2009ApJ...692L..62K

Magnetic field estimates for nearby isolated neutron stars (INS) help to constrain both the characteristics of the population and the nature of their peculiar X-ray spectra. From a series of XMM -Newton observations of RX J2143.0+0654, we measure a spin-down rate of. While this does not allow a definitive measurement of the dipole magnetic field strength, fields of ≳10¹⁴ G such as those inferred from the presence of a spectral absorption feature at 0.75 keV are excluded. Instead, the field is most likely around 2x10¹³ G, very similar to those of other INS. We not only suggest that this similarity most likely reflects the influence of magnetic field decay on this population, but also discuss a more speculative possibility that it results from peculiar conditions on the neutron-star surface. We find no evidence for spectral variability above the ∼2% level. We confirm the presence of the 0.75 keV feature found earlier, and find tentative evidence for an additional absorption feature at 0.4 keV.