The population of unresolved pulsars explanation of the Galactic Center excess.

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Physics
Degree name
Master of Science
Publisher
University of Canterbury
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
English
Date
2017
Authors
Ploeg, Harrison
Abstract

It has been suggested that a population of unresolved millisecond pulsars (MSPs) could explain the observed Galactic Center Excess (GCE). However, it has been claimed that, based on the luminosity distribution of observed MSPs, many would already have been resolved. In this work, gamma-ray MSPs detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) and the GCE data are used to constrain the luminosity function through the use of a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. The results indicate that it is indeed possible that a population of unresolved MSPs with the same luminosity distribution as those observed are the source of the GCE and that it would require further improvements in sensitivity for these to be resolved.

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Citation
Keywords
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
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All Rights Reserved