What is the nature of RX J0720.4-3125?
Abstract
RX J0720.4-3125 has recently been identified as a pulsating soft X-ray source in the ROSAT all-sky survey with a period of 8.391 s. Its spectrum is well characterized by a blackbody with a temperature of 8x10^5 K. We propose that the radiation from this object is thermal emission from a cooling neutron star. For this blackbody temperature we can obtain a robust estimate of the object's age of ~3x10^5 yr, yielding a polar field ~10^14 G for magnetic dipole spin-down and a value of P compatible with current observations.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- July 1998
- DOI:
- 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1998.01799.x
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9801038
- Bibcode:
- 1998MNRAS.297L..69H
- Keywords:
-
- RADIATIVE TRANSFER;
- STARS: MAGNETIC FIELDS;
- STARS: NEUTRON;
- X-RAYS: STARS;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 1 figures, to appear in Monthly Notices