Physics Seminar, 27 October 2010, FENS L045, Wednesday 13:40
Speaker: Dr. Werner Becker
Max Planck Institut fur Extreterrestiche Physik
Title: Pulsars in X-rays
Abstract:
As a result of observations with the satellite observatories Einstein,
ROSAT, ASCA, BeppoSAX, Chandra and XMM-Newton, the list of X-ray
detected rotation-powered pulsars counts almost 100 in mid 2010. Thus, in
nearly eleven years of operation XMM-Newton and Chandra have almost tripled
the number of detected X-ray pulsars compared to what was known at the end
of the ROSAT mission in February 1999. This progress clearly goes along the
increase of sensitivity and angular resolution of the available X-ray
telescopes. While XMM-Newton with its super collecting power allows to
obtain timing and spectral information even from faint and million years
old pulsars, Chandra stands for sub-arcsecond angular resolution which made
it possible to detect and study neutron stars located in source confused
regions such as globular clusters and supernova remnants. However, many
questions related to the pulsar emission mechanisms and to the neutron star
equation of state are still poorly known and require an even more sensitive
instrument to be addressed adequately. In my talk I will summarize the recent
results on the X-ray emission properties from rotation powered pulsars with
the prospects for studying these sources with future missions like GRAVITAS.
