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Astrophysics, High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, astro-ph.HE
Abstract:
We report the discovery of four gamma-ray pulsars, detected in
computing-intensive blind searches of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope
(LAT). The pulsars were found using a novel search approach, combining
volunteer distributed computing via Einstein@Home and methods originally
developed in gravitational-wave astronomy. The pulsars PSRs J0554+3107,
J1422-6138, J1522-5735, and J1932+1916 are young and energetic, with
characteristic ages between 35 and 56 kyr and spin-down powers in the range
$6\times10^{34}$ - $10^{36}$ erg s$^{-1}$. They are located in the Galactic
plane and have rotation rates of less than 10 Hz, among which the 2.1 Hz spin
frequency of PSR J0554+3107 is the slowest of any known gamma-ray pulsar. For
two of the new pulsars, we find supernova remnants coincident on the sky and
discuss the plausibility of such associations. Deep radio follow-up
observations found no pulsations, suggesting that all four pulsars are
radio-quiet as viewed from Earth. These discoveries, the first gamma-ray
pulsars found by volunteer computing, motivate continued blind pulsar searches
of the many other unidentified LAT gamma-ray sources.
