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SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES IN THE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRON STAR MASSES AND RADII FROM THERMONUCLEAR X-RAY BURSTS. III. ABSOLUTE FLUX CALIBRATION

Author(s)
Güver, Tolga; Özel, Feryal; Marshall, Herman; Psaltis, Dimitrios; Guainazzi, Matteo; Díaz-Trigo, Maria; ... Show more Show less
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Abstract
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.
Date issued
2016-09
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109852
Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Journal
Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
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
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1538-4357
0004-637X

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