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.

Binary Millisecond Pulsar Discovery via Gamma-Ray Pulsations / Pletsch, H.J., Guillemot, L., Fehrmann, H., Allen, B., Kramer, M., Aulbert, C., Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., de Angelis, A., Atwood, W.B., Baldini, L., Ballet, J., Barbiellini, G., Bastieri, D., Bechtol, K., Bellazzini, R., Borgland, A.W., Bottacini, E., Brandt, T.J., Bregeon, J., et al.. - In: SCIENCE. - ISSN 0036-8075. - 338:6112(2012), pp. 1314-1317. [10.1126/science.1229054]

Binary Millisecond Pulsar Discovery via Gamma-Ray Pulsations

FAVUZZI, Cecilia;GIGLIETTO, Nicola;
2012

Abstract

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.
2012
Binary Millisecond Pulsar Discovery via Gamma-Ray Pulsations / Pletsch, H.J., Guillemot, L., Fehrmann, H., Allen, B., Kramer, M., Aulbert, C., Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., de Angelis, A., Atwood, W.B., Baldini, L., Ballet, J., Barbiellini, G., Bastieri, D., Bechtol, K., Bellazzini, R., Borgland, A.W., Bottacini, E., Brandt, T.J., Bregeon, J., et al.. - In: SCIENCE. - ISSN 0036-8075. - 338:6112(2012), pp. 1314-1317. [10.1126/science.1229054]
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11589/52014
Citazioni
  • Scopus 113
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 93
social impact