A new X-ray census of rotation powered pulsars
Abstract
To date, over 4000 pulsars have been detected. In this study, we identify 231 X-ray counterparts of Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) pulsars by performing a spatial cross match across the Chandra, XMM-Newton observational catalogs. This dataset represents the largest sample of X-ray counterparts ever compiled, including 98 normal pulsars (NPs) and 133 millisecond pulsars (MSPs). Based on this significantly expanded sample, we re-establish the correlation between X-ray luminosity and spin-down power, given by across the whole X-ray band. The strong correlation is also observed in hard X-ray band, while in soft X-ray band there is no significant correlation. Furthermore, shows a strong correlation with spin period and characteristic age for NPs. For the first time, we observe a strongly positive correlation between and the light cylinder magnetic field () for MSPs, with both NPs and MSPs following the relationship , consistent with the outer-gap model of pulsars that explains the mechanism of X-ray emission. Additionally, we investigate potential X-ray counterparts for Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot pulsars, finding a lower likelihood of detection compared to ATNF pulsars.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2501.10999,
title = {A new X-ray census of rotation powered pulsars},
author = {Yu-Jing Xu and Han-Long Peng and Shan-Shan Weng and Xiao Zhang and Ming-Yu Ge},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.10999},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
13 pages, 4 figures, and 3 tables; published in ApJ; X-ray pulsar catalog will be updated regularly online