skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: A population of gamma-ray emitting globular clusters seen with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Journal Article · · Astronomy and Astrophysics
 [1]
  1. Naval Research Lab. (NRL), Washington, DC (United States); et al.

Context. Globular clusters with their large populations of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are believed to be potential emitters of high-energy gamma-ray emission. The observation of this emission provides a powerful tool to assess the millisecond pulsar population of a cluster, is essential for understanding the importance of binary systems for the evolution of globular clusters, and provides complementary insights into magnetospheric emission processes. Aims. Our goal is to constrain the millisecond pulsar populations in globular clusters from analysis of gamma-ray observations. Methods. We use 546 days of continuous sky-survey observations obtained with the Large Area Telescope aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to study the gamma-ray emission towards 13 globular clusters. Results. Steady point-like high-energy gamma-ray emission has been significantly detected towards 8 globular clusters. Five of them (47 Tucanae, Omega Cen, NGC 6388, Terzan 5, and M 28) show hard spectral power indices (0.7 < Γ < 1.4) and clear evidence for an exponential cut-off in the range 1.0 - 2.6 GeV, which is the characteristic signature of magnetospheric emission from MSPs. Three of them (M 62, NGC 6440 and NGC 6652) also show hard spectral indices (1.0 < Γ < 1.7), however the presence of an exponential cut-off can not be unambiguously established. Three of them (Omega Cen, NGC 6388, NGC 6652) have no known radio or X-ray MSPs yet still exhibit MSP spectral properties. From the observed gamma-ray luminosities, we estimate the total number of MSPs that is expected to be present in these globular clusters. We show that our estimates of the MSP population correlate with the stellar encounter rate and we estimate 2600 - 4700 MSPs in Galactic globular clusters, commensurate with previous estimates. Conclusions. The observation of high-energy gamma-ray emission from globular clusters thus provides a reliable independent method to assess their millisecond pulsar populations.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Contributing Organization:
Fermi LAT Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1357510
Journal Information:
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 524; ISSN 0004-6361
Publisher:
EDP SciencesCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 92 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (46)

Timing of Millisecond Pulsars in NGC 6752: Evidence for a High Mass-to-Light Ratio in the Cluster Core journal May 2002
THE LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON THE FERMI GAMMA-RAY SPACE TELESCOPE MISSION journal May 2009
Deep Radio Imaging of Globular Clusters and the Cluster Pulsar Population journal June 2000
Distances of the bulge globular clusters Terzan 5, Liller 1, UKS 1, and Terzan 4 based on HST NICMOS photometry journal June 2007
Detection of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae with Fermi journal August 2009
Chandra X‐Ray Observations of 19 Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae journal August 2006
A new look at the globular cluster M28 journal July 1991
VI Photometry of Globular Clusters NGC 6293 and NGC 6541: The Formation of the Metal-poor Inner Halo Globular Clusters journal October 2006
Fermi Gamma-Ray Imaging of a Radio Galaxy journal April 2010
The ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. I. Overview and Clusters without Previous Hubble Space Telescope Photometry journal March 2007
Hubble Space Telescope Proper Motions and Stellar Dynamics in the Core of the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae journal September 2006
Detection of 16 Gamma-Ray Pulsars Through Blind Frequency Searches Using the Fermi LAT journal July 2009
Production of recycled pulsars in globular clusters via two-body tidal capture journal September 1992
FIVE-YEAR WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE OBSERVATIONS: DATA PROCESSING, SKY MAPS, AND BASIC RESULTS journal February 2009
The Dynamical State and Blue Straggler Population of the Globular Cluster NGC 6266 (M62) journal May 2006
Eight New Millisecond Pulsars in NGC 6440 and NGC 6441 journal March 2008
The Dynamical Mass‐to‐Light Ratio Profile and Distance of the Globular Cluster M15 journal April 2006
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE FIRST SOURCE CATALOG journal May 2010
An XMM-Newton observation of the globular cluster Omega Centauri journal March 2003
THE FIRST FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE CATALOG OF GAMMA-RAY PULSARS journal March 2010
THE FIRST CATALOG OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI DETECTED BY THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE journal April 2010
XMM -Newton and Chandra observations of the globular cluster NGC 6388 journal December 2007
On the Relative Distances of ω Centauri and 47 Tucanae journal September 2008
FERMI DISCOVERY OF GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER TERZAN 5 journal February 2010
PULSED GAMMA RAYS FROM THE MILLISECOND PULSAR J0030+0451 WITH THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE journal June 2009
A Deep Chandra Survey of the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae: Catalog of Point Sources journal June 2005
Formation and evolution of compact binaries in globular clusters – II. Binaries with neutron stars journal May 2008
A CHANDRA STUDY OF THE GALACTIC GLOBULAR CLUSTER OMEGA CENTAURI journal May 2009
The integrated flux density of pulsars in globular clusters journal December 1990
The dynamical distance and intrinsic structure of the globular cluster ω Centauri journal December 2005
A new class of radio pulsars journal December 1982
MCAO near-IR photometry of the globular cluster NGC 6388: MAD observations in crowded fields journal November 2008
DISCOVERY OF NEW GAMMA-RAY PULSARS WITH AGILE journal March 2009
X-ray binaries in globular clusters journal July 1975
The pulsar content of globular clusters journal June 1990
Binaries in globular clusters journal May 1992
A Study of Giant Pulses from PSR J1824−2452A journal December 2006
A 1.4 GHz Arecibo Survey for Pulsars in Globular Clusters journal November 2007
Twenty-One Millisecond Pulsars in Terzan 5 Using the Green Bank Telescope journal February 2005
The radio luminosity distribution of pulsars in 47 Tucanae journal March 2004
A Catalog of Parameters for Globular Clusters in the Milky Way journal October 1996
A Population of Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars Seen with the Fermi Large Area Telescope journal July 2009
High-Resolution X-ray Imaging of a Globular Cluster Core: Compact Binaries in 47Tuc journal May 2001
Discovery of a quiescent neutron star binary in the globular cluster M 13 journal April 2003
The Age of the Inner Halo Globular Cluster NGC 6652 journal December 2000
A Search for Submillisecond Pulsars journal October 2001

Cited By (36)

Galactic bulge preferred over dark matter for the Galactic centre gamma-ray excess journal March 2018
X-ray follow-up observations of the two γ -ray pulsars PSR J1459–6053 and PSR J1614–2230 journal August 2012
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE SECOND SOURCE CATALOG journal March 2012
THE SECOND FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE CATALOG OF GAMMA-RAY PULSARS journal September 2013
Globular cluster interstellar media: ionized and ejected by white dwarfs journal November 2014
Gamma-ray and X-ray emission from the Galactic centre: hints on the nuclear star cluster formation history journal June 2018
A Deep X-ray Survey of the globular cluster Omega Centauri journal March 2018
Search for multiwavelength emission from the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1836-2354A in the globular cluster M22 journal April 2019
Milky Way globular clusters in γ-rays: analysing the dynamical formation of millisecond pulsars journal March 2019
Pulsar-black hole binaries in the Galactic Centre: PSR-BH binaries in the Galactic Centre journal June 2011
Luminosities of recycled radio pulsars in globular clusters: Recycled radio pulsars in globular clusters journal September 2011
Millisecond Pulsar Origin of the Galactic Center Excess and Extended Gamma-Ray Emission from Andromeda: A Closer Look journal July 2018
The MAVERIC Survey: Still No Evidence for Accreting Intermediate-mass Black Holes in Globular Clusters journal July 2018
Population Syntheses of Millisecond Pulsars from the Galactic Disk and Bulge journal August 2018
Evidence for Cosmic-Ray Escape in the Small Magellanic Cloud Using Fermi Gamma Rays journal October 2018
Probing the Pulsar Population of Terzan 5 via Spectral Modeling journal July 2019
Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog journal March 2020
Second Repeating FRB 180814.J0422+73: Ten-year Fermi -LAT Upper Limits and Implications journal April 2019
Discovery of Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster Omega Centauri journal January 2020
The Second Fermi Large area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-Ray Pulsars text January 2013
Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog text January 2020
Galactic bulge preferred over dark matter for the Galactic centre gamma-ray excess text January 2018
Gamma-Ray And X-Ray Emission From The Galactic Centre: Hints On The Nuclear Star Cluster Formation History text January 2018
Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog collection January 2020
Gamma-Ray And X-Ray Emission From The Galactic Centre: Hints On The Nuclear Star Cluster Formation History text January 2018
Detection of a Gamma-Ray Source in the Galactic Center Consistent with Extended Emission from Dark Matter Annihilation and Concentrated Astrophysical Emission text January 2012
Stellar Encounter Rate in Galactic Globular Clusters text January 2013
Disrupted Globular Clusters Can Explain the Galactic Center Gamma Ray Excess text January 2015
Radio detection prospects for a bulge population of millisecond pulsars as suggested by Fermi LAT observations of the inner Galaxy text January 2015
Galactic Bulge Preferred Over Dark Matter for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess text January 2016
The MAVERIC Survey: Still No Evidence for Accreting Intermediate-mass Black Holes in Globular Clusters text January 2018
Population syntheses of millisecond pulsars from the Galactic Disk and Bulge text January 2018
Evidence for Cosmic-Ray Escape in the Small Magellanic Cloud using Fermi Gamma-rays text January 2018
Comment on "Understanding the $γ$-ray emission from the globular cluster 47 Tuc: evidence for dark matter?" text January 2018
Search for multiwavelength emission from the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1836-2354A in the globular cluster M22 text January 2019
Probing the pulsar population of Terzan 5 via spectral modeling text January 2019

Similar Records

Search for dark matter signals with Fermi-LAT observation of globular clusters NGC 6388 and M 15
Journal Article · Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · OSTI ID:1357510

Multi-wavelength modeling of globular clusters–the millisecond pulsar scenario
Journal Article · Fri Dec 20 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:1357510

FERMI DISCOVERY OF GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER TERZAN 5
Journal Article · Sat Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal Letters · OSTI ID:1357510