Finite size effects on the light curves of slowly-rotating neutron stars

An important question when studying the light curves produced by hot spots on the surface of rotating neutron stars is, how might the shape of the light curve be affected by relaxing some of the simplifying assumptions that one would adopt on a first treatment of the problem, such as that of a pointlike spot. In this work we explore the dependence of light curves on the size and shape of a single hot spot on the surface of slowly rotating neutron stars. More specifically, we consider two different shapes for the hot spots (circular and annular) and examine the resulting light curves as functions of the opening angle of the hot spot (for both) and width (for the latter). We find that the pointlike approximation can describe light curves reasonably well, if the opening angle of the hot spot is less than similar to 5 degrees. Furthermore, we find that light curves from annular spots are almost the same as those of the full circular spot if the opening angle is less than similar to 35 degrees independently of the hot spot's width.