NEUTRON STAR MASS–RADIUS CONSTRAINTS OF THE QUIESCENT LOW-MASS X-RAY BINARIES X7 AND X5 IN THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER 47 TUC

Abstract

ABSTRACT We present Chandra/ACIS-S subarray observations of the quiescent neutron star (NS) low-mass X-ray binaries X7 and X5 in the globular cluster 47 Tuc. The large reduction in photon pile-up compared to previous deep exposures enables a substantial improvement in the spectroscopic determination of the NS radius and mass of these NSs. Modeling the thermal emission from the NS surface with a non-magnetized hydrogen atmosphere and accounting for numerous sources of uncertainties, we obtain for the NS in X7 a radius of km for an assumed stellar mass of M = 1.4 M ⊙ (68% confidence level). We argue, based on astrophysical grounds, that the presence of a He atmosphere is unlikely for this source. Due to the excision of data affected by eclipses and variable absorption, the quiescent low-mass X-ray binary X5 provides less stringent constraints, leading to a radius of km, assuming a hydrogen atmosphere and a mass of M = 1.4 M ⊙. When combined with all existing spectroscopic radius measurements from other quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries and Type I X-ray bursts, these measurements strongly favor radii in the 9.9–11.2 km range for a ∼1.5 M ⊙ NS and point to a dense matter equation of state that is somewhat softer than the nucleonic ones that are consistent with laboratory experiments at low densities.