Radio-Quiet Pulsars and Point Sources in Supernova Remnants

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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Scientific paper

Since Baade and Zwicky made their prescient remark identifying the central blue star in the Crab Nebula as a neutron star, this pulsar's period has increased by 0.9 msec, turning 10^48 ergs of rotational kinetic energy into a relativistic wind that has been deposited in its surroundings. This makes the compact remnant of the supernova of 1054 AD highly conspicuous. It also makes this remnant highly anomalous. Nowhere else in the Galaxy does such a luminous young pulsar exists, despite the fact that at least half a dozen core-collapse supernovae have occurred since the Crab's birth. Indeed, the newly discovered central object in Cas A is four orders of magnitude less luminous in the X-ray band. While the Chandra and XMM-Newton Observatories are discovering an increasing number of Crab-like synchrotron nebulae (albeit, far less luminous than the prototype), they are also revealing X-ray point sources inside supernova remnants that lack detectable radio pulses and show no evidence of a relativistic outflow to power a surrounding nebula. I will provide an inventory of these objects, discuss whether or not truly radio-silent young neutron stars exist, and speculate on the emission mechanisms and power sources which make such objects shine. I will conclude with a commentary on the implications of this population for the distributions of pulsar birth parameters such as spin period, magnetic field strength, and space velocity, as well as offer a glimpse of what future observations might reveal about the demographics of core-collapse remnants.

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