AI 中文总结
本研究利用老孤立毫秒脉冲星及Magnificent Seven的X射线存档数据，给出银河系磁单极子通量的保守约束，改进了此前中子星相关限制，为磁单极子探测提供了新的有力手段。
AI 中文摘要
磁单极子会被中子星高效捕获，若它们催化核子衰变，衰变产物将发生热平衡并产生可观测的X射线表面辐射。我们利用老的孤立毫秒脉冲星的Chandra、XMM-Newton和Swift-XRT存档数据，对银河系磁单极子通量（$F_M$）给出保守限制。对于基准截面$σ_{Δ\rm B} \sim 10^{-27}\\\\ {\rm cm^2}$，我们的约束作为磁单极子质量$m_M$的函数为：$F_{\rm M}(m_M) \lesssim 6 \times 10^{-19}~\mathrm{cm^{-2}s^{-1}sr^{-1}} \times \max \big(4 \times 10^{-6}, \min (2 \times 10^{11}~\mathrm{(GeV/c^2)}/m_{\rm M} , 1 ) \big)$。这些限制改进了此前的中子星约束，是目前对质量在$10^{11} - 10^{13}\\\\ {\rm GeV/c^2}$范围内的$F_M$的最强约束，且与该情形下的现有约束水平相当。我们还从“壮丽七（Magnificent Seven）”的实测热辐射中推导出了互补约束。我们的结果表明，中子星X射线观测为探测磁单极子提供了有力工具，并推动了针对老年中子星的专门X射线搜寻，以此检验磁单极子诱导的加热效应。
英文摘要
Magnetic monopoles are captured efficiently by neutron stars, and if they catalyze nucleon decay, the decay products would thermalize and generate observable X-ray surface emission. We use archival Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift-XRT data for old isolated millisecond pulsars to place conservative limits on the Galactic monopole flux ($F_M$). For a benchmark cross-section of $σ_{Δ\rm B} \sim 10^{-27}\ {\rm cm^2}$, our constraint as a function of monopole mass $m_M$ is given by $F_{\rm M}(m_M) \lesssim 6 \times 10^{-19}~\mathrm{cm^{-2}s^{-1}sr^{-1}} \times \max \big(4 \times 10^{-6}, \min (2 \times 10^{11}~\mathrm{(GeV/c^2)}/m_{\rm M} , 1 ) \big)$. These limits improve previous neutron-star bounds, provide the strongest constraints to date on $F_M$ for $m_M$ between $10^{11} - 10^{13}\ {\rm GeV/c^2}$, and are competitive to existing constraints for this scenario. We also derive complementary constraints from the measured thermal emission of the Magnificent Seven. Our results demonstrate that neutron star X-ray observations provide a powerful probe of magnetic monopoles and motivate dedicated X-ray searches for old neutron stars as a means to test monopole-induced heating.
Comments8 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Supplemental Material (2 pages, 1 table)
