Combining Electromagnetic and Gravitational-Wave Constraints on Neutron-Star Masses and Radii

Mohammad Al-Mamun, Andrew W. Steiner, Joonas Nättilä, Jacob Lange, Richard O’Shaughnessy, Ingo Tews, Stefano Gandolfi, Craig Heinke, and Sophia Han
Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 061101 – Published 12 February 2021
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Abstract

We perform a joint Bayesian inference of neutron-star mass and radius constraints based on GW170817, observations of quiescent low-mass x-ray binaries (QLMXBs), photospheric radius expansion x-ray bursting sources, and x-ray timing observations of J0030+0451. With this dataset, the form of the prior distribution still has an impact on the posterior mass-radius curves and equation of state (EOS), but this impact is smaller than recently obtained when considering QLMXBs alone. We analyze the consistency of the electromagnetic data by including an “intrinsic scattering” contribution to the uncertainties, and find only a slight broadening of the posteriors. This suggests that the gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observations of neutron-star structure are providing a consistent picture of the neutron-star mass-radius curve and the EOS.

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  • Received 4 September 2020
  • Revised 17 November 2020
  • Accepted 17 December 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.061101

© 2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Nuclear PhysicsGravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Mohammad Al-Mamun1, Andrew W. Steiner1,2, Joonas Nättilä3,4, Jacob Lange5, Richard O’Shaughnessy5, Ingo Tews6, Stefano Gandolfi6, Craig Heinke7, and Sophia Han8,9

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
  • 2Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA
  • 3Physics Department and Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, 538 West 120th Street, New York, New York 10027, USA
  • 4Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010, USA
  • 5Rochester Institute of Technology, 85 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, New York 14623, USA
  • 6Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
  • 7Department of Physics, CCIS 4-183, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada
  • 8Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 9Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA

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Issue

Vol. 126, Iss. 6 — 12 February 2021

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