COBIPLANE: A Systematic Search for Compact Binary Millisecond Pulsars at Low Galactic Latitudes

TL;DR

This paper reports a systematic optical survey targeting gamma-ray sources to discover new binary millisecond pulsars, successfully identifying five candidate systems with properties consistent with 'redback' spider pulsars, extending searches closer to the Galactic plane.

Contribution

It introduces COBIPLANE, a novel survey extending previous searches to lower Galactic latitudes, and reports the discovery of five new candidate spider pulsar systems based on optical and X-ray observations.

Findings

Discovered five optical variables coincident with gamma-ray sources.

Identified systems with orbital periods and temperatures consistent with redback pulsars.

Classified these systems as new spider candidate pulsars based on multi-wavelength properties.

Abstract

We present the main results obtained from the COmpact BInary Pulsar search in the low-LAtitude NEighborhood (COBIPLANE), an optical photometric survey designed to find new `spider' binary millisecond pulsars. We conducted observations targeting 30 unidentified sources from the 4FGL-DR3 Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) catalog, selected for their pulsar-like $\gamma$-ray properties. Extending to Galactic latitudes as low as $\pm3^{\circ}$, this survey reaches closer to the Galactic plane than its predecessor survey, the COmpact BInary PULsar SEarch (COBIPULSE). We report the discovery of five optical variables coincident with the localizations of 4FGL J0821.5-1436, 4FGL J1517.9-5233, 4FGL J1639.3-5146, 4FGL J1748.8-3915, and 4FGL J2056.4+3142. These systems show optical flux modulation at the presumed orbital periods of $0.41576(6) \ \mathrm{d}$, $0.305(2) \ \mathrm{d}$, $0.204(7) \ \mathrm{d}$, $0.3(2) \ \mathrm{d}$, and $0.4395(1) \ \mathrm{d}$, respectively, and photometric temperatures of $4000$--$6000 \ \mathrm{K}$, consistent with the companion stars of `redback' subtype of spider pulsar binaries. Based on their optical light curve shapes and X-ray properties characteristic for spider systems -- namely, a luminosity of $1.5 \times 10^{32} \ (D / 3.9 \ \mathrm{kpc})^2 \ \mathrm{erg} \ \mathrm{s}^{-1}$ ($0.3$--$10 \ \mathrm{keV}$) for 4FGL J1748.8-3915, and upper limits of $\sim10^{31}$--$10^{33} \ \mathrm{erg} \ \mathrm{s}^{-1}$ ($0.2$--$12 \ \mathrm{keV}$) for the others -- we classify these sources as new spider candidate systems.