Abstract
We model populations of isolated neutron stars in the Galaxy following their orbital and magnetorotational evolution. It is shown that accretors become more abundant than coolers at fluxes below ~10-13 ergs cm-2 s-1, and one can predict that about one accreting neutron star per square degree should be observed at the Chandra and Newton flux limits of ~10-16 ergs cm-2 s-1. The soft ROSAT sources associated with isolated neutron stars can be relatively young cooling objects only if the neutron star birthrate in the solar vicinity during the last ~106 yr is higher than that inferred from radio pulsar observations.
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