Unpulsed X-rays from Pulsars

Abstract

The radio emission from pulsars is energetically insignificant, yet its distinctive character led to their discovery and subsequent identification with rotating magnetized neutron stars. In the intervening thirteen years, a wealth of radio data have been accumulated from which we have learned something of the magnetospheric properties, stellar structure, and evolutionary history of these objects. Yet we still do not know how pulsars pulse, what the neutron star interior is like or, with certainty, how and where pulsars are formed. And, we have not yet ‘seen’ a radio pulsar, in the sense that we see other stars, i.e., by detecting thermal photons from its surface. The Einstein Observatory soft X-ray telescope offers a new opportunity to attempt such an observation. We report herein the preliminary results of several programs aimed at the detection of thermal X-ray emission from isolated neutron stars.