On the highest energy emission from millisecond pulsars

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gamma-ray data from Fermi-LAT to identify the highest energy pulsed emissions from millisecond pulsars, aiming to find prime candidates for ground-based TeV observations.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of MSPs using three times more data, identifying the highest energy emissions and potential targets for TeV telescopes.

Findings

28 pulsars emit above 10 GeV in previous data

17 MSPs are associated with sources above 10 GeV in 3FHL

Identification of promising MSP candidates for TeV follow-up

Abstract

Fermi has detected over 200 pulsars above 100 MeV. In a previous work, using 3 years of LAT data (1FHL catalog) we reported that 28 of these pulsars show emission above 10 GeV; only three of these, however, were millisecond pulsars (MSPs). The recently-released Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources (3FHL) contains over 1500 sources showing emission above 10 GeV, 17 of which are associated with gamma-ray MSPs. Using three times as much data as in our previous study (1FHL), we report on a systematic analysis of these pulsars to determine the highest energy (pulsed) emission fromMSPs and discuss the best possible candidates for follow-up observations with ground-based TeV instruments (H.E.S.S., MAGIC, VERITAS, and the upcoming CTA).