There now exists strong evidence in favor of both Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs)and Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) being highly magnetized neutron stars ormagnetars. Still largely unknown is the luminosity distribution and numberdensity of these active magnetar candidates. There now exists evidence for lowluminosity (less than 10^34 ergs/s) magnetar candidates (SGR 1627-41 and AXJ1845-0258) with ages comparable to the remaining population. We propose tosearch for low-luminosity magnetar candidates we have identified within the ASCAGalactic plane survey in order to (i) establish the intrinsic luminositydistribution of this class and hence, better constrain the birth rate ofmagnetars and (ii) study the life-cycle of these enigmatic sources.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2004-02-08T21:56:28Z/2004-09-28T11:43:15Z
Version
17.56_20190403_1200
Mission Description
The European Space Agencys (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) was launched by an Ariane 504 on December 10th 1999. XMM-Newton is ESAs second cornerstone of the Horizon 2000 Science Programme. It carries 3 high throughput X-ray telescopes with an unprecedented effective area, and an optical monitor, the first flown on a X-ray observatory. The large collecting area and ability to make long uninterrupted exposures provide highly sensitive observations. Since Earths atmosphere blocks out all X-rays, only a telescope in space can detect and study celestial X-ray sources. The XMM-Newton mission is helping scientists to solve a number of cosmic mysteries, ranging from the enigmatic black holes to the origins of the Universe itself. Observing time on XMM-Newton is being made available to the scientific community, applying for observational periods on a competitive basis.
European Space Agency, Dr PETER WOODS, 2005, 'PROBING THE LUMINOSITY DISTRIBUTION OF MAGNETARS', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-ji345ve
