Identifying birth places of young isolated neutron stars

Understand

Young isolated radio-quiet neutron stars are still hot enough to be detectable at X-ray and optical wavelengths due to their thermal emission and can hence probe cooling curves.

• An identification of their birth sites can constrain their age.
• For that reason we try to identify the parent associations for four of the so-called Magnificent Seven neutron stars for which proper motion and distance estimates are available.
• We are tracing back in time each neutron star and possible birth association centre to find close encounters.