How rapidly do neutron stars spin at birth? Constraints from archival X-ray observations of extragalactic supernovae

Abstract

Traditionally, studies aimed at inferring the distribution of birth periods of neutron stars are based on radio surveys. Here we propose an independent method to constrain the pulsar spin periods at birth based on their X-ray luminosities. In particular, the observed luminosity distribution of supernovae poses a constraint on the initial rotational energy of the embedded pulsars, via the L_X-dot{E}_{rot} correlation found for radio pulsars, and under the assumption that this relation continues to hold beyond the observed range. We have extracted X-ray luminosities (or limits) for a large sample of historical SNe observed with Chandra, XMM and Swift, that have been firmly classified as core-collapse supernovae. We have then compared these observational limits with the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the pulsar X-ray luminosity distribution, for a range of values of the birth parameters. We find that a pulsar population dominated by millisecond periods at birth is ruled out by the data.

arXiv comment12 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (25)

• How Massive Single Stars End their Life
• Birth and Evolution of Isolated Radio Pulsars
• The Velocity Distribution of Isolated Radio Pulsars
• The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey: VI. Discovery and timing of 142 pulsars and a Galactic population analysis
• The emission line - radio correlation for radio sources using the 7C Redshift Survey
• Magnetar Spindown, Hyper-Energetic Supernovae, and Gamma Ray Bursts
• An Accretion Model for Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars
• Neutron Star Population Dynamics.II: 3D Space Velocities of Young Pulsars
• Young core collapse supernova remnants and their supernovae
• Re-examining the X-Ray versus Spin-Down Luminosity Correlation of Rotation Powered Pulsars
• On Young Neutron Stars as Propellers and Accretors with Conventional Magnetic Fields
• The Spin Periods and Rotational Profiles of Neutron Stars at Birth
• Modelling of isolated radio pulsars and magnetars on the fossil field hypothesis
• Proto-Neutron Star Winds with Magnetic Fields and Rotation
• Emission Spectra of Fallback Disks Around Young Neutron Stars
• The Compact Central Object in Cas A: A Neutron Star with Hot Polar Caps or a Black Hole?
• Pulsar Birthrate from Parkes Multi-beam Survey
• Bondi Accretion and the Problem of the Missing Isolated Neutron Stars
• Pulsar Wind Nebulae and the X-Ray Emission of Non-Accreting Neutron Stars
• The Neutron Stars Census
• The Statistical Properties of Galaxies Containing ULXs
• Pulsar Wind Nebulae and the Non-thermal X-Ray Emission of Millisecond Pulsars
• Newborn Magnetars as sources of Gravitational Radiation: constraints from High Energy observations of Magnetar Candidates
• Young Crab-like pulsars and luminous X-ray sources in starbursts and optically dull galaxies
• Dependences of the X-ray luminosity and pulsar wind nebula on different parameters of pulsars and the evolutionary effects

Cited by in corpus (35)

• Type Iax Supernovae: A New Class of Stellar Explosion
• Ultraluminous X-ray Sources in the Chandra and XMM-Newton Era
• Supernova Simulations from a 3D Progenitor Model -- Impact of Perturbations and Evolution of Explosion Properties
• Three-Dimensional Simulations of Neutrino-Driven Core-Collapse Supernovae from Low-Mass Single and Binary Star Progenitors
• Hydrodynamics of core-collapse supernovae and their progenitors
• A Complete Sample of ULX Host Galaxies
• Delay-time distribution of core-collapse supernovae with late events resulting from binary interaction
• Relativistic supernovae have shorter-lived central engines or more extended progenitors: the case of SN\,2012ap
• Spinning down newborn neutron stars: nonlinear development of the r-mode instability
• The Spiral Modes of the Standing Accretion Shock Instability
• Gamma-Ray and Hard X-Ray Emission from Pulsar-Aided Supernovae as a Probe of Particle Acceleration in Embryonic Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Multi-Messenger Tests for Fast-Spinning Newborn Pulsars Embedded in Stripped-Envelope Supernovae
• Neutron stars structure in the context of massive gravity
• The Supernova Impostor Impostor SN 1961V: Spitzer Shows That Zwicky Was Right (Again)
• Gravitational wave background from rotating neutron stars
• Radio Emission from Embryonic Super-Luminous Supernova Remnants
• Jets in Hydrogen-poor Super-luminous Supernovae: Constraints from a Comprehensive Analysis of Radio Observations
• SN 2016coi (ASASSN-16fp): an energetic H-stripped core-collapse supernova from a massive stellar progenitor with large mass loss
• Evidence for a Black Hole Remnant in the Type IIL Supernova 1979C
• Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background from Neutron Star r-mode Instability Revisited
• 3D Simulations of Strongly Magnetised Non-Rotating Supernovae: Explosion Dynamics and Remnant Properties
• Continuous gravitational waves from Galactic neutron stars: demography, detectability and prospects
• SN 2005at - A neglected type Ic supernova at 10 Mpc
• The oldest X-ray supernovae: X-ray emission from 1941C, 1959D, 1968D
• Dust formation in embryonic pulsar-aided supernova remnants
• Can a bright and energetic X-ray pulsar be hiding amid the debris of SN 1987A?
• Young rotation-powered pulsars as ultra-luminous X-ray sources
• A compact star rotating at 1122 Hz and the r-mode instability
• The influence of fallback discs on the spectral and timing properties of neutron stars
• Three-Dimensional General-Relativistic Simulations of Neutrino-Driven Winds from Rotating Proto-Neutron Stars
• Periodic Fast Radio Bursts from Young Neutron Stars
• Deriving pulsar pair-production multiplicities from pulsar wind nebulae using H.E.S.S. and LHAASO observations
• Progenitor constraints for core-collapse supernovae from Chandra X-ray observations
• The Potential for Hadronic Particle Acceleration in Galactic Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• A search for pulsations from the compact object of GRB 060218