English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

The group of 7 thermally emitting and radio-quiet isolated neutron stars(INSs) discovered by ROSAT constitutes a nearby population which locallyappears to be as numerous as that of the classical radio pulsars. So far,attempts to enlarge this particular group of INSs finding more remote objectsfailed to confirm any candidate. We found in the 2XMMp catalogue a handful ofsources with no catalogued counterparts and with X-ray spectra similar to thoseof the ROSAT discovered INSs, but seen at larger distances and thus undergoinghigher interstellar absorptions. In order to rule out alternativeidentifications such as an AGN or a CV, we obtained deep ESO-VLT and SOARoptical imaging for the X-ray brightest candidates. We report here on thecurrent status of our search and discuss the possible nature of our candidates.We focus particularly on the X-ray brightest source of our sample, 2XMMJ104608.7-594306, observed serendipitously over more than four years by theXMM-Newton Observatory. A lower limit on the X-ray to optical flux ratio of ~300 together with a stable flux and soft X-ray spectrum make it the mostpromising thermally emitting INS candidate. Beyond the finding of new members,our study aims at constraining the space density of this population at largedistances and at determining whether their apparently high local density is ananomaly or not.

Searching for new thermally emitting isolated neutron stars in the 2XMMp catalogue - Discovery of a promising candidate