Searches for Pulsar-like Candidates from Unidentified Objects in the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT (3FHL) sources with Machine Learning Techniques


Abstract in English

We report the results of searching pulsar-like candidates from the unidentified objects in the $3^{rm rd}$ Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT sources (3FHL). Using a machine-learning based classification scheme with a nominal accuracy of $sim98%$, we have selected 27 pulsar-like objects from 200 unidentified 3FHL sources for an identification campaign. Using archival data, X-ray sources are found within the $gamma-$ray error ellipses of 10 3FHL pulsar-like candidates. Within the error circles of the much better constrained X-ray positions, we have also searched for the optical/infrared counterparts and examined their spectral energy distributions. Among our short-listed candidates, the most secure identification is the association of 3FHL J1823.3-1339 and its X-ray counterpart with the globular cluster Mercer 5. The $gamma-$rays from the source can be contributed by a population of millisecond pulsars residing in the cluster. This makes Mercer 5 as one of the slowly growing hard $gamma-$ray population of globular clusters with emission $>10$ GeV. Very recently, another candidate picked by our classification scheme, 3FHL J1405.1-6118, has been identified as a new $gamma-$ray binary with an orbital period of $13.7$ days. Our X-ray analysis with a short Chandra observation has found a possible periodic signal candidate of $sim1.4$ hrs and a putative extended X-ray tail of $sim20$ arcsec long. Spectral energy distribution of its optical/infrared counterpart conforms with a blackbody of $T_{rm bb}sim40000$ K and $R_{rm bb}sim12R_{odot}$ at a distance of 7.7 kpc. This is consistent with its identification as an early O star as found by infrared spectroscopy.

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