Pulsar searches in nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxies

We have been undertaking a comprehensive survey for pulsars and fast radio transients in the dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies of the Milky Way using the Green Bank Radio Telescope operating at a central frequency of 350 MHz. Our search pipeline allows the detection of periodical signals and single dispersed pulses and it is optimized to search for millisecond radio pulsars. Here we present preliminary results of the searches we have conducted in the Ursa Minoris, Draco and Leo I dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies. Our searches have revealed no periodic signals but a few unconfirmed millisecond single pulses at various dispersion measures, possibly related to neutron stars. Detecting neutron stars in these systems can potentially help to test the existence of haloes of dark matter surrounding these systems as predicted by Dehnen & King (2006).