THE EINSTEIN-HOME SEARCH FOR RADIO PULSARS AND PSR J2007+2722 DISCOVERY

Journal Article · Tue Aug 20 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/773/2/91· OSTI ID:22131033

Allen, B.; Knispel, B.; Aulbert, C.; Bock, O.; Eggenstein, H. B.; Fehrmann, H.; Machenschalk, B. ^[1]; Cordes, J. M.; Brazier, A.; Chatterjee, S. ^[2]; Deneva, J. S. ^[3]; Hessels, J. W. T. ^[4]; Anderson, D. ^[5]; Demorest, P. B. ^[6]; Gotthelf, E. V. ^[7]; Hammer, D. ^[8]; Kaspi, V. M. ^[9]; Kramer, M. ^[10]; Lyne, A. G. ^[11]; others, and

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1. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Gravitationsphysik, D-30167 Hannover (Germany)
2. Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 (United States)
3. Arecibo Observatory, HC3 Box 53995, Arecibo, PR 00612 (United States)
4. ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA, Dwingeloo (Netherlands)
5. Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
6. NRAO (National Radio Astronomy Observatory), Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
7. Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
8. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53211 (United States)
9. Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A2T8 (Canada)
10. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, D-53121 Bonn (Germany)
11. Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL (United Kingdom)

Einstein-Home aggregates the computer power of hundreds of thousands of volunteers from 193 countries, to search for new neutron stars using data from electromagnetic and gravitational-wave detectors. This paper presents a detailed description of the search for new radio pulsars using Pulsar ALFA survey data from the Arecibo Observatory. The enormous computing power allows this search to cover a new region of parameter space; it can detect pulsars in binary systems with orbital periods as short as 11 minutes. We also describe the first Einstein-Home discovery, the 40.8 Hz isolated pulsar PSR J2007+2722, and provide a full timing model. PSR J2007+2722's pulse profile is remarkably wide with emission over almost the entire spin period. This neutron star is most likely a disrupted recycled pulsar, about as old as its characteristic spin-down age of 404 Myr. However, there is a small chance that it was born recently, with a low magnetic field. If so, upper limits on the X-ray flux suggest but cannot prove that PSR J2007+2722 is at least {approx}100 kyr old. In the future, we expect that the massive computing power provided by volunteers should enable many additional radio pulsar discoveries.

• OSTI ID: 22131033
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 773, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
DATA ANALYSIS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTORS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
NEUTRON STARS
PULSARS
SPIN
X RADIATION