PSR J2030+3641: Radio discovery and gamma-ray study of a middle-aged pulsar in the now identified Fermi-LAT source 1FGL J2030.0+3641

Abstract

In a radio search with the Green Bank Telescope of three unidentified low Galactic latitude Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) sources, we have discovered the middle-aged pulsar J2030+3641 associated with 1FGLJ2030.0+3641 (2FGL J2030.0+3640). Following the detection of gamma-ray pulsations using a radio ephemeris, we have obtained a phase-coherent timing solution based on gamma-ray and radio pulse arrival times which spans the entire Fermi mission. With a rotation period of 0.2s, a spin-down luminosity of 3 × 10 34ergs -1, and a characteristic age of 0.5Myr, PSRJ2030+3641 is a middle-aged neutron star with spin parameters similar to those of the exceedingly gamma-ray-bright and radio-undetected Geminga. Its gamma-ray flux is 1% that of Geminga, primarily because of its much larger distance, as suggested by the large integrated column density of free electrons, DM = 246pccm -3. We fit the gamma-ray light curve, along with limited radio polarimetric constraints, to four geometrical models of magnetospheric emission, and while none of the fits have high significance some are encouraging and suggest that further refinements of these models may be worthwhile. We argue that not many more non-millisecond radio pulsars may be detected along the Galactic plane that are responsible for LAT sources, but that modified methods to search for gamma-ray pulsations should be productive - PSRJ2030+3641 would have been found blindly in gamma rays if only ≳ 0.8GeV photons had been considered, owing to its relatively flat spectrum and location in a region of high soft background. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.