Precise Pulsar Timing Using Fermi LAT Data
Abstract
Blind periodicity searches with the Fermi LAT have been highly successful at discovering new gamma-ray pulsars, with at least 24 discoveries having been reported so far. These gamma-ray selected pulsars are a very important subset of the gamma-ray pulsars detected by the LAT, since they are potentially radio-quiet pulsars like Geminga and are subject to very different selection effects than the known population of radio pulsars. We describe the gamma-ray pulse timing measurements of these pulsars using a new unbinned likelihood method for TOA determination optimized for the small number of photons detected from these sources. The model fits yield positions measured at the few arcsecond level. These positions, far more precise than positions derived from LAT photon direction measurements, are critical for multi-wavelength follow up and we highlight some of the recent radio and X-ray results on these sources.
- Publication:
-
AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #11
- Pub Date:
- March 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010HEAD...11.1608R