FIVE NEW MILLISECOND PULSARS FROM A RADIO SURVEY OF 14 UNIDENTIFIED FERMI-LAT GAMMA-RAY SOURCES

We have discovered five millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in a survey of 14 unidentified Fermi Large Area Telescope sources in the southern sky using the Parkes radio telescope. PSRs J0101–6422, J1514–4946, and J1902–5105 reside in binaries, while PSRs J1658–5324 and J1747–4036 are isolated. Using an ephemeris derived from timing observations of PSR J0101–6422 (P = 2.57 ms, DM = 12 pc cm−3), we have detected γ-ray pulsations and measured its proper motion. Its γ-ray spectrum (a power law of Γ = 0.9 with a cutoff at 1.6 GeV) and efficiency are typical of other MSPs, but its radio and γ-ray light curves challenge simple geometric models of emission. The high success rate of this survey—enabled by selecting γ-ray sources based on their detailed spectral characteristics—and other similarly successful searches indicate that a substantial fraction of the local population of MSPs may soon be known.

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