090126

The large number of radio-quiet thermally emitting isolated neutron stars (INSs) in our local volume suggests that they belong to a formerly neglected component of the overall population. At fainter fluxes source confusion and contamination from other classes of X-ray emitters hamper the identification of new members due to the large positional and spectral errors. In preparation for the full sensitivity of the eROSITA All-Sky Survey the use of serendipitous data from XMM-Newton proves an excellent opportunity to test search algorithms and discover new INSs. We propose to investigate newly selected candidates from the 4XMM-DR9 catalogue with the immediate goals to improve spectral determination and source localisation for future follow-up studies. [truncated! Please see actual data for full text]