Pulsar Timing for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
COGNARD, Ismaël
Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement [LPCE]
Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay [USN]
Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement [LPCE]
Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay [USN]
THEUREAU, G.
Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement [LPCE]
Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay [USN]
Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique, Instrumentation [GEPI]
< Réduire
Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement [LPCE]
Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay [USN]
Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique, Instrumentation [GEPI]
Langue
en
Article de revue
Ce document a été publié dans
Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A. 2008, vol. 492, n° 3, p. 923-931
EDP Sciences
Résumé en anglais
We describe a comprehensive pulsar monitoring campaign for the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the {\em Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope} (formerly GLAST). The detection and study of pulsars in gamma rays give insights into ...Lire la suite >
We describe a comprehensive pulsar monitoring campaign for the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the {\em Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope} (formerly GLAST). The detection and study of pulsars in gamma rays give insights into the populations of neutron stars and supernova rates in the Galaxy, into particle acceleration mechanisms in neutron star magnetospheres, and into the ``engines'' driving pulsar wind nebulae. LAT's unprecedented sensitivity between 20 MeV and 300 GeV together with its 2.4 sr field-of-view makes detection of many gamma-ray pulsars likely, justifying the monitoring of over two hundred pulsars with large spin-down powers. To search for gamma-ray pulsations from most of these pulsars requires a set of phase-connected timing solutions spanning a year or more to properly align the sparse photon arrival times. We describe the choice of pulsars and the instruments involved in the campaign. Attention is paid to verifications of the LAT pulsar software, using for example giant radio pulses from the Crab and from PSR B1937+21 recorded at Nançay, and using X-ray data on PSR J0218+4232 from XMM-Newton. We demonstrate accuracy of the pulsar phase calculations at the microsecond level. Data Table 1 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/ .< Réduire
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