2001/10/15 by M. H. van Kerkwijk, van Kerkwijk, M. H.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0110336
10 pages, 3 figures, uses newpasp.sty (included). To appear in Proc. Jan van Paradijs Memorial Symposium, ed. Van den Heuvel, E. P. J., Kaper, L., Rol, E. (ASP, San Fransisco)
arxiv created 2001/10/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
I discuss constraints on the equation of state of matter at supra-nuclear densities that can be derived from observations of neutron stars. I focus on recent work on Vela X-1, which may well be substantially more massive than the canonical 1.4 solar masses, and on the prospects offered by the `isolated' or `thermally-emitting' neutron stars. I present a re-analysis of the LETG observations of the brightest of the isolated neutron stars, RX J1856.5-3754, and find that the spectrum shows, unlike all other neutron stars observed so far, a significant absorption feature, near 39 Angstrom.