Young close isolated compact objects

Abstract

We suggest that the seven radio-quiet isolated neutron stars observed with ROSAT are young cooling objects associated to recent near-by supernova explosions which formed runaway stars and the Local Bubble, affecting the topology of the interstellar medium in the vicinity of the Sun (within a few hundred parsecs). In the aftermath of these explosions, a few black holes might have been formed, according to the local initial mass function. We thus discuss the possibility of determining approximate positions of close-by isolated black holes using data on runaway stars and simple calculations of binary evolution and disruption.

4 pages, no figures, to appear in proceedings of the conference ICGA-V in Gravitation & Cosmology (2002)