Robust Inference of Neutron-star Parameters from Thermonuclear Burst Observations

Duncan K. Galloway; Zac Johnston; Adelle Goodwin; Chong Chong He

doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ac98c9

Robust Inference of Neutron-star Parameters from Thermonuclear Burst Observations

Duncan K. Galloway, Zac Johnston, Adelle Goodwin, Chong Chong He

School of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Thermonuclear (type-I) bursts arise from unstable ignition of accumulated fuel on the surface of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries. Measurements of burst properties in principle enable observers to infer the properties of the host neutron star and mass donors, but a number of confounding astrophysical effects contribute to systematic uncertainties. Here we describe some commonly used approaches for determining system parameters, including composition of the burst fuel, and introduce a new suite of software tools, concord, intended to fully account for astrophysical uncertainties. The comparison of observed burst properties with the predictions of numerical models is a complementary method of constraining host properties, and the tools presented here are intended to make comprehensive model-observation comparisons straightforward. When combined with the extensive samples of burst observations accumulated by X-ray observatories, these software tools will provide a step change in the amount of information that can be inferred about typical burst sources.

Original language	English
Article number	30
Number of pages	21
Journal	The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Volume	263
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/ac98c9
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2022

Access to Document

10.3847/1538-4365/ac98c9Licence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{7af542ee539c486ea976c71453507a68,

title = "Robust Inference of Neutron-star Parameters from Thermonuclear Burst Observations",

abstract = "Thermonuclear (type-I) bursts arise from unstable ignition of accumulated fuel on the surface of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries. Measurements of burst properties in principle enable observers to infer the properties of the host neutron star and mass donors, but a number of confounding astrophysical effects contribute to systematic uncertainties. Here we describe some commonly used approaches for determining system parameters, including composition of the burst fuel, and introduce a new suite of software tools, concord, intended to fully account for astrophysical uncertainties. The comparison of observed burst properties with the predictions of numerical models is a complementary method of constraining host properties, and the tools presented here are intended to make comprehensive model-observation comparisons straightforward. When combined with the extensive samples of burst observations accumulated by X-ray observatories, these software tools will provide a step change in the amount of information that can be inferred about typical burst sources.",

author = "Galloway, {Duncan K.} and Zac Johnston and Adelle Goodwin and He, {Chong Chong}",

note = "Funding Information: We thank the anonymous referee, whose feedback substantially improved this paper. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant No. PHY-1430152 (JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements). The Multi-INstrument Burst ARchive (MINBAR) project has benefited from support by the Australian Academy of Science{\textquoteright}s Scientific Visits to Europe program, and the Australian Research Council{\textquoteright}s Discovery Projects (project DP0880369) and Future Fellowship (project FT0991598) schemes. The MINBAR project has also received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 Programme under the AHEAD project (grant agreement No. 654215). Parts of this research were conducted by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), through project number CE170100004. This research made use of Astropy, 12 Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.",

year = "2022",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.3847/1538-4365/ac98c9",

language = "English",

volume = "263",

journal = "The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series",

issn = "0067-0049",

publisher = "American Astronomical Society",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Robust Inference of Neutron-star Parameters from Thermonuclear Burst Observations

AU - Galloway, Duncan K.

AU - Johnston, Zac

AU - Goodwin, Adelle

AU - He, Chong Chong

N1 - Funding Information: We thank the anonymous referee, whose feedback substantially improved this paper. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant No. PHY-1430152 (JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements). The Multi-INstrument Burst ARchive (MINBAR) project has benefited from support by the Australian Academy of Science’s Scientific Visits to Europe program, and the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects (project DP0880369) and Future Fellowship (project FT0991598) schemes. The MINBAR project has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme under the AHEAD project (grant agreement No. 654215). Parts of this research were conducted by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), through project number CE170100004. This research made use of Astropy, 12 Publisher Copyright: © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.

PY - 2022/12/1

Y1 - 2022/12/1

N2 - Thermonuclear (type-I) bursts arise from unstable ignition of accumulated fuel on the surface of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries. Measurements of burst properties in principle enable observers to infer the properties of the host neutron star and mass donors, but a number of confounding astrophysical effects contribute to systematic uncertainties. Here we describe some commonly used approaches for determining system parameters, including composition of the burst fuel, and introduce a new suite of software tools, concord, intended to fully account for astrophysical uncertainties. The comparison of observed burst properties with the predictions of numerical models is a complementary method of constraining host properties, and the tools presented here are intended to make comprehensive model-observation comparisons straightforward. When combined with the extensive samples of burst observations accumulated by X-ray observatories, these software tools will provide a step change in the amount of information that can be inferred about typical burst sources.

AB - Thermonuclear (type-I) bursts arise from unstable ignition of accumulated fuel on the surface of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries. Measurements of burst properties in principle enable observers to infer the properties of the host neutron star and mass donors, but a number of confounding astrophysical effects contribute to systematic uncertainties. Here we describe some commonly used approaches for determining system parameters, including composition of the burst fuel, and introduce a new suite of software tools, concord, intended to fully account for astrophysical uncertainties. The comparison of observed burst properties with the predictions of numerical models is a complementary method of constraining host properties, and the tools presented here are intended to make comprehensive model-observation comparisons straightforward. When combined with the extensive samples of burst observations accumulated by X-ray observatories, these software tools will provide a step change in the amount of information that can be inferred about typical burst sources.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143849557&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3847/1538-4365/ac98c9

DO - 10.3847/1538-4365/ac98c9

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85143849557

SN - 0067-0049

VL - 263

JO - The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

JF - The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

IS - 2

M1 - 30

ER -

Robust Inference of Neutron-star Parameters from Thermonuclear Burst Observations

Abstract

Access to Document

Other files and links

ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery

High-energy probes of dense matter and distorted spacetime

Fundamental Physics from Accreting Neutron Stars

Cite this