GBT26A-436

Confirming pulsar candidates from a reprocessing of the GBNCC survey

Abstract

We request targeted observations with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to confirm highly credible new pulsar candidates identified through a sensitive reprocessing of the Green Bank North Celestial Cap (GBNCC) survey. These candidates were missed in the original analysis of GBNCC survey, highlighting limitations of previous searches. Our optimized FFT-based search techniques sensitive to detect narrow-duty cycle and faint pulsars, have discovered 68 high-confidence candidates. Each candidate shows persistent signal (except from nulling candidates) in both time and frequency domains and exceeds the survey's false-alarm threshold. Notably, 25 of these have already been confirmed as pulsars in adjacent survey pointings and/or by CHIME (the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment). Most candidates are canonical pulsars, and confirming them would increase the GBNCC survey's slow pulsar yield by nearly 45%. These confirmations will also offer further insights into the pulsar population. Furthermore, some sources may represent rare systems. Among the remaining millisecond pulsar candidates may be new binary systems or sources important for addition to pulsar timing arrays. Therefore, confirming these candidates is essential to ensure that no interesting systems are missed. The 350 MHz receiver and Versatile GBT Astronomical Spectrometer (VEGAS) backend of GBT is ideally suited for this follow-up effort.

Investigators

Name	Institution
Ryan Lynch	Green Bank Observatory
Rahul Sengar *	Wisconsin at Milwaukee, University of; Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik
Laila Vleeschower Calas	Wisconsin at Milwaukee, University of
Joeri van Leeuwen	Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
Scott Ransom	National Radio Astronomy Observatory; Virginia, University of
Megan DeCesar	George Mason University
Gabriella Agazie	West Virginia University; Wisconsin at Milwaukee, University of
David Kaplan	Wisconsin at Milwaukee, University of
Timothy Dolch	Cornell University; Oberlin College; Hillsdale College

* indicates the PI