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Title: Pulsar timing for the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope

Journal Article · · Astronomy and Astrophysics
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [2];  [6];  [7];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [8];  [9];  [7];  [6];  [10];  [9];  [11] more »;  [12];  [13];  [9];  [14];  [6];  [15];  [16];  [7] « less
  1. Univ. of Bordeaux, Gradignan (France). Centre d'etudes nucleaires de Bordeaux Gradignan, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Inst. National de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules (CNRS/IN2P3)
  2. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Columbia Astrophysics Lab.
  3. Univ. of Orleans (France). Lab. of Physics and Chemistry of Environment and Space; Paris Observatory (France). Nancay radio telescope
  4. Univ. of Manchester, Macclesfield (United Kingdom). Jodrell Bank Observatory
  5. Arecibo Observatory (Puerto Rico)
  6. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  7. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Epping, NSW (Australia). Australia Telescope National Facility
  8. McGill Univ., Montreal, QC (Canada)
  9. Univ. of Manchester, Macclesfield (United Kingdom). Jodrell Bank Observatory
  10. West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States). Dept. of Physics
  11. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA (United States)
  12. Eureka Scientific, Inc., Oakland, CA (United States)
  13. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  14. Univ. of Orleans (France). Lab. of Physics and Chemistry of Environment and Space; Paris Observatory (France). Nancay radio telescope; Paris Observatory (France). GEPI
  15. Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States). Dept. of Astronomy & Astrophysics
  16. National Astronomical Observatories-CAS, Urumqi (China)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Here, we describe a comprehensive pulsar monitoring campaign for the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST). The detection and study of pulsars in gamma rays give insights into the populations of neutron stars and supernova rates in the Galaxy, into particle acceleration mechanisms in neutron star magnetospheres, and into the “engines” driving pulsar wind nebulae. LAT's unprecedented sensitivity between 20 MeV and 300 GeV together with its 2.4 sr field-of-view makes detection of many gamma-ray pulsars likely, justifying the monitoring of over two hundred pulsars with large spin-down powers. To search for gamma-ray pulsations from most of these pulsars requires a set of phase-connected timing solutions spanning a year or more to properly align the sparse photon arrival times. We describe the choice of pulsars and the instruments involved in the campaign. Attention is paid to verifications of the LAT pulsar software, using for example giant radio pulses from the Crab and from PSR B1937+21 recorded at Nançay, and using X-ray data on PSR J0218+4232 from XMM-Newton. We demonstrate accuracy of the pulsar phase calculations at the microsecond level.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1357321
Journal Information:
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 492, Issue 3; ISSN 0004-6361
Publisher:
EDP SciencesCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 89 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (24)

Extending the event-weighted pulsation search to very faint gamma-ray sources journal February 2019
DISCOVERY OF PULSED γ-RAYS FROM THE YOUNG RADIO PULSAR PSR J1028–5819 WITH THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE journal March 2009
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS OF THE VELA PULSAR journal April 2009
FERMI /LARGE AREA TELESCOPE BRIGHT GAMMA-RAY SOURCE LIST journal June 2009
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE FIRST SOURCE CATALOG journal May 2010
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE SECOND SOURCE CATALOG journal March 2012
THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON ORBIT: EVENT CLASSIFICATION, INSTRUMENT RESPONSE FUNCTIONS, AND CALIBRATION journal October 2012
THE SECOND FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE CATALOG OF GAMMA-RAY PULSARS journal September 2013
CHASING THE IDENTIFICATION OF ASCA GALACTIC OBJECTS (ChIcAGO): AN X-RAY SURVEY OF UNIDENTIFIED SOURCES IN THE GALACTIC PLANE. I. SOURCE SAMPLE AND INITIAL RESULTS journal April 2014
Detection of 107 glitches in 36 southern pulsars journal December 2012
Multiwavelength observations of the binary system PSR B1259−63/LS 2883 around the 2010–2011 periastron passage journal January 2014
Diagnostics of timing noise in middle-aged pulsars journal June 2019
Searching a Thousand Radio Pulsars for Gamma-Ray Emission journal January 2019
NuSTAR Observations of G11.2–0.3 journal January 2020
The Second Fermi Large area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-Ray Pulsars text January 2013
Fermi Large Area Telescope Bright Gamma-ray Source List text January 2009
Detection of 107 glitches in 36 southern pulsars text January 2012
Multi-wavelength observations of the binary system PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 around the 2010-2011 periastron passage text January 2014
Searching a Thousand Radio Pulsars for Gamma-ray Emission text January 2018
Extending the Event-weighted Pulsation Search to Very Faint Gamma-ray Sources text January 2018
Pulsars: implications from Fermi LAT observations and future prospects conference December 2017
Pulsar Observations with the Fermi Large Area Telescope preprint January 2010
Likelihood Methods for the Detection and Characterization of Gamma-ray Pulsars with the Fermi Large Area Telescope preprint January 2011
Using the pulsar timing software package, TEMPO2 preprint January 2012

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
pulsars
Gamma-rays
Ephemerides