Models for X-ray emission from isolated pulsars

摘要

A model is proposed for the observed combination of power-law and thermal emission of keV X-rays from rotationally powered pulsars. For γ-ray pulsars with accelerators very many stellar radii above the neutron star surface, 100 MeV curvature ?-rays from e- or e+ flowing starward out of such accelerators are converted to e± pairs on closed field lines all around star. These pairs strongly affect X-ray emis- sion from near the star in two ways.(1)The pairs are a source of synchrotron emission immediately following their creation in regions where B 　～10~10 G. this emission, in the photon energy range 0.1 keV < ≈ E_x <≈ 5 MeV, has a power-law spectrum with energy index 0.5 and X-ray luminosity that depends on the backflow current and is typically ～10~33 ergs s~-1.