Log N -- Log S distributions of accreting and cooling isolated neutron stars

Abstract

We model populations of isolated neutron stars in the Galaxy following their orbital and magneto-rotational evolution. It is shown that accretors become more abundant than coolers at fluxes below $\sim 10^{-13}$ erg cm${}^{-2}$ s${}^{-1},$ and one can predict that about one accreting neutron star per square degree should be observed at the {\it Chandra} and {\it Newton} flux limits of $\sim 10^{-16}$ erg cm${}^{-2}$ s${}^{-1}.$ The soft ROSAT sources associated with isolated neutron stars can be relatively young cooling objects only if the neutron star birth rate in the Solar vicinity during the last $\sim 10^6$ yr is higher than that inferred from radiopulsar observations.

5 pages, 3 PostScript figures, accepted to ApJ, new figures 2,3

References in corpus (4)

• Cooling neutron stars and superfluidity in their interiors
• Isolated Neutron Stars: Accretors and Coolers
• The Neutron Stars Census
• A Na I Absorption Map of the Small-Scale Structure in the Interstellar Gas Toward M15

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