2018MNRAS.478.2177R -
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 478, 2177-2192 (2018/August-1)
A pitfall of piecewise-polytropic equation of state inference.
RAAIJMAKERS G., RILEY T.E. and WATTS A.L.
Abstract (from CDS):
The only messenger radiation in the Universe that one can use to statistically probe the Equation of State (EOS) of cold dense matter is that originating from the near-field vicinities of compact stars. Constraining gravitational masses and equatorial radii of rotating compact stars is a major goal for current and future telescope missions, with a primary purpose of constraining the EOS. From a Bayesian perspective, it is necessary to carefully discuss prior definition; in this context a complicating issue is that in practice there exist pathologies in the general relativistic mapping between spaces of local (interior source matter) and global (exterior space-time) parameters. In a companion paper, these issues were raised on a theoretical basis. In this study we reproduce a probability transformation procedure from the literature in order to map a joint posterior distribution of Schwarzschild gravitational masses and radii into a joint posterior distribution of EOS parameters. We demonstrate computationally that EOS parameter inferences are sensitive to the choice to define a prior on a joint space of these masses and radii, instead of on a joint space interior source matter parameters. We focus on the piecewise-polytropic EOS model, which is currently standard in the field of astrophysical dense matter study. We discuss the implications of this issue for the field.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
Journal keyword(s):
stars: neutron - dense matter - equation of state
Simbad objects:
3
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