EIGHT {gamma}-RAY PULSARS DISCOVERED IN BLIND FREQUENCY SEARCHES OF FERMI LAT DATA

Journal Article · Fri Dec 10 04:00:00 EST 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/725/1/571· OSTI ID:21474410

Saz Parkinson, P M; Dormody, M; Ziegler, M; Belfiore, A; Johnson, R P ^[1]; Ray, P S; Abdo, A A; Grove, J E; Gwon, C ^[2]; Ballet, J ^[3]; Baring, M G ^[4]; Burnett, T H ^[5]; Caliandro, G A ^[6]; Camilo, F ^[7]; Caraveo, P A ^[8]; De Luca, A ^[9]; Ferrara, E C; Harding, A K; Johnson, T J ^[10]; Freire, P C. C., ^[11]

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1. Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, Department of Physics, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
2. Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 (United States)
3. Laboratoire AIM, CEA-IRFU/CNRS/Universite Paris Diderot, Service d'Astrophysique, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette (France)
4. Rice University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, MS-108, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251 (United States)
5. Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1560 (United States)
6. Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai (IEEC-CSIC), Campus UAB, 08193 Barcelona (Spain)
7. Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
8. INAF-Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, I-20133 Milano (Italy)
9. Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS), I-27100 Pavia (Italy)
10. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
11. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Auf dem Huegel 69, 53121 Bonn (Germany)

We report the discovery of eight {gamma}-ray pulsars in blind frequency searches of {approx}650 source positions using the Large Area Telescope (LAT), on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. We present the timing models, light curves, and detailed spectral parameters of the new pulsars. PSRs J1023-5746, J1044-5737, J1413-5205, J1429-5911, and J1954+2836 are young ({tau}{sub c} < 100 kyr), energetic (E-dot {approx}>10{sup 36} erg s{sup -1}), and located within the Galactic plane (|b| < 3{sup 0}). The remaining three pulsars, PSRs J1846+0919, J1957+5033, and J2055+25, are less energetic, and located off the plane. Five pulsars are associated with sources included in the Fermi-LAT bright {gamma}-ray source list, but only one, PSR J1413-6205, is clearly associated with an EGRET source. PSR J1023-5746 has the smallest characteristic age ({tau}{sub c} = 4.6 kyr) and is the most energetic (E-dot = 1.1x10{sup 37} erg s{sup -1}) of all {gamma}-ray pulsars discovered so far in blind searches. By analyzing >100 ks of publicly available archival Chandra X-ray data, we have identified the likely counterpart of PSR J1023-5746 as a faint, highly absorbed source, CXOU J102302.8-574606. The large X-ray absorption indicates that this could be among the most distant {gamma}-ray pulsars detected so far. PSR J1023-5746 is positionally coincident with the TeV source HESS J1023-575, located near the young stellar cluster Westerlund 2, while PSR J1954+2836 is coincident with a 4.3{sigma} excess reported by Milagro at a median energy of 35 TeV. PSRs J1957+5033 and J2055+25 have the largest characteristic ages ({tau}{sub c} {approx} 1 Myr) and are the least energetic (E-dot {approx}5x10{sup 33} erg s{sup -1}) of the newly discovered pulsars. We used recent XMM observations to identify the counterpart of PSR J2055+25 as XMMU J205549.4+253959. Deep radio follow-up observations of the eight pulsars resulted in no detections of pulsations and upper limits comparable to the faintest known radio pulsars, indicating that these pulsars can be included among the growing population of radio-quiet pulsars in our Galaxy being uncovered by the LAT, and currently numbering more than 20.

• OSTI ID: 21474410
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 725; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ABSORPTION
COSMIC GAMMA SOURCES
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENERGY RANGE
GALAXIES
GAMMA RADIATION
IONIZING RADIATIONS
PULSARS
PULSATIONS
RADIATIONS
SORPTION
TELESCOPES
TEV RANGE