2010

The Neutron Star Mass Distribution

Kiziltan, Bulent, Kottas, Athanasios, Thorsett, Stephen E.

Understand

In recent years, the number of pulsars with secure mass measurements has increased to a level that allows us to probe the underlying neutron star mass distribution in detail.

We critically review radio pulsar mass measurements and present a detailed examination through which we are able to put stringent constraints on the underlying neutron star mass distribution.
For the first time, we are able to analyze a sizable population of neutron star-white dwarf systems in addition to double neutron star systems with a technique that accounts for systematically different measurement errors.
We find that neutron stars that have evolved through different evolutionary paths reflect distinctive signatures through dissimilar distribution peak and mass cutoff values.

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