Follow-up of isolated neutron star candidates from the eROSITA survey

Abstract

Peculiar groups of X-ray emitting isolated neutron stars, which include magnetars, the "Magnificent Seven", and central compact objects in supernova remnants, escape detection in standard pulsar surveys. Yet, they constitute a key element in understanding the neutron star evolution and phenomenology. Their use in population studies in the galactic scale has been hindered by the scarcity of their detection. The all-sky survey of eROSITA on-board the forthcoming Spectrum-RG mission has the unique potential to unveil the X-ray faint part of the population and constrain evolutionary models. To create a forecast for the four-year all-sky survey, we perform Monte Carlo simulations of a population synthesis model, where we follow the evolutionary tracks of thermally emitting neutron stars in the Milky Way and test their detectability. In this work, we discuss strategies for pinpointing the most promising candidates for follow-up observing campaigns using current and future facilities.

6 pages, 6 figures; to appear in the proceedings of the "XMM-Newton: The Next Decade" Science Workshop; Astronomical Notes, in press

References in corpus (10)

• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• Magnetars: Properties, Origin and Evolution
• Evolution of a buried magnetic field in the central compact object neutron stars
• Cooling rates of neutron stars and the young neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant
• A new code for the Hall-driven magnetic evolution of neutron stars
• Probabilistic multi-catalogue positional cross-match
• Population Synthesis of Isolated Neutron Stars with magneto-rotational evolution II: from radio-pulsars to magnetars
• The Birthrate of Magnetars
• New XMM-Newton observation of the thermally emitting isolated neutron star 2XMM J104608.7-594306
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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Evidence for an abundant old population of Galactic ultra long period magnetars and implications for fast radio bursts
• Candidate isolated neutron stars in the 4XMM-DR10 catalog of X-ray sources
• Discovery of two promising isolated neutron star candidates in the SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey
• XMM-Newton and SRG/eROSITA observations of the isolated neutron star candidate 4XMM J022141.5-735632
• On the long-term evolution of rotating radio transients
• Observability of HOFNARs with SRG/eROSITA
• Hunting isolated neutron stars with proper motions from wide-area optical surveys