PSR J1906+0722: An Elusive Gamma-Ray Pulsar
Journal
Date Issued
2015
Author(s)
Clark, C. J.
•
Pletsch, H. J.
•
Wu, J.
•
Guillemot, L.
•
Ackermann, M.
•
Allen, B.
•
de Angelis, A.
•
Aulbert, C.
•
Baldini, L.
•
Ballet, J.
•
Barbiellini, G.
•
Saz Parkinson, P. M.
•
Schaal, M.
•
Schulz, A.
•
Sgrò, C.
•
Siskind, E. J.
•
Spada, F.
•
Spandre, G.
•
Spinelli, P.
•
Suson, D. J.
•
Takahashi, H.
•
Bastieri, D.
•
Thayer, J. B.
•
Tibaldo, L.
•
Torne, P.
•
Torres, D. F.
•
Tosti, G.
•
Troja, E.
•
Vianello, G.
•
Wood, K. S.
•
Wood, M.
•
Yassine, M.
•
Bellazzini, R.
•
Bissaldi, E.
•
Bock, O.
•
Bonino, R.
•
Bottacini, E.
•
Brandt, T. J.
•
Bregeon, J.
•
Bruel, P.
•
Buson, S.
•
Caliandro, G. A.
•
Cameron, R. A.
•
Caragiulo, M.
•
•
Cecchi, C.
•
Champion, D. J.
•
Charles, E.
•
Chekhtman, A.
•
Chiang, J.
•
Chiaro, G.
•
Ciprini, S.
•
Claus, R.
•
Cohen-Tanugi, J.
•
Cuéllar, A.
•
Cutini, S.
•
•
Desiante, R.
•
Drell, P. S.
•
Eggenstein, H. B.
•
Favuzzi, C.
•
Fehrmann, H.
•
Ferrara, E. C.
•
Focke, W. B.
•
Franckowiak, A.
•
Fusco, P.
•
Gargano, F.
•
Gasparrini, D.
•
Giglietto, N.
•
Giordano, F.
•
Glanzman, T.
•
Godfrey, G.
•
Grenier, I. A.
•
Grove, J. E.
•
Guiriec, S.
•
Harding, A. K.
•
Hays, E.
•
Hewitt, J. W.
•
Hill, A. B.
•
Horan, D.
•
Hou, X.
•
Jogler, T.
•
Johnson, A. S.
•
Jóhannesson, G.
•
Kramer, M.
•
Krauss, F.
•
Kuss, M.
•
Laffon, H.
•
Larsson, S.
•
Latronico, L.
•
Li, J.
•
Li, L.
•
Longo, F.
•
Loparco, F.
•
Lovellette, M. N.
•
Lubrano, P.
•
Machenschalk, B.
•
Manfreda, A.
•
•
Mayer, M.
•
Mazziotta, M. N.
•
Michelson, P. F.
•
Mizuno, T.
•
Monzani, M. E.
•
Morselli, A.
•
Moskalenko, I. V.
•
Murgia, S.
•
Nuss, E.
•
Ohsugi, T.
•
•
Orlando, E.
•
de Palma, F.
•
Paneque, D.
•
Pesce-Rollins, M.
•
Piron, F.
•
Pivato, G.
•
Rainò, S.
•
Rando, R.
•
Razzano, M.
•
Reimer, A.
Description
This work was supported by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), as well as by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through an Emmy Noether research grant PL 710/1-1 (PI: Holger J. Pletsch). We are very grateful to all Einstein@Home volunteers who have donated their spare computing time, especially Connor Barry of Lafayette, CO, USA and Rich Johnson of Hayward, CA, USA on whose computers PSR J1906+0722 was first detected. The Fermi -LAT Collaboration acknowledges support for LAT development, operation, and data analysis from NASA and DOE (United States); CEA/Irfu and IN2P3/CNRS (France); ASI and INFN (Italy); MEXT, KEK, and JAXA (Japan); and the K.A. Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, and the National Space Board (Sweden). Science analysis support in the operations phase from INAF (Italy) and CNES (France) is also gratefully acknowledged.
Abstract
We report the discovery of PSR J1906+0722, a gamma-ray pulsar detected as part of a blind survey of unidentified Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) sources being carried out on the volunteer distributed computing system, Einstein@Home. This newly discovered pulsar previously appeared as the most significant remaining unidentified gamma-ray source without a known association in the second Fermi-LAT source catalog (2FGL) and was among the top 10 most significant unassociated sources in the recent third catalog (3FGL). PSR J1906+0722 is a young, energetic, isolated pulsar, with a spin frequency of 8.9 Hz, a characteristic age of 49 kyr, and spin-down power 1.0× {10}36 erg s-1. In 2009 August it suffered one of the largest glitches detected from a gamma-ray pulsar ({{∆ }}f/f≈ 4.5× {10}-6). Remaining undetected in dedicated radio follow-up observations, the pulsar is likely radio-quiet. An off-pulse analysis of the gamma-ray flux from the location of PSR J1906+0722 revealed the presence of an additional nearby source, which may be emission from the interaction between a neighboring supernova remnant and a molecular cloud. We discuss possible effects which may have hindered the detection of PSR J1906+0722 in previous searches and describe the methods by which these effects were mitigated in this survey. We also demonstrate the use of advanced timing methods for estimating the positional, spin and glitch parameters of difficult-to-time pulsars such as this.
Volume
809
Issue
1
Start page
L2
Issn Identifier
0004-637X
Ads BibCode
2015ApJ...809L...2C
Rights
open.access
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
Clark_2015_ApJL_809_L2.pdf
Description
PDF editoriale
Size
1.09 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
3816ae18d0ed0c62a8432c34eee425cd