2002A&A...387..233K

We have searched for evidence of emission at 15µm with ISOCAM and at 90µm with ISOPHOT from dust orbiting six nearby pulsars, both in binaries and in isolation, located at distances between about 100 to 1000pc. No emission was detected at any of the pulsar positions, and for the nearest pulsar J0108-1431 the 3σ upper limits on the flux density is about 66mJy at 15µm and 22.5mJy at 90µm. Upper limits on the masses of circumpulsar dust are inferred at a given temperature using a simple modelling of the radiated flux; they are compared to upper limits on orbiting mass obtained with the dust heating model of Foster & Fisher (1996ApJ...460..902F). These results suggest that it is unlikely that any of these pulsars have sufficiently massive, circumpulsar discs, out of which planets may form in the future.