44 research outputs found
A variability analysis of low-latitude unidentified gamma-ray sources
We present a study of 40 low-latitude unidentified 3EG gamma-ray sources
which were found to be not positionally coincident with any known class of
potential gamma-ray emitters in the Galaxy (Romero, Benaglia & Torres, 1999).
We have performed a variability analysis which reveals that many of these 40
sources are variable. These sources have, in addition, a steep mean value of
the gamma-ray spectral index, , which, combined with
the high level of variability seems to rule out a pulsar origin. The positional
coincidences with uncatalogued candidates to supernova remnants were also
studied. Only 7 sources in the sample are spatially coincident with these
candidates, a result that is shown to be consistent with the expected level of
pure chance association. A complementary search for weak radio counterparts was
also conducted and the results are presented as an extensive table containing
all significant point-like radio sources within the 40 EGRET fields. We argue
that in order to produce the high variability, steep gamma-ray spectra, and
absence of strong radio counterparts observed in some of the gamma-ray sources
of our sample a new class of objects should be postulated, and we analyze a
viable candidate.Comment: Paper updated to match the accepted version to appear in Astronomy
and Astrophysics, 2001. Tables 5,6,7 and 8 are in ascii format and need to be
printed separately. they can also be obtained from
http://www.iar.unlp.edu.ar/garra Table 5 is 62 pages long. Download the
source to obtain the table
Pulsar Results with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
The launch of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has heralded a new era in
the study of gamma-ray pulsars. The population of confirmed gamma-ray pulsars
has gone from 6-7 to more than 60, and the superb sensitivity of the Large Area
Telescope (LAT) on Fermi has allowed the detailed study of their spectra and
light curves. Twenty-four of these pulsars were discovered in blind searches of
the gamma-ray data, and twenty-one of these are, at present, radio quiet,
despite deep radio follow-up observations. In addition, millisecond pulsars
have been confirmed as a class of gamma-ray emitters, both individually and
collectively in globular clusters. Recently, radio searches in the direction of
LAT sources with no likely counterparts have been highly productive, leading to
the discovery of a large number of new millisecond pulsars. Taken together,
these discoveries promise a great improvement in the understanding of the
gamma-ray emission properties and Galactic population of pulsars. We summarize
some of the results stemming from these newly-detected pulsars and their timing
and multi-wavelength follow-up observations.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, to appear in Proceedings of ICREA Workshop on
The High-Energy Emission from Pulsars and their Systems, Sant Cugat, Spain,
2010 April 12-16 (Springer
Gamma ray astrophysics: the EGRET results
Cosmic gamma rays provide insight into some of the most dynamic processes in
the Universe. At the dawn of a new generation of gamma-ray telescopes, this
review summarizes results from the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope
(EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the principal predecessor mission
studying high-energy photons in the 100 MeV energy range. EGRET viewed a
gamma-ray sky dominated by prominent emission from the Milky Way, but featuring
an array of other sources, including quasars, pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, and
many sources that remain unidentified. A central feature of the EGRET results
was the high degree of variability seen in many gamma-ray sources, indicative
of the powerful forces at work in objects visible to gamma-ray telescopes.Comment: 23 pages, 24 figure
First Search for Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars with Advanced LIGO
We present the result of searches for gravitational waves from 200 pulsars using data from the first observing run of the Advanced LIGO detectors. We find no significant evidence for a gravitational-wave signal from any of these pulsars, but we are able to set the most constraining upper limits yet on their gravitational-wave amplitudes and ellipticities. For eight of these pulsars, our upper limits give bounds that are improvements over the indirect spin-down limit values. For another 32, we are within a factor of 10 of the spin-down limit, and it is likely that some of these will be reachable in future runs of the advanced detector. Taken as a whole, these new results improve on previous limits by more than a factor of two