Title: FAST discovery of an extremely radio-faint millisecond pulsar from the Fermi-LAT unassociated source 3FGL J0318.1+0252

Abstract

High sensitivity radio searches of unassociated γ-ray sources have proven to be an effective way of finding new pulsars. Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) during its commissioning phase, we have carried out a number of targeted deep searches of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) γ-ray sources. On February 27, 2018 we discovered an isolated millisecond pulsar (MSP), PSR J0318+0253, coincident with the unassociated γ-ray source 3FGL J0318.1+0252. PSR J0318+0253 has a spin period of 5.19 ms, a dispersion measure (DM) of 26 pc cm^–3 corresponding to a DM distance of about 1.3 kpc, and a period-averaged flux density of (~11±2) µJy at L-band (1.05–1.45 GHz). Among all high energy MSPs, PSR J0318+0253 is the faintest ever detected in radio bands, by a factor of at least ~4 in terms of L-band fluxes. With the aid of the radio ephemeris, an analysis of 9.6 years of Fermi-LAT data revealed that PSR J0318+0253 also displays strong γ-ray pulsations. Follow-up observations carried out by both Arecibo and FAST suggest a likely spectral turn-over around 350 MHz. This is the first result from the collaboration between FAST and the Fermi-LAT teams as well as the first confirmed new MSP discovery bymore » FAST, raising hopes for the detection of many more MSPs. Finally, such discoveries will make a significant contribution to our understanding of the neutron star zoo while potentially contributing to the future detection of gravitational waves, via pulsar timing array (PTA) experiments.« less

Authors:

Wang, Pei ^[1]; Li, Di ^[2]; Clark, Colin J. ^[3]; Parkinson, Pablo M. Saz ^[4]; Hou, Xian ^[5]; Zhu, Weiwei ^[1]; Qian, Lei ^[1]; Yue, Youling ^[1]; Pan, Zhichen ^[1]; Liu, Zhijie ^[6]; Yu, Xuhong ^[6]; You, Shanping ^[6]; Xie, Xiaoyao ^[6]; Zhi, Qijun ^[6]; Zhang, Hui ^[6]; Yao, Jumei ^[1]; Yan, Jun ^[1]; Zhang, Chengmin ^[1]; Fan, Kwok Lung ^[7]; Ray, Paul S. ^[8] more »; Kerr, Matthew ^[8]; Smith, David A. ^[9]; Michelson, Peter F. ^[10]; Ferrara, Elizabeth C. ^[11]; Thompson, David J. ^[11]; Shen, Zhiqiang ^[12]; Wang, Na ^[13] « less

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
2. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)
3. Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom); Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban (South Africa)
4. Univ. of Hong Kong, (China); Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)
5. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Kumming (China)
6. Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang (China)
7. Univ. of Hong Kong (Hong Kong); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
8. US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington (United States)
9. University of Bordeaux, Gradignan (France)
10. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
11. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
12. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shanghai (China)
13. Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, Urumqi (China)

Publication Date:

Wed Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2021

Research Org.:

SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Contributing Org.:

FAST and Fermi-LAT Collaboration

OSTI Identifier:

1872422

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-76SF00515; 80NSSC18K1731

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Science China. Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 64; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 1674-7348

Publisher:

Science China Press and Springer

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; FAST; pulsar; radio; gamma rays