skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: DISCOVERY OF TWO MILLISECOND PULSARS IN FERMI SOURCES WITH THE NANCAY RADIO TELESCOPE

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
 [1]; ; ;  [2]; ; ;  [3]; ;  [4];  [5]; ;  [6]; ;  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11]; ;  [12]
  1. Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace LPC2E CNRS-Universite d'Orleans, F-45071 Orleans Cedex 02, and Station de radioastronomie de Nancay, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS/INSU, F-18330 Nancy (France)
  2. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Auf dem Huegel 69, 53121 Bonn (Germany)
  3. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
  4. Universite Bordeaux 1, CNRS/IN2p3, Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires de Bordeaux Gradignan, 33175 Gradignan (France)
  5. North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom 2520 (South Africa)
  6. Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 (United States)
  7. National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC 20001 (United States)
  8. Department of Physics and Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)
  9. Laboratoire AIM, CEA-IRFU/CNRS/Universite Paris Diderot, Service d'Astrophysique, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette (France)
  10. Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
  11. Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States)
  12. Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Epping, NSW 1710 (Australia)

We report the discovery of two millisecond pulsars in a search for radio pulsations at the positions of Fermi-Large Area Telescope sources with no previously known counterparts, using the Nancay Radio Telescope. The two millisecond pulsars, PSRs J2017+0603 and J2302+4442, have rotational periods of 2.896 and 5.192 ms and are both in binary systems with low-eccentricity orbits and orbital periods of 2.2 and 125.9 days, respectively, suggesting long recycling processes. Gamma-ray pulsations were subsequently detected for both objects, indicating that they power the associated Fermi sources in which they were found. The gamma-ray light curves and spectral properties are similar to those of previously detected gamma-ray millisecond pulsars. Detailed modeling of the observed radio and gamma-ray light curves shows that the gamma-ray emission seems to originate at high altitudes in their magnetospheres. Additionally, X-ray observations revealed the presence of an X-ray source at the position of PSR J2302+4442, consistent with thermal emission from a neutron star. These discoveries along with the numerous detections of radio-loud millisecond pulsars in gamma rays suggest that many Fermi sources with no known counterpart could be unknown millisecond pulsars.

OSTI ID:
21574621
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 732, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/732/1/47; ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Cited By (31)

γ-Ray and Parsec-Scale jet Properties of a Complete Sample of Blazars from the Mojave Program journal November 2011
DISCOVERY OF NINE GAMMA-RAY PULSARS IN FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE DATA USING A NEW BLIND SEARCH METHOD journal December 2011
DISCOVERY OF THE OPTICAL COUNTERPARTS TO FOUR ENERGETIC FERMI MILLISECOND PULSARS journal May 2013
SEARCH FOR GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM FOUR ACCRETING MILLISECOND PULSARS WITH FERMI /LAT journal May 2013
PARKES RADIO SEARCHES OF FERMI GAMMA-RAY SOURCES AND MILLISECOND PULSAR DISCOVERIES journal September 2015
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE SECOND SOURCE CATALOG journal March 2012
THE SECOND FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE CATALOG OF GAMMA-RAY PULSARS journal September 2013
MULTIBAND DIAGNOSTICS OF UNIDENTIFIED 1FGL SOURCES WITH SUZAKU AND SWIFT X-RAY OBSERVATIONS journal September 2013
Understanding the Evolution of Close Binary Systems with Radio Pulsars journal April 2014
X-ray bounds on the r-mode amplitude in millisecond pulsars journal December 2016
Optical identification of the binary companion to the millisecond PSR J2302+4442 with the Gran Telescopio Canarias journal July 2018
Bayesian model comparison and analysis of the Galactic disc population of gamma-ray millisecond pulsars journal September 2018
The International Pulsar Timing Array: second data release journal October 2019
The High Time Resolution Universe Pulsar Survey — VI. An artificial neural network and timing of 75 pulsars journal December 2012
Pulsar Searching and Timing journal January 2013
SIX NEW MILLISECOND PULSARS FROM ARECIBO SEARCHES OF FERMI GAMMA-RAY SOURCES journal February 2016
The Nanograv Nine-Year data set: mass and Geometric Measurements of Binary Millisecond Pulsars journal December 2016
The Einstein@Home Gamma-ray Pulsar Survey. II. Source Selection, Spectral Analysis, and Multiwavelength Follow-up journal February 2018
Searching a Thousand Radio Pulsars for Gamma-Ray Emission journal January 2019
Detection and Timing of Gamma-Ray Pulsations from the 707 Hz Pulsar J0952−0607 journal September 2019
Detection and Timing of Gamma-Ray Pulsations from the 707 Hz Pulsar J0952-0607 other January 2019
The Second Fermi Large area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-Ray Pulsars text January 2013
Gamma-Ray and Parsec-Scale Jet Properties of a Complete Sample of Blazars From the MOJAVE Program text January 2011
The High Time Resolution Universe Survey VI: An Artificial Neural Network and Timing of 75 Pulsars text January 2012
Discovery of the Optical Counterparts to Four Energetic Fermi Millisecond Pulsars text January 2013
Understanding the evolution of close binary systems with radio pulsars text January 2014
Parkes radio searches of Fermi gamma-ray sources and millisecond pulsar discoveries text January 2015
Six New Millisecond Pulsars from Arecibo Searches of Fermi Gamma-Ray Sources text January 2016
The Einstein@Home Gamma-Ray Pulsar Survey II. Source Selection, Spectral Analysis and Multi-wavelength Follow-up text January 2017
Bayesian Model Comparison and Analysis of the Galactic Disk Population of Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars text January 2018
Searching a Thousand Radio Pulsars for Gamma-ray Emission text January 2018