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Scientific paper
Feb 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008esnm.conf..217t&link_type=abstract
EXOTIC STATES OF NUCLEAR MATTER. Proceedings of the International Symposium EXOCT07. Held 11-15 June 2007 in Catania University,
Other
Scientific paper
XDINSs (X-ray dim isolated neutron stars) are a group of seven soft X-ray sources originally discovered by ROSAT and characterized by purely thermal spectra (kT ˜ 40 - 100 eV), lack of radio emission and rather long spin periods (P ˜ 3 - 11 s). The absence of contamination from magnetospheric activity, a surrounding supernova remnant or a binary companion makes XDINSs the only sources in which we can have a clean view of the neutron star surface. As such they offer an unprecedented opportunity to confront theoretical models of surface emission with observations. This may ultimately lead to a direct measure of the star radius and thus probe the equation of state. XDINSs were long believed to be steady blackbody emitters. In the last few years new XMM and Chandra observations revelaled a much more faceted picture. The brightest source, RX J1856.5-3754, is the only one which indeed exhibits a purely blackbody spectrum. In all the other members of the class broad absorption features (E ˜ 200 - 700 eV) have been discovered. The second brightest object, RX J0720.4-3125 was recently found to undergo (cyclic ?) spectral variations most probably produced by the star nutation. The increasing number of optical identifications confirms that the optical continuum lies above the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the X-ray spectrum. All these facts challenge the standard picture of XDINSs as cooling neutron stars covered by an atmosphere and endowed with a dipolar magnetic field. In this talk I will review the current status of theoretical efforts in the modeling of XDINS surface emission, discuss the many still unsolved problems and address briefly the possible relationship between XDINSs and other isolated neutron star classes, like the recently discovered rotating radio transients (RRATs).
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