Matthew Kerr — Page 8

arXiv2010

Pulsar Timing with the Fermi LAT

We present an overview of precise pulsar timing using data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on Fermi. We describe the analysis techniques including a maximum likelihood method for determining pulse times of arrival from unbinned photon data. In addition to determining the spindown behavior of the pulsars and detecting glitches and timing noise, such timing analyses allow the precise determination of the pulsar position, thus enabling detailed multiwavelength follow up.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

Hunting for New Gamma-ray Binaries - Technique Development

There are only a few sources that are definitely known to be gamma-ray binaries. Two of these are listed as associations in the Fermi LAT Bright Source List. We are developing novel techniques to extract high signal-to-noise light curves of all cataloged Fermi sources and to search for periodic variability using appropriately weighted power spectra. The detection of periodic variability would be strong evidence for the detection of a new gamma-ray binary. The LAT's sensitivity provides the opportunity to open up completely new discovery space for additional binary systems, potentially involving novel astrophysics. We present here demonstrations of the sensitivity gains obtained through the use of these techniques.

astro-ph.HE↗