracing of thermal emission from hot regions of the pulsar's surface. We assume two distinct hot regions based on two clear pulsed components in the phase-folded pulse-profile data; we explore a number of forms (morphologies and topologies) for each hot region, inferring their parameters in addition to the stellar mass and radius. For the family of models considered, the evidence (prior predictive probability of the data) strongly favors a model that permits both hot regions to be located in the same rotational hemisphere. Models wherein both hot regions are assumed to be simply connected circular single-temperature spots, in particular those where the spots are assumed to be reflection-symmetric with respect to the stellar origin, are strongly disfavored. For the inferred configuration, one hot region subtends an angular extent of only a few degrees (in spherical coordinates with origin at the stellar center) and we are insensitive to other structural details; the second hot region is far more azimuthally extended in the form of a narrow arc, thus requiring a larger number of parameters to describe. The inferred mass M and equatorial radius R eq are, respectively, 1.340.150.16and M and 12.71+1.141.19 km, while the compactness is more tightly constrained; the credible interval bounds reported here are approximately the 16% and 84% quantiles in marginal posterior mass.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1258992022-09-29T11:57:07Z A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation Chakrabarty, Deepto Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research We report on Bayesian parameter estimation of the mass and equatorial radius of the millisecond pulsar PSR J0030+0451, conditional on pulse-profile modeling of Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer X-ray spectral-timing event data. We perform relativistic ray-tracing of thermal emission from hot regions of the pulsar's surface. We assume two distinct hot regions based on two clear pulsed components in the phase-folded pulse-profile data; we explore a number of forms (morphologies and topologies) for each hot region, inferring their parameters in addition to the stellar mass and radius. For the family of models considered, the evidence (prior predictive probability of the data) strongly favors a model that permits both hot regions to be located in the same rotational hemisphere. Models wherein both hot regions are assumed to be simply connected circular single-temperature spots, in particular those where the spots are assumed to be reflection-symmetric with respect to the stellar origin, are strongly disfavored. For the inferred configuration, one hot region subtends an angular extent of only a few degrees (in spherical coordinates with origin at the stellar center) and we are insensitive to other structural details; the second hot region is far more azimuthally extended in the form of a narrow arc, thus requiring a larger number of parameters to describe. The inferred mass M and equatorial radius R eq are, respectively, 1.340.150.16and M and 12.71+1.141.19 km, while the compactness is more tightly constrained; the credible interval bounds reported here are approximately the 16% and 84% quantiles in marginal posterior mass. 2020-06-19T20:56:15Z 2020-06-19T20:56:15Z 2019-12 2019-07 2020-03-30T15:21:40Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-8213 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125899 Riley, T.E., et al., "A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation." Astrophysical Journal Letters 887, 1 (Dec. 2019): letter 21 doi 10.3847/2041-8213/ab481c ©2019 Author(s) en 10.3847/2041-8213/ab481c Astrophysical Journal Letters 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 American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society
spellingShingle Chakrabarty, Deepto
A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation
title A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation
title_full A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation
title_fullStr A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation
title_full_unstemmed A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation
title_short A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation
title_sort nicer view of psr j0030 0451 millisecond pulsar parameter estimation
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125899
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