Issue |
A&A
Volume 658, February 2022
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A95 | |
Number of page(s) | 10 | |
Section | Stellar structure and evolution | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202141795 | |
Published online | 04 February 2022 |
Toward an X-ray inventory of nearby neutron stars
1
Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Universität Tübingen, Sand 1, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
e-mail: arminvahdat@astro.uni-tuebingen.de
2
Department of Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
3
Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, 16802 University Park, PA, USA
Received:
14
July
2021
Accepted:
2
November
2021
Context. The X-ray emission of neutron stars enables a probe of their temperatures, geometries and magnetospheric properties. The current number of X-ray emitting pulsars is insufficient to rule out observational biases that may arise from poorly known distance, age, or location of the neutron stars. One approach to overcome such biases is to create a distance-limited sample with sufficiently deep observations.
Aims. With the aim of better sampling of the nearby (≲2 kpc) population of neutron stars, we started an XMM-Newton survey of pulsars to measure their X-ray fluxes or derive respective constraining upper limits.
Methods. We investigated 14 nearby pulsars for potential X-ray counterparts using different energy bands and detectors. In addition to our new XMM-Newton data, we also considered archival data and catalogs. We discuss source properties and also check for alternative counterparts to the X-ray sources.
Results. In our new XMM-Newton data, we found two pulsar counterpart candidates with significance above 4σ and one candidate with 3.5σ by combining EPIC camera detection likelihoods. We also report the detection of potential X-ray counterparts to eight radio pulsars in the 4XMM-DR10 catalog which have not been reported in the literature.
Key words: stars: neutron / X-rays: general
© ESO 2022
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.