Pulsar simulations for the Fermi Large Area Telescope |
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| Authors: | M Razzano AK Harding L Baldini R Bellazzini J Bregeon T Burnett J Chiang SW Digel R Dubois MW Kuss L Latronico JE McEnery N Omodei M Pesce-Rollins C Sgr G Spandre DJ Thompson |
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| Institution: | aIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa, I-56127 Pisa, Italy;bNASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA;cKavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94309, USA;dSLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA;eDepartment of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1560, USA |
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| Abstract: | Pulsars are among the prime targets for the Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the recently launched Fermi observatory. The LAT will study the gamma-ray Universe between 20 MeV and 300 GeV with unprecedented detail. Increasing numbers of gamma-ray pulsars are being firmly identified, yet their emission mechanisms are far from being understood. To better investigate and exploit the LAT capabilities for pulsar science, a set of new detailed pulsar simulation tools have been developed within the LAT collaboration. The structure of the pulsar simulator package (PulsarSpectrum) is presented here. Starting from photon distributions in energy and phase obtained from theoretical calculations or phenomenological considerations, gamma-rays are generated and their arrival times at the spacecraft are determined by taking into account effects such as barycentric effects and timing noise. Pulsars in binary systems also can be simulated given orbital parameters. We present how simulations can be used for generating a realistic set of gamma-rays as observed by the LAT, focusing on some case studies that show the performance of the LAT for pulsar observations. |
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