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Title: Einstein@home discovery of four young gamma-ray pulsars in Fermi LAT data

Abstract

Here, we report the discovery of four gamma-ray pulsars, detected in computing-intensive blind searches of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). The pulsars were found using a novel search approach, combining volunteer distributed computing via Einstein@Home and methods originally developed in gravitational-wave astronomy. The pulsars PSRs J0554+3107, J1422–6138, J1522–5735, and J1932+1916 are young and energetic, with characteristic ages between 35 and 56 kyr and spin-down powers in the range 6 × 1034—1036 erg s–1. They are located in the Galactic plane and have rotation rates of less than 10 Hz, among which the 2.1 Hz spin frequency of PSR J0554+3107 is the slowest of any known gamma-ray pulsar. For two of the new pulsars, we find supernova remnants coincident on the sky and discuss the plausibility of such associations. Deep radio follow-up observations found no pulsations, suggesting that all four pulsars are radio-quiet as viewed from Earth. These discoveries, the first gamma-ray pulsars found by volunteer computing, motivate continued blind pulsar searches of the many other unidentified LAT gamma-ray sources.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [1];  [1];  [6];  [5];  [7];  [8];  [1];  [5];  [9];  [10];  [6]
  1. Max-Planck-Institut fur Gravitationphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), Hannover (Germany); Leibniz Univ. Hannover, Hannover (Germany)
  2. Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie, Bonn (Germany); Univ. d'Orleans/CNRS, Orleans Cedex (France)
  3. Max-Planck-Institut fur Gravitationphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), Hannover (Germany); Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (United States); Leibniz Univ. Hannover, Hannover (Germany)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie, Bonn (Germany)
  6. Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (United States)
  7. Australia Telescope National Facility (Australia)
  8. Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie, Bonn (Germany); The Univ. of Manchester, Manchester (United Kingdom)
  9. Max-Planck-Institut fur Gravitationphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), Hannover (Germany); Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (United States)
  10. Naval Research Lab., Washington, D.C. (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1356551
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal. Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 779; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-8205
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; gamma rays: stars; pulsars: general; pulsars: individual (PSRs J0554+3107 J1422–6138 J1522–5735 J1932+1916)

Citation Formats

Pletsch, Holger J., Guillemot, L., Allen, B., Anderson, D., Aulbert, C., Bock, O., Champion, D. J., Eggenstein, H. B., Fehrmann, H., Hammer, D., Karuppusamy, R., Keith, M., Kramer, M., Machenschalk, B., Ng, C., Papa, M. A., Ray, P. S., and Siemens, X. Einstein@home discovery of four young gamma-ray pulsars in Fermi LAT data. United States: N. p., 2013. Web. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/779/1/L11.
Pletsch, Holger J., Guillemot, L., Allen, B., Anderson, D., Aulbert, C., Bock, O., Champion, D. J., Eggenstein, H. B., Fehrmann, H., Hammer, D., Karuppusamy, R., Keith, M., Kramer, M., Machenschalk, B., Ng, C., Papa, M. A., Ray, P. S., & Siemens, X. Einstein@home discovery of four young gamma-ray pulsars in Fermi LAT data. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/779/1/L11
Pletsch, Holger J., Guillemot, L., Allen, B., Anderson, D., Aulbert, C., Bock, O., Champion, D. J., Eggenstein, H. B., Fehrmann, H., Hammer, D., Karuppusamy, R., Keith, M., Kramer, M., Machenschalk, B., Ng, C., Papa, M. A., Ray, P. S., and Siemens, X. Tue . "Einstein@home discovery of four young gamma-ray pulsars in Fermi LAT data". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/779/1/L11. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1356551.
@article{osti_1356551,
title = {Einstein@home discovery of four young gamma-ray pulsars in Fermi LAT data},
author = {Pletsch, Holger J. and Guillemot, L. and Allen, B. and Anderson, D. and Aulbert, C. and Bock, O. and Champion, D. J. and Eggenstein, H. B. and Fehrmann, H. and Hammer, D. and Karuppusamy, R. and Keith, M. and Kramer, M. and Machenschalk, B. and Ng, C. and Papa, M. A. and Ray, P. S. and Siemens, X.},
abstractNote = {Here, we report the discovery of four gamma-ray pulsars, detected in computing-intensive blind searches of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). The pulsars were found using a novel search approach, combining volunteer distributed computing via Einstein@Home and methods originally developed in gravitational-wave astronomy. The pulsars PSRs J0554+3107, J1422–6138, J1522–5735, and J1932+1916 are young and energetic, with characteristic ages between 35 and 56 kyr and spin-down powers in the range 6 × 1034—1036 erg s–1. They are located in the Galactic plane and have rotation rates of less than 10 Hz, among which the 2.1 Hz spin frequency of PSR J0554+3107 is the slowest of any known gamma-ray pulsar. For two of the new pulsars, we find supernova remnants coincident on the sky and discuss the plausibility of such associations. Deep radio follow-up observations found no pulsations, suggesting that all four pulsars are radio-quiet as viewed from Earth. These discoveries, the first gamma-ray pulsars found by volunteer computing, motivate continued blind pulsar searches of the many other unidentified LAT gamma-ray sources.},
doi = {10.1088/2041-8205/779/1/L11},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal. Letters},
number = 1,
volume = 779,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Nov 26 00:00:00 EST 2013},
month = {Tue Nov 26 00:00:00 EST 2013}
}

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