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Blind Search Methods for Binary Gamma-ray Pulsars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2018

Lars Nieder
Affiliation:
Albert-Einstein-Institut, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik, D-30167 Hannover, Germany, email: lars.nieder@aei.mpg.de Leibniz Universität Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany
Colin J. Clark
Affiliation:
Albert-Einstein-Institut, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik, D-30167 Hannover, Germany, email: lars.nieder@aei.mpg.de Leibniz Universität Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Holger J. Pletsch
Affiliation:
Albert-Einstein-Institut, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik, D-30167 Hannover, Germany, email: lars.nieder@aei.mpg.de Leibniz Universität Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany
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Abstract

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Gamma-ray observations by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) have been used very successfully in the last 9 years to detect more than 200 gamma-ray pulsars. Sixty of these have been found by directly searching for pulsations in the gamma-ray data, but only one binary MSP has been found this way. Pulsars in binaries are often difficult to detect in radio data because of large eclipses, and some binary MSPs may even be radio quiet. For those, a gamma-ray blind search might be the only possibility for detection. While searches for isolated pulsars up to kilohertz frequencies are already computationally very challenging, blind searches for binary gamma-ray pulsars are simply infeasible without further knowledge of their orbital parameters. Here we present methods with which we can conduct searches for candidate binary gamma-ray pulsars for which orbital constraints are known from optical observations of a likely companion star. We also highlight some example sources where these methods have been used.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2018 

References

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