NICER Probes of Neutron Stars and Dense Matter
ORAL · Invited
Abstract
Neutron stars contain the densest matter presently known in the
universe. Precise measurements of both their masses and radii provide
direct constraints on the physical properties of this ultradense
matter, especially the equation of state. A key goal of NASA's
Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) mission is to
obtain such constraints by accurately measuring and physically
modeling the soft X-ray pulse waveforms produced by rotation-powered
X-ray pulsars. In this talk I will describe how the NICER team is
making these measurements, and will provide a progress report on both
the data acquisition and analysis, as well as the modeling effort
being employed to obtain mass - radius measurements.
universe. Precise measurements of both their masses and radii provide
direct constraints on the physical properties of this ultradense
matter, especially the equation of state. A key goal of NASA's
Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) mission is to
obtain such constraints by accurately measuring and physically
modeling the soft X-ray pulse waveforms produced by rotation-powered
X-ray pulsars. In this talk I will describe how the NICER team is
making these measurements, and will provide a progress report on both
the data acquisition and analysis, as well as the modeling effort
being employed to obtain mass - radius measurements.
*NICER is a 0.2-12 keV X-ray telescope operating on the International Space Station. The NICER mission and portions of the NICER science team activities are funded by NASA.
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Presenters
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Tod E Strohmayer
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center