Rotating Radio Transient Phases of Isolated Neutron Star Systems and Descendants of Central Compact Objects
Abstract
Rotating radio transients (RRATs) form an isolated neutron star (INS) population characterized by their sporadic and short radio bursts. In the fallback disc model, it was suggested that most INS populations pass through an RRAT phase during their evolution, and the mechanism producing these bursts could be the enhancement of the flux of open magnetic field lines through the poles of dead pulsars due to penetration of the inner disc into the light cylinder. To test this idea, we determine the RRAT phases that could be produced by this mechanism along the evolutionary curves of the INS families on the period-period derivative (P--Ṗ diagram). These RRAT phases form an RRAT region in the P--Ṗ diagram, which is in agreement with the known RRAT distribution. Using our results, we also investigate the descendants of central compact objects (CCOs). We estimate that the CCOs similar to the three CCOs with measured P and Ṗ are not likely to become radio pulsars (RPs). The situation is rather different for Calvera, a recently identified CCO. In the model, Calvera-like sources become RPs with lifetimes $ > 10^{8}$ yr. Indeed, there is a cluster of RPs in the region of \PPdot~diagram where descendants of Calvera-like CCOs evolve in our model. We also estimate that they have a very low birth rate, and therefore their immediate descendants may not currently exist in our Galaxy.
Related
- Transient discs around isolated accreting neutron stars
- Structural quasi-universality in highly magnetized, differentially rotating neutron stars
- A re-examination of neutron star cooling in transient sources. No shallow heating required: The role of thermonuclear heating leakage
- General Relativistic Simulations of the Nonlinear Evolution of r-modes in Rapidly Rotating Neutron Stars
- Metastable Neutron Stars as Transient-Rate Detectors of Heavy Dark Matter
BibTeX
@misc{demirok2026rotating,
title = {{Rotating Radio Transient Phases of Isolated Neutron Star Systems and Descendants of Central Compact Objects}},
author = {Ş. Demirok and Ü. Ertan and A. A. Gençali},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.24286},
eprint = {2609.24286},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24286},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Rotating Radio Transient Phases of Isolated Neutron Star Systems and Descendants of Central Compact Objects
AU - Ş. Demirok
AU - Ü. Ertan
AU - A. A. Gençali
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.24286
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24286
AB - Rotating radio transients (RRATs) form an isolated neutron star (INS) population characterized by their sporadic and short radio bursts. In the fallback disc model, it was suggested that most INS populations pass through an RRAT phase during their evolution, and the mechanism producing these bursts could be the enhancement of the flux of open magnetic field lines through the poles of dead pulsars due to penetration of the inner disc into the light cylinder. To test this idea, we determine the RRAT phases that could be produced by this mechanism along the evolutionary curves of the INS families on the period-period derivative (P--Ṗ diagram). These RRAT phases form an RRAT region in the P--Ṗ diagram, which is in agreement with the known RRAT distribution. Using our results, we also investigate the descendants of central compact objects (CCOs). We estimate that the CCOs similar to the three CCOs with measured P and Ṗ are not likely to become radio pulsars (RPs). The situation is rather different for Calvera, a recently identified CCO. In the model, Calvera-like sources become RPs with lifetimes $ > 10^{8}$ yr. Indeed, there is a cluster of RPs in the region of \PPdot~diagram where descendants of Calvera-like CCOs evolve in our model. We also estimate that they have a very low birth rate, and therefore their immediate descendants may not currently exist in our Galaxy.
ER -