While fewer in number than the dominant rotation-powered radio pulsar population, peculiar classes of isolated neutron stars (INSs) -- which include magnetars, the ROSAT-discovered Magnificent Seven (M7), rotating radio transients (RRATs), and centra
l compact objects in supernova remnants (CCOs) -- represent a key element in understanding the neutron star phenomenology. We report the results of an observational campaign to study the properties of the source 2XMM J104608.7-594306. Its evolutionary state is investigated by means of deep dedicated observations obtained with XMM-Newton, the ESO Very Large Telescope, as well as publicly available gamma-ray data from the Fermi and AGILE missions. The observations confirm previous expectations and reveal a unique type of object. The source, which is likely within the Carina Nebula, has a soft spectrum with absorption features and no magnetospheric emission. The optical counterpart is fainter than V=27 and no gamma-ray emission is significantly detected. Very interestingly, while these characteristics are remarkably similar to those of the M7 or the only RRAT so far detected in X-rays, which all have spin periods of a few seconds, we found intriguing evidence of very rapid rotation, P=18.6 ms. We interpret these new results in the light of the observed properties of the currently known neutron star population, in particular those of standard rotation-powered pulsars, recycled objects, and CCOs. We find that none of these scenarios can satisfactorily explain the collective properties of 2XMM J104608.7-594306, although it may be related to the still poorly known class of Galactic anti-magnetars. Future XMM-Newton data, granted for the next cycle of observations (AO11), will help us to improve our current observational interpretation of the source, enabling us to significantly constrain the rate of pulsar spin down.
(Abridged) We present a systematic fit of a model of resonant cyclotron scattering (RCS) to the X-ray data of ten magnetars, including canonical and transient anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs), and soft gamma repeaters (SGRs). In this scenario, non-ther
mal magnetar spectra in the soft X-rays (i.e. below ~10 keV) result from resonant cyclotron scattering of the thermal surface emission by hot magnetospheric plasma. We find that this model can successfully account for the soft X-ray emission of magnetars, while using the same number of free parameters than the commonly used empirical blackbody plus power-law model. However, while the RCS model can alone reproduce the soft X-ray spectra of AXPs, the much harder spectra of SGRs below ~10 keV, requires the addition of a power-law component (the latter being the same component responsible for their hard X-ray emission). Although this model in its present form does not explain the hard X-ray emission of a few of these sources, we took this further component into account in our modeling not to overlook their contribution in the ~4-10 keV band. We find that the entire class of sources is characterized by magnetospheric plasma with a density which, at resonant radius, is about 3 orders of magnitudes higher than n_{GJ}, the Goldreich-Julian electron density. The inferred values of the intervening hydrogen column densities, are also in better agreement with more recent estimates inferred from the fit of single X-ray edges. For the entire sample of observations, we find indications for a correlation between the scattering depth and the electron thermal velocity, and the field strength. Moreover, in most transient anomalous X-ray pulsars the outburst state is characterized by a relatively high surface temperature which cools down during the decay.
