Long period pulsars (P> 1000 s) constitute a sub-population of high-mass X-raybinaries. To date, only a few of these rare systems, which occupy the tail ofthe spin period distribution of X-ray pulsars, have been discovered.Nevertheless, their study offers unique insights into evolutionary scenarios ofthe high-mass X-ray binary population. We propose four XMM-Newton observationsaiming at improving our understanding of long period pulsars. The proposedobservations will be performed to two systems located in the LMC with known spinperiods for studying their spin evolution, and two new candidate long periodpulsars in order to increase the number of known systems.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2019-07-18T16:50:58Z/2019-08-08T05:23:31Z
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 Georgios Vasilopoulos, 2020, 'Investigating long period X-ray pulsars in the Large Magellanic Cloud', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-qpo85w9
