A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Young rotation-powered pulsars as ultraluminous X-ray sources
Authors: Aleksei S Medvedev, Juri Poutanen
Publisher: OXFORD UNIV PRESS
Publication year: 2013
Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Journal name in source: MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Journal acronym: MON NOT R ASTRON SOC
Number in series: 3
Volume: 431
Issue: 3
First page : 2690
Last page: 2702
Number of pages: 13
ISSN: 0035-8711
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt369
Using the observed XLF of sources in the nearby galaxies and the condition that the pulsar XLF does not exceed that, we find the allowed region for the parameters describing the birth period distribution. We find that the mean pulsar period should be greater than 10-40 ms. These results are consistent with the constraints obtained from the X-ray luminosity of core-collapse supernovae. We estimate that the contribution of the rotation-powered pulsars to the ULX population is at a level exceeding 3 per cent. For a wide birth period distribution, this fraction grows with luminosity and above 10(40) erg s(-1) pulsars can dominate the ULX population.