New Neighbours: Modelling the Growing Population of Gamma-ray Millisecond Pulsars

TL;DR

This paper models and classifies gamma-ray millisecond pulsar light curves, highlighting the diversity in pulse profiles and the importance of relativistic effects due to their rapid spins.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to modeling MSP light curves using standard geometries, accounting for relativistic effects and classifying their diverse profiles.

Findings

MSPs exhibit diverse pulse profile shapes and phase lags.

Relativistic effects are crucial for accurate light curve modeling.

Some MSPs show nearly phase-aligned radio and gamma-ray emissions.

Abstract

The Fermi Large Area Telescope, in collaboration with several groups from the radio community, have had marvellous success at uncovering new gamma-ray millisecond pulsars (MSPs). In fact, MSPs now make up a sizable fraction of the total number of known gamma-ray pulsars. The MSP population is characterized by a variety of pulse profile shapes, peak separations, and radio-to-gamma phase lags, with some members exhibiting nearly phase-aligned radio and gamma-ray light curves (LCs). The MSPs' short spin periods underline the importance of including special relativistic effects in LC calculations, even for emission originating from near the stellar surface. We present results on modelling and classification of MSP LCs using standard pulsar model geometries.