Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Fermi-LAT detection of gamma-ray pulsars above 10 GeV

Pablo Saz Parkinson
Andrea Belfiore, Lucas Guillemot, Matthew Kerr, for the LAT Collaboration and the Fermi-LAT Pulsar Search Consortium

Abstract:

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi satellite has detected more than 150 pulsars above 100 MeV. Twenty-eight LAT-detected pulsars show evidence for High-Energy (> 10 GeV) emission and 13 of these show pulsations at even higher energies (> 25 GeV, Ackermann et al., 2013). Meanwhile, ground-based Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs: H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS) have reported emission above 50 GeV from 2 pulsars (Crab and Vela). While most gamma-ray pulsars are well-fitted in the GeV range by a power law with an exponential cut-off at around a few GeV, some emission models predict that a power-law extrapolation of the low-energy spectrum may be more appropriate. We will present the results of a search for high-energy emission from all LAT-detected gamma-ray pulsars using ~5 years of Pass 8 data and discuss prospects for further ground-based detections of pulsations.