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Title: SAX J1808.4$$-$$3658, an accreting millisecond pulsar shining in gamma rays?

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [4];  [4]
  1. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Barcelona (Spain)
  2. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Barcelona (Spain); Univ. of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
  3. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Barcelona (Spain); Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain). Inst. Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats (ICREA)
  4. Univ. degli Studi di Cagliari (Italy)
  5. Univ. of Palermo (Italy)
+ Show Author Affiliations

We report the detection of a possible gamma-ray counterpart of the accreting millisec- ond pulsar SAXJ1808.4–3658. The analysis of ~6 years of data from the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi-LAT) within a re- gion of 15° radius around the position of the pulsar reveals a point gamma-ray source detected at a significance of ~6σ (Test Statistic TS = 32), with position compatible with that of SAXJ1808.4–3658 within 95% Confidence Level. The energy flux in the energy range between 0.6 GeV and 10 GeV amounts to (2.1 ± 0.5) × 10-12 erg cm-2 s-1 and the spectrum is well-represented by a power-law function with photon index 2.1±0.1. We searched for significant variation of the flux at the spin frequency of the pulsar and for orbital modulation, taking into account the trials due to the uncertain- ties in the position, the orbital motion of the pulsar and the intrinsic evolution of the pulsar spin. No significant deviation from a constant flux at any time scale was found, preventing a firm identification via time variability. Nonetheless, the association of the LAT source as the gamma-ray counterpart of SAXJ1808.4–3658 would match the emission expected from the millisecond pulsar, if it switches on as a rotation-powered source during X-ray quiescence.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1355681
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 456, Issue 3; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 8 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (5)

Radio Pulse Search and X-Ray Monitoring of SAX J1808.4−3658: What Causes Its Orbital Evolution? journal May 2017
The Likely Fermi Detection of the Be X-Ray Binary GRO J1008-57 journal September 2019
On the timing properties of SAX J1808.4−3658 during its 2015 outburst journal June 2017
On the timing properties of SAX J1808.4-3658 during its 2015 outburst text January 2017
Accretion powered X-ray millisecond pulsars text January 2020

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