What will eROSITA reveal among X-ray faint isolated neutron stars?

Abstract

Since the discovery of the first radio pulsar fifty years ago, the population of neutron stars in our Galaxy has grown to over 2,600. A handful of these sources, exclusively seen in Xrays, show properties that are not observed in normal pulsars. Despite their scarcity, they are key to understanding aspects of the neutron star phenomenology and evolution. The forthcoming all-sky survey of eROSITA will unveil the X-ray faint end of the neutron star population at unprecedented sensitivity; therefore, it has the unique potential to constrain evolutionary models and advance our understanding of the sources that are especially silent in the radio and γ-ray regimes. In this contribution I discuss the expected role of eROSITA, and the challenges it will face, at probing the galactic neutron star population.

The Zoo of Isolated Neutron Stars

“…There have been hopes that the eROSITA telescope can find more M7-like sources [83,84], but the survey program was terminated after only two years, and these hopes more or less disappeared.…”