Seeking the nearest neutron stars using a new local electron density map

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Bramante, Joseph, Mack, Katherine, Raj, Nirmal, Shao, Lijing, Tyagi, Narayani
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Bramante, Joseph
Mack, Katherine
Raj, Nirmal
Shao, Lijing
Tyagi, Narayani
author_facet Bramante, Joseph
Mack, Katherine
Raj, Nirmal
Shao, Lijing
Tyagi, Narayani
contents Neutron stars provide a compelling testing ground for gravity, nuclear dynamics, and physics beyond the Standard Model, and so it will be useful to locate the neutron stars nearest to Earth. To that end, we revisit pulsar distance estimates extracted from the dispersion measure of pulsar radio waves scattering on electrons. In particular, we create a new electron density map for the local kiloparsec by fitting to parallax measurements of the nearest pulsars, which complements existing maps that are fit on the Galactic scale. This ``near-Earth'' electron density map implies that pulsars previously estimated to be 100-200 pc away may be as close as tens of parsecs away, which motivates a parallax-based measurement campaign to follow-up on these very-near candidate pulsars. Such nearby neutron stars would be valuable laboratories for testing fundamental physics phenomena, including several late-stage neutron star heating mechanisms, using current and forthcoming telescopes. We illustrate this by estimating the sensitivities of the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope and Thirty Meter Telescope to neutron stars heated by dark matter capture.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_18647
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Seeking the nearest neutron stars using a new local electron density map
Bramante, Joseph
Mack, Katherine
Raj, Nirmal
Shao, Lijing
Tyagi, Narayani
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Neutron stars provide a compelling testing ground for gravity, nuclear dynamics, and physics beyond the Standard Model, and so it will be useful to locate the neutron stars nearest to Earth. To that end, we revisit pulsar distance estimates extracted from the dispersion measure of pulsar radio waves scattering on electrons. In particular, we create a new electron density map for the local kiloparsec by fitting to parallax measurements of the nearest pulsars, which complements existing maps that are fit on the Galactic scale. This ``near-Earth'' electron density map implies that pulsars previously estimated to be 100-200 pc away may be as close as tens of parsecs away, which motivates a parallax-based measurement campaign to follow-up on these very-near candidate pulsars. Such nearby neutron stars would be valuable laboratories for testing fundamental physics phenomena, including several late-stage neutron star heating mechanisms, using current and forthcoming telescopes. We illustrate this by estimating the sensitivities of the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope and Thirty Meter Telescope to neutron stars heated by dark matter capture.
title Seeking the nearest neutron stars using a new local electron density map
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.18647