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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 1(798), p. 56, 2014

DOI: 10.1088/0004-637x/798/1/56

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An Ultra Low Mass and Small Radius Compact Object in 4U 1746-37?

Journal article published in 2014 by Zhaosheng Li ORCID, Zhijie Qu ORCID, Li Chen, Yanjun Guo, Jinlu Qu, Renxin Xu ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Photospheric radius expansion (PRE) bursts have already been used to constrain the masses and radii of neutron stars. RXTE observed three PRE bursts in 4U 1746-37, all with low touchdown fluxes. We discuss here the possibility of low mass neutron star in 4U 1746-37 because the Eddington luminosity depends on stellar mass. With typical values of hydrogen mass fraction and color correction factor, a Monte-Carlo simulation was applied to constrain the mass and radius of neutron star in 4U 1746-37. 4U 1746-37 has a high inclination angle. Two geometric effects, the reflection of the far side accretion disc and the obscuration of the near side accretion disc have also been included in the mass and radius constraints of 4U 1746-37. If the reflection of the far side accretion disc is accounted, a low mass compact object (mass of $0.41±0.14~M_{⊙}$ and radius of $8.73±1.54~\rm km$ at 68% confidence) exists in 4U 1746-37. If another effect operated, 4U 1746-37 may contain an ultra low mass and small radius object ($M=0.21±0.06~M_{⊙},~R=6.26±0.99~\rm km$ at 68% confidence). Combined all possibilities, the mass of 4U 1746-37 is $0.41^{+0.70}_{-0.30}~M_⊙$ at 99.7% confidence. For such low mass NS, it could be reproduced by a self-bound compact star, i.e., quark star or quark-cluster star. ; Comment: accepted by ApJ