Searching for γ-ray counterparts to very faint X-ray transient neutron star binaries

Very faint X-ray transients(VFXTs) are a group of X-ray binaries with low luminosities,displaying peak X-ray luminosities during their outbursts of only 10~(34)–10~(36) erg s~(-1). Using γ-ray data obtained with the Large Area Telescope(LAT) onboard the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope(Fermi),we investigate their possible nature of containing rotation-powered pulsars, or more specifically being transitional millisecond pulsars(MSPs). Among more than 40 known VFXTs, we select 12 neutron star systems. We analyze the LAT data for the fields of 12 VFXTs in the energy range 0.2–300 Ge V,but do not find any counterparts likely detected by Fermi. We obtain luminosity upper limits for the 12 sources. While the distances to the sources are largely uncertain, the upper limits are comparable to the luminosities of two transitional systems, PSR J1023-0038 and XSS J12270-4859. From our study,we conclude that no evidence is found at γ-rays for the suggestion that some VFXTs could contain rotation-powered MSPs(or be transitional MSP systems).     

Possible distance indicators in gamma-ray pulsars

Distance measurement of gamma-ray pulsars is a current challenge in pulsar studies.The Large Area Telescope(LAT) aboard the Fermi gamma-ray observatory discovered more than 70 gamma-ray pulsars including 24 new gamma-selected pulsars with almost no distance information.We study the relation between gammaray emission efficiency(η=Lγ/E˙) and pulsar parameters for young radio-selected gamma-ray pulsars with known distance information in the first gamma-ray pulsar catalog reported by Fermi/LAT.We have introduce...     

Pulsed γ-ray properties of Crab pulsar in a retarded dipole with a current-induced magnetic field

Motivated by the Fermi observations of someγ-ray pulsars in which the phases of radio andγ-ray peaks are almost the same,we investigate the outer gap model in a retarded dipole with a current-induced magnetic field and apply it to explain pulsedγ-ray properties of the Crab pulsar.Our results show that the observedγ-ray energy-dependent light curves,which almost align with the radio light curve and phase averaged spectrum for the Crab pulsar,are reproduced well.     

Searching for AGN and pulsar candidates in 4FGL unassociated sources using machine learning

In the fourth Fermi Large Area Telescope source catalog(4 FGL),5064γ-ray sources are reported,including 3207 active galactic nuclei(AGNs),239 pulsars,1336 unassociated sources,92 sources with weak association with blazars at low Galactic latitudes and 190 other sources.We employ two different supervised machine learning classifiers,combined with the direct observation parameters given by the 4 FGL fits table,to search for sources potentially classified as AGNs and pulsars in the 1336 unassociated sources.In order to reduce the error caused by the large difference in the sizes of samples,we divide the classification process into two separate steps in order to identify the AGNs and the pulsars.First,we select the identified AGNs from all of the samples,and then select the identified pulsars from the remaining cases.Using the 4 FGL sources associated or identified as AGNs,pulsars and other sources with the features selected through the K-S test and the random forest(RF)feature importance measurement,we trained,optimized and tested our classifier models.Then,the models are applied to classify the 1336 unassociated sources.According to the calculation results of the two classifiers,we report the sensitivity,specificity,accuracy in each step and the class of unassociated sources given by each classifier.The accuracy obtained in the first step is approximately 9595%;in the second step,the obtained overall accuracy is approximately 80%.Combining the results of the two classifiers,we predict that there are 583 AGN-type candidates,115 pulsar-type candidates,154 other types ofγ-ray candidates and 484 of uncertain types.     

Identification of candidate millisecond pulsars from Fermi LAT observations

We report our detailed data analysis of 39 γ-ray sources selected from the 992 unassociated sources in the third Fermi Large Area Telescope Third Source Catalog.The selection criteria,which were set for finding candidate millisecond pulsars(MSPs),are non-variables with curved spectra and 5?Galactic latitudes.From our analysis,24 sources were found to be point-like sources not contaminated by background or nearby unknown sources.Three of them,J1544.6-1125,J1625.1-0021 and J1653.6-0158,have been previously studied,indicating that they are likely MSPs.The spectra of J0318.1+0252 and J2053.9+2922 do not have properties similar to known γ-ray MSPs,and we thus suggest that they are not MSPs.Analysis of archival X-ray data for most of the 24 sources was also conducted.Four sources were found with X-ray objects in their error circles,and 16 with no detection.The ratios between the γ-ray fluxes and X-ray fluxes or flux upper limits are generally lower than those of known γ-ray MSPs,suggesting that if the γ-ray sources are MSPs,none of the X-ray objects are their counterparts.Deep X-ray or radio observations of these sources are needed in order to identify their MSP nature.     

Identification of candidate millisecond pulsars from Fermi LAT observations Ⅱ

On the basis of the properties of known γ-ray millisecond pulsars(MSPs), we have selected 77un-associated sources from the Fermi Large Area Telescope(LAT) third source catalog for the purpose of finding likely candidate MSPs. Previously, detailed LAT data analysis for 39 of them was reported,and here we report the analysis for the remaining 38 sources. We identify that among the 38 sources, 28 of them are single point-like sources with clean background and their spectra show significant curvature.We also conduct an analysis of archival X-ray data available for 24 of the 28 sources. In the fields of10 sources, there is at least one X-ray object, and in those of the other 14 sources, no X-ray object is detected but this is probably due to the X-ray observations being short. We discuss the possible MSP nature for these sources. Six of them(J0514.6-4406, J1035.7-6720, J1624.2-4041, J1744.1-7619,J1946.4-5403 and J2039.6-5618) are most likely associated with pulsars because of multi-wavelength identifications including direct radio or γ-ray detection of pulsations. To firmly establish the associations or verify the MSP nature for other sources, deep X-ray and/or optical observations are needed.     

A WISE view of IRAS debris disks: revising the dust properties

Debris disks around stars are considered as components of planetary systems.Constraining the dust properties of these disks can give crucial information to formation and evolution of planetary systems.As an all-sky survey,InfRared Astronomical Satellite(IRAS)gave great contribution to the debris disk searching which discovered the first debris disk host star(Vega).The IRAS-detected debris disk sample published by Rhee(Rhee et al.2007)contains 146 stars with detailed information of dust properties.While the dust properties of 45 of them still cannot be determined due to the limitations with the IRAS database(have IRAS detection at 60μm only).Therefore,using more sensitivity data of Wide-.field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE),we can better characterize the sample stars:for the stars with IRAS detection at 60μm only,we refit the excessive flux densities and obtain the dust temperatures and fractional luminosities;while for the remaining stars with multi-bands IRAS detections,the dust properties are revised which show that the dust temperatures were overestimated in the high temperature band before.Moreover,we identify 17 stars with excesses at the WISE 22μm which have smaller distribution of distance from Earth and higher fractional luminosities than the other stars without mid-infrared excess emission.Among them,15 stars can be found in previous works.     

Similarity of jet radiation between flat spectrum radio quasars and GeV narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies: a universal δ-L_c correlation

By modeling the broadband spectral energy distributions(SEDs) of a typical flat spectrum radio quasar(FSRQ, 3C 279) and two GeV narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies(NLS1s, PMN J0948+0022 and 1H0323+342) in different flux stages with one-zone leptonic models, we find a universal correlation between their Doppler factors(δ) and peak luminosities(L_c) of external Compton scattering bumps. Compiling a combined sample of FSRQs and GeV NLS1s, it is found that both FSRQs and GeV NLS1s in different stages and in different sources follow the same δ-L_c correlation well. This indicates that the variations of observed luminosities may be essentially due to the Doppler boosting effect. The universal δ-L_c relation between FSRQs and GeV NLS1s in different stages may be further evidence that the particle acceleration and radiation mechanisms for the two kinds of sources are similar. In addition, by replacing L_c with the observed luminosity in the Fermi/LAT band(L_(LAT)), this correlation holds and it may serve as an empirical indicator of δ. We estimate the δ values with L_(LAT) for 484 FSRQs in the Fermi/LAT Catalog and they range from 3 to 41, with a median of 16, which are statistically consistent with the values derived by other methods.     

Does black hole spin play a key role in the FSRQ/BL Lac dichotomy?

Blazars are characterized by large intensity and spectral variations across the electromagnetic spectrum It is believed that jets emerging from them are almost aligned with the line-of-sight. The majority of identified extragalactic sources in γ-ray catalogs of EGRET and Fermi are blazars. Observationally,blazars can be divided into two classes: flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs) and BL Lacs. BL Lacs usually exhibit lower γ-ray luminosity and harder power law spectra at γ-ray energies than FSRQs. We attempt to explain the high energy properties of FSRQs and BL Lacs from Fermi γ-ray space telescope observations. It was argued previously that the difference in accretion rates is mainly responsible for the large mismatch in observed luminosity in γ-ray. However, when intrinsic luminosities are derived by correcting for beaming effects, this difference in γ-ray luminosity between the two classes is significantly reduced. In order to explain this difference in intrinsic luminosities, we propose that spin plays an important role in the luminosity distribution dichotomy of BL Lacs and FSRQs. As the outflow power of a blazar increases with increasing spin of a central black hole, we suggest that the spin plays a crucial role in making BL Lac sources low luminous and slow rotators compared to FSRQ sources.     

Non-thermal emissions from accreting X-ray binary pulsars

We study non-thermal emissions from cascade processes in accreting X-ray binary pulsars.In the framework of the magnetospheric gap model,we consider three photon fields,which are respectively from the polar cap of a pulsar,its surrounding accretion disk and a massive companion star with a circumstellar disk,to shield the gap.The gap-accelerated ultra-relativistic electrons emit high-energy photons via curvature radiation and an inverse Compton scattering process,in which part of these high-energy photons absorbed by interactions with the surrounding photon fields can facilitate the following electromagnetic cascades.We first carry out numerical calculations of the cascade processes in order to obtain the predicted emission spectra.As an example,we subsequently apply this model to reproduce observations of LS I +61?303.We find that the results can fit observations ranging from hard X-ray to γ-ray bands.In particular,they can explain the spectral cutoff feature at a few GeV.Finally,we suggest that the emissions detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope from X-ray binary pulsars originate in the magnetosphere region of the pulsar.     

An Estimation of the Initial Period of Pulsars

The initial period of a pulsar is an important factor in our understanding of the formation of neutron stars and of the nature of the equation of state of neutron star matter.Up to now this quantity can only be obtained for a few pulsars for which accurate age and braking index are known.Based on the theory of the offcenter dipole emission,in which pulsars obtain theiry high velocities depending on the initial periods,we calculate the initial period using the proper motion data,Because the orbital velocity of the progenitor and asymmetric kick in the supernova explosion may also contribute to the observed velocity of the pusar,the derived values of initial periods are lower limits.For normal pulsars,the initial periods are in the range of 0.6～2.6ms.For the millisecond pulsars,the initial periods are comparable to their current periods,and the ratio between the initial period and the current period increases with the decrease of the current period.For PSR B1937 21 with the shortest period of 1.56ms,the ratio is 0.77.     

The FAST Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot survey:Ⅰ. Project design and pulsar discoveries

Discovery of pulsars is one of the main goals for large radio telescopes.The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST),that incorporates an L-band 19-beam receiver with a system temperature of about 20 K,is the most sensitive radio telescope utilized for discovering pulsars.We designed the snapshot observation mode for a FAST key science project,the Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot (GPPS) survey,in which every four nearby pointings can observe a cover of a sky patch of 0.1575square degrees through beam-switching of the L-band 19-beam receiver.The integration time for each pointing is 300 seconds so that the GPPS observations for a cover can be made in 21 minutes.The goal of the GPPS survey is to discover pulsars within the Galactic latitude of ±10° from the Galactic plane,and the highest priority is given to the inner Galaxy within ±5°.Up to now,the GPPS survey has discovered 201 pulsars,including currently the faintest pulsars which cannot be detected by other telescopes,pulsars with extremely high dispersion measures (DMs) which challenge the currently widely used models for the Galactic electron density distribution,pulsars coincident with supernova remnants,40 millisecond pulsars,16 binary pulsars,some nulling and mode-changing pulsars and rotating radio transients (RRATs).The follow-up observations for confirmation of new pulsars have polarization-signals recorded for polarization profiles of the pulsars.Re-detection of previously known pulsars in the survey data also leads to significant improvements in parameters for 64 pulsars.The GPPS survey discoveries are published and will be updated at http://zmtt.bao.ac.cn/GPPS/.     

BL Lacertae objects and the extragalactic γ-ray background

A tight correlation between γ-ray and radio emission is found for a sample of BL Lacertae(BL Lac) objects detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope(Fermi) and the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope(EGRET) . The γ-ray emission of BL Lac objects exhibits strong variability,and the detection rate of γ-ray BL Lac objects is low,which may be related to the γ-ray duty cycle of BL Lac objects. We estimate the γ-ray duty cycle,δγ 0.11,for BL Lac objects detected by EGRET and Fermi. Using the empirical r...     

Multi-wavelength Study of HESS J1303-631 with 14 yr of Fermi-LAT Data

HESS J1303-631 is an extended TeV pulsar wind nebula powered by the pulsar PSR J1301-6305 detected with the High Energy Stereoscopic System. We present an analysis of the GeV γ-ray region of HESS J1303-631 with about14 yr of Fermi Large Area Telescope data. The GeV γ-ray emission, coincident with the very-high-energy source,has a photon index of 1.69 ± 0.09 in 10–500 GeV band, and the GeV morphology has an extension to the same direction as indicated in the TeV band. Moreover, the observed multi...     

Spin-down and emission variations for PSR J0742-2822

PSR J0742-2822 is known for its quasi-periodic changes in the observed pulse profile and spindown rate.In this paper,we analyzed 13 years of timing data obtained with the Nanshan 25-m radio telescope and the Parkes 64-m radio telescope.We found that the average values of the spin-down rate((v))of this pulsar changed in four different states.We investigated the correlation between v and W50,and ascertained that the correlation changed in different states.Moreover,not all the changes in states and correlation can be associated with glitch activities.We examined the long term evolution ofγ-ray flux(0.1-300 GeV)and the pulse profiles corresponding to the four different states using Fermi-LAT Pass8(P8 R3)data from 2008 August 5 to 2019 October 1.We did not detect a significant change inγ-ray flux or the pulse profile.Our results suggest that the connection between pulsar rotation and emission is more complex than previously reported for this pulsar.     

Populations of Bright X-ray Sources in the Starburst Galaxies NGC 4038/4039

Assuming a naive star formation history, we construct synthetic X-ray source pop- ulations, using a population synthesis code, for comparison with the observed X-ray lumi- nosity function (XLF) of the interacting galaxies NGC 4038/4039. We have included high- and intermediate-mass X-ray binaries, young rotation-powered pulsars and fallback disk-fed black holes in modeling the bright X-ray sources detected. We find that the majority of the X-ray sources are likely to be intermediate-mass X-ray binaries, but for typical binary evolu- tion parameters, the predicted XLF seems to be steeper than observed. We note that the shape of the XLFs depends critically on the existence of XLF break for young populations, and suggest super-Eddington accretion luminosities or the existence of intermediate-mass black holes to account for the high luminosity end and the slope of the XLF in NGC 4038/4039.     

Pulsar Discovery Prospect of FASTA

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST) has discovered more than 650 new pulsars,which account for 20% of our known Galactic pulsar population. In this paper, we estimate the prospect of a pulsar survey with a radio telescope array to be planned—the FAST Array(FASTA), consists of six “FAST-type”telescopes. Such a sensitive radio telescope array would be a powerful instrument in probing the pulsar population deep into our Galaxy as well as in nearby galaxies. We simulate t...     

Highly variable γ-ray emission of CTD 135 and implications for its compact symmetric structure

The γ-ray emission properties of CTD 135,a typical compact symmetric object(CSO),are investigated with ～11-year Fermi/LAT observations.We show that it has bright and significantly variable GeV emission,with the γ-ray luminosity of L_γ～ 10~(47) erg s~(-1) and a variation index of TS_(var)=1002.A quasi-periodic oscillation(QPO) with a periodicity of ～460 days is detected in the global 95% false-alarm level.These γ-ray emission features are similar to that of blazars.Its broadband spectral energy distribution(SED) can be attributed to the radiations of the relativistic electrons accelerated in the core region and the extended region.The SED modeling shows that the γ-rays are from the core region,which has a Doppler boosting factor of δ～10.8 and relativistically moves with a small viewing angle,being similar to blazar jets.On the base of the analysis results,we propose that the episodic activity of the central engine in CTD135 results in a blazar-like jet and the bubble-like lobes as the Fermi bubbles in the Galaxy.The strong 7-ray emission with obvious variability is from the jet radiations and the symmetric radio structure is attributed to the bubbles.The jet radiation power and disk luminosity in units of Eddington luminosity of CTD 135 follow the same relation as other young radio sources,indicating that its jet radiation may also be driven by the Eddington ratio.     

Kinematics and stellar population properties of the Andromeda galaxy by using the spectroscopic observations of the Guoshoujing Telescope

The Andromeda galaxy was observed by the Guoshoujing Telescope (formerly named the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope — LAMOST),during the 2009 commissioning phase.Due to the absence of standard stars for flux calibration,we use the photometric data of 15 intermediate bands in the Beijing-Arizona-Taipei-Connecticut (BATC) survey to calibrate the spectra.In total,59 spectra located in the bulge and disk of the galaxy are obtained.Kinematic and stellar population properties of the stell...     

An Annular Gap Acceleration Model for γ-ray Emission of Pulsars

If the binding energy of the pulsar's surface is not so high (the case of a neutron star), both negative and positive charges will flow out freely from the surface of the star. An annular free flow model for γ-ray emission of pulsars is suggested. It is emphasized that: (1) Two kinds of acceleration regions (annular and core) need to be taken into account. The annular acceleration region is defined by the magnetic field lines that cross the null charge surface within the light cylinder. (2) If the potential drop in the annular region of a pulsar is high enough (normally the case for young pulsars), charges in both the annular and the core regions could be accelerated and produce primary gamma-rays. Secondary pairs are generated in both regions and stream outwards to power the broadband radiations. (3) The potential drop grows more rapidly in the annular region than in the core region. The annular acceleration process is a key process for producing the observed wide emission beams. (4) The advantages of both the polar cap and outer gap models are retained in this model. The geometric properties of the γ-ray emission from the annular flow are analogous to that pre-sented in a previous work by Qiao et al., which match the observations well. (5) Since charges with different signs leave the pulsar through the annular and the core regions respectively, the current closure problem can be partially solved.