Related papers: Lutz-Kelker bias in pulsar parallax measurements
Accurate distances to pulsars can be used for a variety of studies of the Galaxy and its electron content. However, most distance measures to pulsars have been derived from the absorption (or lack thereof) of pulsar emission by Galactic HI…
The Lutz-Kelker correction is intended to give an unbiased estimate for stellar parallaxes and magnitudes, but it is shown explicitly that it does not. This paradox results from the application of an argument about sample statistics to the…
The theoretical prediction that trigonometric parallaxes suffer from a statistical effect, has become topical again now that the results of the Hipparcos satellite have become available. This statistical effect, the so-called Lutz-Kelker…
We investigate properties of Galactic microlensing events in which a stellar object is lensed by a neutron star. For an all-sky photometric microlensing survey, we determine the number of lensing events caused by $\sim10^{5}$…
Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that are renowned for their timing precision, although glitches can interrupt the regular timing behavior when these stars are young. Glitches are thought to be caused by interactions between normal and…
Accurate measurement of pulsar distances via astrometry using very long baseline interferometry enables the improvement of Galactic electron density distribution models, improving distance estimates for the vast majority of pulsars for…
Gravitational-wave astronomy allows us to study objects and events invisible to electromagnetic waves. So far, only signals triggered by coalescing binaries have been detected. However, as the interferometers' sensitivities improve over…
Pulsar glitches, sudden jumps in frequency in otherwise steadily spinning down radio pulsars, offer a unique glimpse into the superfluid interior of neutron stars. The exact trigger of these events remains, however, elusive and this has…
Measuring neutron star radii with spectroscopic and timing techniques relies on the combination of multiple observables to break the degeneracies between the mass and radius introduced by general relativistic effects. Here, we explore a…
Neutron stars provide a compelling testing ground for gravity, nuclear dynamics, and physics beyond the Standard Model, and so it will be useful to locate the neutron stars nearest to Earth. To that end, we revisit pulsar distance estimates…
The microlensing parallax campaign with the $Spitzer$ space telescope aims to measure masses and distances of microlensing events seen towards the Galactic bulge, with a focus on planetary microlensing events. The hope is to measure how the…
The mass of single neutron stars (NSs) can be measured using astrometric microlensing events. In such events, the center-of-light motion of a star lensed by a NS will deviate from the expected non-lensed motion and this deviation can be…
We analyze the currently available observations of X-ray binaries in a consistent way, to re-determine the masses of the neutron stars in these systems. In particular, our attention is focussed on a realistic and consistent assessment of…
There are now about fifty known radio pulsars in binary systems, including at least five in double neutron star binaries. In some cases, the stellar masses can be directly determined from measurements of relativistic orbital effects. In…
We summarize the state of the art and future directions in using millisecond radio pulsars to test gravitation and measure intrinsic, fundamental parameters of the pulsar systems. As discussed below, such measurements continue to yield…
Modeling of X-ray pulse profiles from millisecond pulsars offers a promising method of inferring the mass-to-radius ratios of neutron stars. Recent observations with NICER resulted in measurements of radii for three neutron stars using this…
Precise and reliable measurements of the masses and radii of neutron stars with a variety of masses would provide valuable guidance for improving models of the properties of cold matter with densities above the saturation density of nuclear…
We calculate the effects of spot size on pulse profiles of moderately rotating neutron stars. Specifically, we quantify the bias introduced in radius measurements from the common assumption that spots are infinitesimally small. We find that…
We use neutron star mass and radius measurements to constrain the spontaneous scalarization phenomenon in scalar-tensor theories using Bayesian analysis. Neutron star structures in this scenario can be significantly different from the case…
We use a Bayesian approach to derive the distance probability distribution for one object from its parallax with measurement uncertainty for two spatial distribution priors, viz. a homogeneous spherical distribution and a galactocentric…