Search for a thermal emission component in low luminosity Be binary pulsars

The spectrum of many binary pulsars shows a data excess over the main power lawcomponent, which has been described with different models. In the case of thepersistent, lowluminosity (about 10**34 erg/s) and longperiod (above 100 s) Bepulsars X Persei and RX J0146.9+6121, the observed excess can be modeled with arather hot (kT above 1 keV) blackbody component of small area (R below 0.5 km),which has been attributed to the emission from the NS polar caps. We propose totest the validity of this picture also in the other two persistent Galactic Bepulsars RX J0440.9+4431 and RX J1037.55647. Moreover, we also propose toobserve the transient longperiod Be pulsar 3A 0535+262 when in quiescence,since in this status its luminosity is comparable to that of the two previous sources. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]