Radio-quiet neutron star ten bodies have been proposed as rotation-powered neutron stars that are not visible as radio sources, but are visible as x–ray and gamma ray sources. Indicators that they are indeed neutron stars include them having a high x-ray to lower frequencies emission ratio, a constant x-ray emission profile, and coincidence with a gamma ray source. Quark stars, theoretical neutron star-like objects composed of quark matter, may be radio quiet, according to some theories. More plausibly, however, radio-quiet neutron stars may simply be pulsars which do not pulse in our direction. As pulsars spin, it is theorized they emit radiation from
Neutron radiation interactions are largely ionizing, for example when neutron absorption results in gamma emission and the gamma ray (photon) subsequently removes an electron from an atom, or a nucleus recoiling from a neutron interaction is ionized and causes more traditional subsequent ionization in other atoms. Because neutrons are uncharged, they are more penetrating than alpha radiation or beta radiation. In some cases they are more penetrating than gamma radiation, which is impeded in materials of high atomic number. In materials of low atomic number such as hydrogen, a low energy gamma ray may be more penetrating than a high energy neutron.