DISCOVERY OF THREE PULSARS FROM A GALACTIC CENTER PULSAR POPULATION

Journal Article · Thu Sep 10 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/702/2/L177; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21335995

Deneva, J S; Cordes, J M ^[1]; Lazio, T J. W. ^[2]

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1. Astronomy Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)
2. Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20375 (United States)

We report the discovery of three pulsars whose large dispersion measures (DMs) and angular proximity to Sgr A* indicate the existence of a Galactic center population of neutron stars. The relatively long periods (0.98-1.48 s) most likely reflect strong selection against short-period pulsars from radio-wave scattering at the observation frequency of 2 GHz used in our survey with the Green Bank Telescope. One object (PSR J1746-2850I) has a characteristic spindown age of only 13 kyr along with a high surface magnetic field {approx}4 x 10{sup 13} G. It and a second object found in the same telescope pointing, PSR J1746-2850II (which has the highest known DM among pulsars), may have originated from recent star formation in the Arches or Quintuplet clusters given their angular locations. Along with a third object, PSR J1745-2910, and two similar high-dispersion, long-period pulsars reported by Johnston et al., the five objects found so far are 10-15 arcmin from Sgr A*, consistent with there being a large pulsar population in the Galactic center, most of whose members are undetectable in relatively low-frequency surveys because of pulse broadening from the same scattering volume that angularly broadens Sgr A* and OH/IR masers.

• OSTI ID: 21335995
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal (Online), Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 702; ISSN 1538-4357
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MASERS
NEUTRON STARS
PULSARS
PULSES
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
TELESCOPES