GBT26A-293

Detecting Radio Pulsations from Optically Variable Spider Candidates

Abstract

We propose a targeted search for radio pulsations from seven newly identified spider candidates using the Green Bank Telescope. These sources, discovered through the COBIPULSE and COBIPULSE-II optical surveys, show variable optical light curves and lie within the 95% error regions of unidentified Fermi-LAT sources with pulsar-like gamma-ray properties. Detecting their radio pulsations will confirm them as millisecond pulsars, enabling a future timing campaign that will constrain their binary mass ratios. This will eventually allow us to accurately estimate the potentially high neutron star masses hosted in these systems. Our search strategy leverages precise optical positions to maximize detection sensitivity.
The GBT is 3 times more sensitive than Parkes and the S-band and 820 MHz receivers at the GBT individually have less RFI than the Parkes UWB receiver. MeerKAT is highly oversubscribed and cannot reach the Northern sources in this proposal. FAST is also very oversubscribed and getting data shipped back is very difficult and slow due to Chinese government rules. Given the above, the GBT is the best way to observe our sources.

Investigators

Name	Institution
Julia Deneva *	Naval Research Laboratory
Scott Ransom	National Radio Astronomy Observatory; Virginia, University of
Karri Koljonen	Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Marco Turchetta	Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Manuel Linares	Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias; Norwegian University of Science and Technology

* indicates the PI