Publication of The Einstein@Home Gamma-ray Pulsar Survey - 13 New GR Pulsars

AgentB
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Topic 202916

 (Submitted on 3 Nov 2016) here

We report on the results of a recent blind search survey for gamma-ray pulsars in Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data being carried out on the distributed volunteer computing system, Einstein@Home. The survey has searched for pulsations in 118 unidentified pulsar-like sources, requiring about 10,000 years of CPU core time. In total, this survey has resulted in the discovery of 17 new gamma-ray pulsars, of which 13 are newly reported in this work, and an accompanying paper.

Edit: I think these have been announced before (?) - but this is a still a Wow! paper.

Edit+: FGRP1 discoveries has been updated Colin J. Clark (Last Update: Nov 17, 2016)

Mike Hewson
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Indeedy do ! E@H is just

Indeedy do ! E@H is just banging out results in pulsar research. Very often you see something like this in the papers :

"Two of these are the slowest spinning gamma-ray pulsars yet known."

ie. we are continually finding such ( typically non-obvious ) cases which theorists can to use to refine and bound their models. This is serious actual astronomy. 

"We are extremely grateful to all volunteers who have donated their CPU time to the Einstein@Home project, without whom this survey could not have been performed."

This is not merely casual politeness, like some TV award acceptance speech, it is simple truth. We have all taken part in this, not just those specifically mentioned contributors. Remember : the background creates the contrast for the foreground ! :-))))

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

AgentB
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Mike Hewson wrote: This is

Mike Hewson wrote:
This is serious actual astronomy.

I still find it amazing that 10 photons per day is enough to detect these things and measure a pulse.  The searches must have to adjust for the Fermi satellite orbiting the earth, and the earth orbiting the sun - and if it's a binary...

I look at the pulse phase diagrams, and each seems to have a unique signature shape, i often wonder why the variation. 

Quote:
Remember : the background creates the contrast for the foreground ! :-))))

I like to think i'm real estate mapping the nearby Milky Way pulsar free zones, property values near pulsars are likely to be low, despite an abundance of supernovae remnants. 

 

 

Mike Hewson
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AgentB wrote:I still find it

AgentB wrote:
I still find it amazing that 10 photons per day is enough to detect these things and measure a pulse.  The searches must have to adjust for the Fermi satellite orbiting the earth, and the earth orbiting the sun - and if it's a binary...

It's top work for sure. If you can Fourier transform and work through the frequency scale ( ie. folding, plus derivatives and sensible modelling ) then provided the backgrounds are low for said choices a detection may be found. Basically E@H throws very many darts at a board with very many little squares on it.

Quote:
I look at the pulse phase diagrams, and each seems to have a unique signature shape, i often wonder why the variation.

You're not alone there. Many theorists do also. But remember the signature is an accumulated average per instance and there is still pulse to pulse variation to explain. However like any research, the more you look the more you see.

Quote:
I like to think i'm real estate mapping the nearby Milky Way pulsar free zones, property values near pulsars are likely to be low, despite an abundance of supernovae remnants.

AGENT B COSMIC REALTY

Pick of The Week : Nice locations next to stunning views of star death fields. Good chance of sudden changes. Suits all most enough species. Must like heavy metal. Radiation resistance a bonus. Bargain basement offers accepted. Act now to get in first on new allotments and best choice of redshift. Remember : the Universe can't expand forever ! Or will it ? No guarantee of occupancy by the time you get there. Standard black hole insurance included. Long term finance avaliable. Neutrino currencies accepted. Amex carries 700% surcharge. Bonus 30% rebate if you find Jimmy Hoffa.

Cheers, Mike

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

AgentB
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Mike Hewson wrote:AGENT B

Mike Hewson wrote:

AGENT B COSMIC REALTY

Pick of The Week : Nice locations next to stunning views of star death fields. Good chance of sudden changes. Suits all most enough species. Must like heavy metal. Radiation resistance a bonus. Bargain basement offers accepted. Act now to get in first on new allotments and best choice of redshift. Remember : the Universe can't expand forever ! Or will it ? No guarantee of occupancy by the time you get there. Standard black hole insurance included. Long term finance avaliable. Neutrino currencies accepted. Amex carries 700% surcharge. Bonus 30% rebate if you find Jimmy Hoffa.

Lol.  Low inflation.  Gravity wave tourist opportunities, with sunset gamma ray BBQs.  Factor 5x106 sunscreen recommended for day trippers.  

AgentB
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An update (v2 paper released

An update (v2 paper released and press releases) in the news.

Mike Hewson wrote:
AgentB wrote:
I look at the pulse phase diagrams, and each seems to have a unique signature shape, i often wonder why the variation.

You're not alone there. Many theorists do also. But remember the signature is an accumulated average per instance and there is still pulse to pulse variation to explain. However like any research, the more you look the more you see.

I guess the variations over time may have their own patterns too, for example most of the profiles show double peaks.   Does that mean you get two photons per cycle (assuming closer so to get more photons) ?

 

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