# Finding (or not) New Gamma-ray Pulsars with GLAST

## TL;DR

This paper discusses the potential for detecting new gamma-ray pulsars with the GLAST telescope, emphasizing the challenges and limitations of blind searches in gamma-ray data.

## Contribution

It provides an analysis of the expected number of pulsars detectable by GLAST and reviews the methods and constraints of blind pulsar searches in gamma-ray observations.

## Key findings

- Estimated detection of a few to a few hundred pulsars by GLAST
- Blind search limitations due to observational mode and computational constraints
- Scaling of search statistics with observational parameters

## Abstract

Young energetic pulsars will likely be the largest class of Galactic sources observed by GLAST, with many hundreds detected. Many will be unknown as radio pulsars, making pulsation detection dependent on radio and/or x-ray observations or on blind periodicity searches of the gamma-rays. Estimates for the number of pulsars GLAST will detect in blind searches have ranged from tens to many hundreds. I argue that the number will be near the low end of this range, partly due to observations being made in a scanning as opposed to a pointing mode. This paper briefly reviews how blind pulsar searches will be conducted using GLAST, what limits these searches, and how the computations and statistics scale with various parameters.