Bulk Properties of PSR J0030+0451 Inferred with the Compactness Measurement of NICER

Abstract

In 2019, the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) mission released its findings on the mass and radius of the isolated neutron star (INS) PSR J0030+0451, revealing a mass of approximately 1.4 solar masses ( M _⊙ ) and a radius near 13 km. However, the recent reanalysis by the NICER collaboration suggests that the available data primarily yield a precise inference of the compactness for this source while the resulting mass and radius are strongly model-dependent and diverse (the 68.3% credible regions just overlap slightly for the ST+PDT and PDT-U models). By integrating this compactness data with the equation of state (EOS) refined by our latest investigations, we have deduced the mass and radius for PSR J0030+0451, delivering estimates of $M={1.48}_{-0.10}^{+0.09}\,{M}_{\odot }$ and $R={12.38}_{-0.70}^{+0.51}\,\mathrm{km}$ for the compactness found in the ST+PDT model, alongside $M={1.47}_{-0.20}^{+0.14}\,{M}_{\odot }$ and $R={12.37}_{-0.69}^{+0.50}\,\mathrm{km}$ for the compactness in the PDT-U model. These two groups of results are well consistent with each other and the direct X-ray data inference within the ST+PDT model seems to be favored. Additionally, we have calculated the tidal deformability, moment of inertia, and gravitational binding energy for this neutron star. Furthermore, employing these refined EOS models, we have updated mass–radius estimates for three INSs with established gravitational redshifts.

Keywords

• Neutron stars
• Nuclear physics
• Compact objects