PULSED GAMMA RAYS FROM THE ORIGINAL MILLISECOND AND BLACK WIDOW PULSARS: A CASE FOR CAUSTIC RADIO EMISSION?

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/744/1/33· OSTI ID:22004348

Guillemot, L; Kramer, M; Freire, P C. C.; Noutsos, A ^[1]; Johnson, T J; Harding, A K ^[2]; Venter, C ^[3]; Kerr, M; Michelson, P F ^[4]; Pancrazi, B ^[5]; Livingstone, M ^[6]; Janssen, G H; Jaroenjittichai, P; Stappers, B W; Espinoza, C M ^[7]; Cognard, I ^[8]; Camilo, F ^[9]; Gargano, F ^[10]; Grove, J E ^[11]; Johnston, S ^[12] ; others, and

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1. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, 53121 Bonn (Germany)
2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
3. Centre for Space Research, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2520 Potchefstroom (South Africa)
4. W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Department of Physics and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States)
5. CNRS, IRAP, F-31028 Toulouse Cedex 4 (France)
6. Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, PQ H3A 2T8 (Canada)
7. Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, M13 9PL (United Kingdom)
8. Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement, LPCE UMR 6115 CNRS, F-45071 Orleans Cedex 02 (France)
9. Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
10. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70126 Bari (Italy)
11. Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375-5352 (United States)
12. CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Australia Telescope National Facility, Epping NSW 1710 (Australia)

We report the detection of pulsed gamma-ray emission from the fast millisecond pulsars (MSPs) B1937+21 (also known as J1939+2134) and B1957+20 (J1959+2048) using 18 months of survey data recorded by the Fermi Large Area Telescope and timing solutions based on radio observations conducted at the Westerbork and Nancay radio telescopes. In addition, we analyzed archival Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and XMM-Newton X-ray data for the two MSPs, confirming the X-ray emission properties of PSR B1937+21 and finding evidence ({approx}4{sigma}) for pulsed emission from PSR B1957+20 for the first time. In both cases the gamma-ray emission profile is characterized by two peaks separated by half a rotation and are in close alignment with components observed in radio and X-rays. These two pulsars join PSRs J0034-0534 and J2214+3000 to form an emerging class of gamma-ray MSPs with phase-aligned peaks in different energy bands. The modeling of the radio and gamma-ray emission profiles suggests co-located emission regions in the outer magnetosphere.

• OSTI ID: 22004348
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 744, Issue 1; 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
ASTROPHYSICS
GAMMA RADIATION
PHOTON EMISSION
PULSARS
RADIO TELESCOPES
ROTATION
X RADIATION