Issue |
A&A
Volume 570, October 2014
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A44 | |
Number of page(s) | 11 | |
Section | Galactic structure, stellar clusters and populations | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201424294 | |
Published online | 14 October 2014 |
Six faint gamma-ray pulsars seen with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
Towards a sample blending into the background
1 Centre d’Études Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan, IN2P3/CNRS, Université Bordeaux 1, BP120, 33175 Gradignan Cedex, France
e-mail: smith@cenbg.in2p3.fr, xianhou.astro@gmail.com
2 Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement et de l’Espace – Université d’Orléans/CNRS, 45071 Orléans Cedex 02, France
e-mail: lucas.guillemot@cnrs-orleans.fr
3 Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375-5352, USA
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, USA
5 Instituto de Astrofísica, Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile
6 CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Australia Telescope National Facility, Epping NSW 1710, Australia
7 Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
8 Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
9 Institut für Astro- und Teilchenphysik and Institut für Theoretische Physik, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
10 Station de radioastronomie de Nançay, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS/INSU, 18330 Nançay, France
Received: 28 May 2014
Accepted: 21 July 2014
Context. GeV gamma-ray pulsations from over 140 pulsars have been characterized using the Fermi Large Area Telescope, enabling improved understanding of the emission regions within the neutron star magnetospheres, and the contributions of pulsars to high energy electrons and diffuse gamma rays in the Milky Way. The first gamma-ray pulsars to be detected were the most intense and/or those with narrow pulses.
Aims. As the Fermi mission progresses, progressively fainter objects can be studied. In addition to more distant pulsars (thus probing a larger volume of the Galaxy), or ones in high background regions (thus improving the sampling uniformity across the Galactic plane), we detect pulsars with broader pulses or lower luminosity. Adding pulsars to our catalog with inclination angles that are rare in the observed sample, and/or with lower spindown power, will reduce the bias in the currently known gamma-ray pulsar population.
Methods. We use rotation ephemerides derived from radio observations to phase-fold gamma rays recorded by the Fermi Large Area Telescope, to then determine the pulse profile properties. Spectral analysis provides the luminosities and, when the signal-to-noise ratio allows, the cutoff energies. We constrain the pulsar distances by different means in order to minimize the luminosity uncertainties.
Results. We present six new gamma-ray pulsars with an eclectic mix of properties. Three are young, and three are recycled. They include the farthest, the lowest power, two of the highest duty-cycle pulsars seen, and only the fourth young gamma-ray pulsar with a radio interpulse. We discuss the biases existing in the current gamma-ray pulsar catalog, and steps to be taken to mitigate the bias.
Key words: parallaxes / gamma rays: stars / pulsars: general
© ESO, 2014
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