The mass of the neutron star in 4U 1820–30 revisited

We revisit the mass of the neutron star in the ultracompact binary 4U 1820–30 in light of a recently reported transient absorption feature at about 3.8 keV, interpreted as a gravitationally redshifted, highly ionized iron line and implying 1 + z ≃ 1.72 , a very high stellar compactness. We examine whether the mass-radius locus implied by this interpretation can be made compatible with external EoS-informed benchmarks and timing-based estimates. We map the compactness implied by the redshift onto the mass-radius plane, including rotational effects, and compare the resulting region with an EoS-informed 95% reference contour derived from NICER data of several neutron-star systems. While we do not perform a statistically self-consistent joint mass-radius inference for 4U 1820–30, we present a quantitative conditional consistency test in a common M − R framework, comparing published inputs under explicitly stated assumptions. We find that, if the maximum neutron-star mass is restricted to low values ( ≤ 2.3 M ⊙ ), the redshift-implied locus shows at most marginal overlap with the EoS-informed contour, indicating substantial tension. Allowing a higher maximum mass enlarges the parameter space and can restore compatibility with that benchmark. However, such high masses remain in tension with previous touchdown-flux estimates, although they are not necessarily excluded by interpretations based on the highest detected quasi-periodic oscillation frequency. We conclude that the redshift interpretation of the 3.8 keV feature, the touchdown-flux estimates, and the QPO/ISCO interpretation do not naturally select the same mass-radius sector for this source under these assumptions. Reconciling them requires auxiliary assumptions with high leverage on the inferred compactness.