A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation

Abstract We report on Bayesian parameter estimation of the mass and equatorial radius of the millisecond pulsar PSR J0030+0451, conditional on pulse-profile modeling of Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer X-ray spectral-timing event data. We perform relativistic ray-tracing of thermal emission from hot regions of the pulsar’s surface. We assume two distinct hot regions based on two clear pulsed components in the phase-folded pulse-profile data; we explore a number of forms (morphologies and topologies) for each hot region, inferring their parameters in addition to the stellar mass and radius. For the family of models considered, the evidence (prior predictive probability of the data) strongly favors a…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: DE-FG02-, DE-FG02-87ER40317, FG02-87ER40317, DE-FG02
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Awards: HST-HF2-51440.001, 80NSSC17K0554
• CN
  Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales
• NO
  Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
• NS
  Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
• NS
  Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• SA
  Science and Technology Facilities Council

  Award: ST/R00045X/1