GBT24A-400

A GBT Search for Gaia-Selected Binary Pulsars

Abstract

Binary pulsars are multipurpose astrophysical systems that can be used to probe general relativity, binary orbital evolution, the neutron star interior equation of state, and low-frequency gravitational waves from supermassive binary black hole mergers. We propose to use the newly-published Gaia DR3 catalog as a treasure map for finding new pulsars in orbit with main sequence stellar companions. Each Gaia candidate is a system containing a main sequence source with an optically-dim companion where each companion's estimated mass and other characteristics instill confidence in its status as a neutron star. Optical spectroscopic follow-up has already been conducted to reduce the sample size and constrain the candidate neutron stars' masses. We propose to use 16.5 hours of time on the GBT using both the 820 MHz and L-band receivers to search for pulsars at these Gaia-directed positions. Our observing strategy aims to mitigate the effect of eclipses in these gas-filled systems, while also taking into account the steep-spectrum nature of pulsars.

Investigators

Name	Institution
Ryan Lynch	Green Bank Observatory
Thankful Cromartie *	Cornell University; Virginia, University of; Naval Research Laboratory
Jim Cordes	Cornell University
David Kaplan	Wisconsin at Milwaukee, University of
Rahul Sengar	Wisconsin at Milwaukee, University of
Kareem El-Badry	Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
Carey Felius	Agnes Scott College
Shami Chatterjee	Cornell University

* indicates the PI