Five New Millisecond Pulsars From a Radio Survey of 14 Unidentified Fermi-LAT Gamma-ray Sources

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of five new millisecond pulsars from a radio survey targeting unidentified Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sources, revealing their properties and implications for the local MSP population.

Contribution

The study introduces five newly discovered MSPs from a targeted radio survey of gamma-ray sources, demonstrating an effective method for identifying pulsars.

Findings

Three pulsars are in binary systems, two are isolated.

Detected gamma-ray pulsations from PSR J0101-6422.

The gamma-ray spectrum of PSR J0101-6422 is typical of MSPs.

Abstract

We have discovered five millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in a survey of 14 unidentified Fermi-LAT sources in the southern sky using the Parkes radio telescope. PSRs J0101-6422, J1514-4946, and J1902-5105 reside in binaries, while PSRs J1658-5324 and J1747-4036 are isolated. Using an ephemeris derived from timing observations of PSR J0101-6422 (P =2.57 ms, DM=12 pc cm-3), we have detected {\gamma}-ray pulsations and measured its proper motion. Its {\gamma}-ray spectrum (a power law of {\Gamma} = 0.9 with a cutoff at 1.6 GeV) and efficiency are typical of other MSPs, but its radio and {\gamma}-ray light curves challenge simple geometric models of emission. The high success rate of this survey-enabled by selecting {\gamma}-ray sources based on their detailed spectral characteristics-and other similarly successful searches indicate that a substantial fraction of the local population of MSPs may soon be known.