No Arabic abstract
Determining radiation location observationally plays a very important role in testing the pulsar radiation models. One-photon pair production in the strong magnetic field, $gamma-e^{+}e^{1}$, is one of the important physical processes in pulsar radiation mechanisms. Photons near pulsar surface with sufficient energy will be absorbed in the magnetosphere and the absorption optical depth for these GeV $gamma$-ray photons is usually large. In this paper, we include the aberrational, rotational and general relativistic effects and calculate the $gamma$-B optical depth for $gamma$-ray photons. Then we use the derived optical depth to determine the radiation altitude lower bounds for photons with given energies. As a case study, we calculate the lower bounds of radiation altitudes of Crab pulsar for photons with energy from 5 GeV to 1 TeV.
In a search with the Parkes radio telescope of 56 unidentified Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sources, we have detected 11 millisecond pulsars (MSPs), 10 of them discoveries, of which five were reported in Kerr et al. (2012). We did not detect radio pulsations from another six pulsars now known in these sources. We describe the completed survey, which included multiple observations of many targets done to minimize the impact of interstellar scintillation, acceleration effects in binary systems, and eclipses. We consider that 23 of the 39 remaining sources may still be viable pulsar candidates. We present timing solutions and polarimetry for five of the MSPs, and gamma-ray pulsations for PSR J1903-7051 (pulsations for five others were reported in the second Fermi-LAT catalog of gamma-ray pulsars). Two of the new MSPs are isolated and five are in >1 d circular orbits with 0.2-0.3 Msun presumed white dwarf companions. PSR J0955-6150, in a 24 d orbit with a ~0.25 Msun companion but eccentricity of 0.11, belongs to a recently identified class of eccentric MSPs. PSR J1036-8317 is in an 8 hr binary with a >0.14 Msun companion that is probably a white dwarf. PSR J1946-5403 is in a 3 hr orbit with a >0.02 Msun companion with no evidence of radio eclipses.
The predicted nature of the candidate redback pulsar 3FGL,J2039.6$-$5618 was recently confirmed by the discovery of $gamma$-ray millisecond pulsations (Clark et al. 2020, hereafter Paper,I), which identify this $gamma$-ray source as msp. We observed this object with the Parkes radio telescope in 2016 and 2019. We detect radio pulsations at 1.4,GHz and 3.1,GHz, at the 2.6ms period discovered in $gamma$-rays, and also at 0.7,GHz in one 2015 archival observation. In all bands, the radio pulse profile is characterised by a single relatively broad peak which leads the main $gamma$-ray peak. At 1.4,GHz we found clear evidence of eclipses of the radio signal for about half of the orbit, a characteristic phenomenon in redback systems, which we associate with the presence of intra-binary gas. From the dispersion measure of $24.57pm0.03$,pc,cm$^{-3}$ we derive a pulsar distance of $0.9pm 0.2$,kpc or $1.7pm0.7$,kpc, depending on the assumed Galactic electron density model. The modelling of the radio and $gamma$-ray light curves leads to an independent determination of the orbital inclination, and to a determination of the pulsar mass, qualitatively consistent to the results in Paper,I.
Although originally discovered as a radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsar, J1732-3131 has exhibited intriguing detections at decameter wavelengths. We report an extensive follow-up of the pulsar at 327 MHz with the Ooty radio telescope. Using the previously observed radio characteristics, and with an effective integration time of 60 hrs, we present a detection of the pulsar at a confidence level of 99.82%. The 327 MHz mean flux density is estimated to be 0.5-0.8 mJy, which establishes the pulsar to be a steep spectrum source and one of the least-luminous pulsars known to date. We also phase-aligned the radio and gamma-ray profiles of the pulsar, and measured the phase-offset between the main peaks in the two profiles to be 0.24$pm$0.06. We discuss the observed phase-offset in the context of various trends exhibited by the radio-loud gamma-ray pulsar population, and suggest that the gamma-ray emission from J1732-3131 is best explained by outer magnetosphere models. Details of our analysis leading to the pulsar detection, and measurements of various parameters and their implications relevant to the pulsars emission mechanism are presented.
LS I +61 303 and LS 5039 are exceptionally rare examples of HMXBs with MeV-TeV emission, making them two of only five known or proposed gamma-ray binaries. There has been disagreement within the literature over whether these systems are microquasars, with stellar winds accreting onto a compact object to produce high energy emission and relativistic jets, or whether their emission properties might be better explained by a relativistic pulsar wind colliding with the stellar wind. Here we present an attempt to detect radio pulsars in both systems with the Green Bank Telescope. The upper limits of flux density are between 4.1-14.5 uJy, and we discuss the null results of the search. Our spherically symmetric model of the wind of LS 5039 demonstrates that any pulsar emission will be strongly absorbed by the dense wind unless there is an evacuated region formed by a relativistic colliding wind shock. LS I +61 303 contains a rapidly rotating Be star whose wind is concentrated near the stellar equator. As long as the pulsar is not eclipsed by the circumstellar disk or viewed through the densest wind regions, detecting pulsed emission may be possible during part of the orbit.
Millisecond pulsars, old neutron stars spun-up by accreting matter from a companion star, can reach high rotation rates of hundreds of revolutions per second. Until now, all such recycled rotation-powered pulsars have been detected by their spin-modulated radio emission. In a computing-intensive blind search of gamma-ray data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (with partial constraints from optical data), we detected a 2.5-millisecond pulsar, PSR J1311-3430. This unambiguously explains a formerly unidentified gamma-ray source that had been a decade-long enigma, confirming previous conjectures. The pulsar is in a circular orbit with an orbital period of only 93 minutes, the shortest of any spin-powered pulsar binary ever found.