Search for pulsed gamma-ray emission at MeV energies from 24 radio pusars.

A search for pulsed gamma-ray emission of 24 radio pulsars at their extrapolated radio periods was performed from balloon data of the MPI balloon-borne Compton telescope, which is sensitive to gamma-rays in the energy range 1-20 MeV. No clear significant signal was obtained from any of these pulsars. For PSR 0950+8 and PSR 1929+10, which both are nearby and relatively short-period pulsars, the derived upper limits to the pulsed flux are close to the theoretically expected luminosities. In case of PSR 0950+08, there are several hints in the data indicating that pulsed gamma-rays might have been detected already. At preseent, the statistical significance of about 3 sigma is too small to rule out an accidental result. This pulsar is a very promising candidate for further studies. A confirmation of the result would show that older pulsars are more efficient gamma-ray emitters than younger ones, as predicted from theory.