GBT24B-480

GB-SCOPE II. C-band Search for Pulsars in Faint, Compact, Polarized Sources

Abstract

Sensitive imaging surveys have been uncovering interesting new sources, including ones with properties which make them strong candidates for interesting galactic as well as extra-galactic sources. A good fraction of the Galactic compact, polarized, steep-spectrum sources are expected to be radio pulsars, some of which potentially also as parts of exotic binary systems or surrounded by dense environments. However, such image-based searches for pulsars have faced limitations due to many false positives caused by background extra-galactic sources, imaging artifacts, and the limited angular resolutions. Recently, Frail et al. 2024 have deduced more compelling list of pulsar candidates towards the Galactic bulge using the sensitive images from MeerKAT telescope and applying a number of criteria including spectral index, linear and circular polarization and compactness. Their non-detection in the previous L-band and lower-frequency survey might have been affected by potentially short periods and large scatter-broadening. We request observations to search for radio pulsations towards them at C-band where the scatter-broadening will be much smaller. Given their expected flux densities, we request a total of 4.5 hours of the telescope time at C-band, to conduct deep search for radio pulsars in these sources and potentially find new exciting pulsars.

Investigators

Name	Institution
Yogesh Maan *	Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Banshi Lal	Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Yash Bhusare	Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

* indicates the PI