A population of gamma-ray emitting globular clusters seen with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
arXiv:1003.3588 · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201014458
Abstract
Globular clusters with their large populations of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are believed to be potential emitters of high-energy gamma-ray emission. Our goal is to constrain the millisecond pulsar populations in globular clusters from analysis of gamma-ray observations. We use 546 days of continuous sky-survey observations obtained with the Large Area Telescope aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to study the gamma-ray emission towards 13 globular clusters. Steady point-like high-energy gamma-ray emission has been significantly detected towards 8 globular clusters. Five of them (47 Tucanae, Omega Cen, NGC 6388, Terzan 5, and M 28) show hard spectral power indices and clear evidence for an exponential cut-off in the range 1.0-2.6 GeV, which is the characteristic signature of magnetospheric emission from MSPs. Three of them (M 62, NGC 6440 and NGC 6652) also show hard spectral indices , however the presence of an exponential cut-off can not be unambiguously established. Three of them (Omega Cen, NGC 6388, NGC 6652) have no known radio or X-ray MSPs yet still exhibit MSP spectral properties. From the observed gamma-ray luminosities, we estimate the total number of MSPs that is expected to be present in these globular clusters. We show that our estimates of the MSP population correlate with the stellar encounter rate and we estimate 2600-4700 MSPs in Galactic globular clusters, commensurate with previous estimates. The observation of high-energy gamma-ray emission from a globular cluster thus provides a reliable independent method to assess their millisecond pulsar populations that can be used to make constraints on the original neutron star X-ray binary population, essential for understanding the importance of binary systems in slowing the inevitable core collapse of globular clusters.
Accepted for publication in A&A. Corresponding authors: J. Knödlseder, N. Webb, B. Pancrazi
References in corpus (20)
- Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Data Processing, Sky Maps, and Basic Results
- Fermi Large Area Telescope First Source Catalog
- The ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. I. Overview and Clusters Without Previous HST Photometry
- The First Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars
- The First Catalog of Active Galactic Nuclei Detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope
- Detection of 16 Gamma-Ray Pulsars Through Blind Frequency Searches Using the Fermi LAT
- Formation and evolution of compact binaries in globular clusters: II. Binaries with neutron stars
- Fermi Gamma-ray Imaging of a Radio Galaxy
- Eight New Millisecond Pulsars in NGC 6440 and NGC 6441
- HST Proper Motions and Stellar Dynamics in the Core of the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae
- Chandra X-Ray Observations of Nineteen Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae
- A 1.4-GHz Arecibo Survey for Pulsars in Globular Clusters
- Distances of the bulge globular clusters Terzan 5, Liller 1, UKS 1 and Terzan 4 based on HST NICMOS photometry
- Discovery of new gamma-ray pulsars with AGILE
- Fermi Discovery of Gamma-ray Emission from the Globular Cluster Terzan 5
- MCAO near-IR photometry of the Globular Cluster NGC 6388: MAD observations in crowded fields
- Relative distances of Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae
- Pulsed Gamma-rays from the millisecond pulsar J0030+0451 with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
- A Study of Giant Pulses from PSR J1824-2452A
- VI Photometry of Globular Clusters NGC6293 and NGC6541: The Formation of the Metal-Poor Inner Halo Globular Clusters
Cited by in corpus (123)
- Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog
- Fermi Large Area Telescope Second Source Catalog
- Fermi Large Area Telescope First Source Catalog
- The Second Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars
- Detection of a Gamma-Ray Source in the Galactic Center Consistent with Extended Emission from Dark Matter Annihilation and Concentrated Astrophysical Emission
- A repeating fast radio burst source in a globular cluster
- Galactic Searches for Dark Matter
- Science with e-ASTROGAM (A space mission for MeV-GeV gamma-ray astrophysics)
- Relativistic Binaries in Globular Clusters
- Galactic Bulge Preferred Over Dark Matter for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess
- Disrupted Globular Clusters Can Explain the Galactic Center Gamma Ray Excess
- The Contribution of Cosmic Rays Interacting With Molecular Clouds to the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess
- Multiwavelength Constraints on Pulsar Populations in the Galactic Center
- Stellar Encounter Rate in Galactic Globular Clusters
- The MAVERIC Survey: Still No Evidence for Accreting Intermediate-mass Black Holes in Globular Clusters
- On the disruption of pulsar and X-ray binaries in globular clusters
- Challenges in Explaining the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess with Millisecond Pulsars
- Constraints on the Emission Geometries and Spin Evolution of Gamma-ray Millisecond Pulsars
- X-Ray Observations of Black Widow Pulsars
- Millisecond pulsar interpretation of the Galactic center gamma-ray excess
- MUSE crowded field 3D spectroscopy of over 12,000 stars in the globular cluster NGC 6397 - II. Probing the internal dynamics and the presence of a central black hole
- Gamma-ray Pulsar Revolution
- Fermi Detection of a Luminous Gamma-ray Pulsar in a Globular Cluster
- Pulsed Gamma Rays from the Original Millisecond and Black Widow Pulsars: a case for Caustic Radio Emission?
- Discovery of two millisecond pulsars in Fermi sources with the Nancay Radio Telescope
- Dark matter vs. Pulsars: Catching the impostor
- Radio detection prospects for a bulge population of millisecond pulsars as suggested by Fermi LAT observations of the inner Galaxy
- The Gamma-Ray Luminosity Function of Millisecond Pulsars and Implications for the GeV Excess
- Pulsar-Black Hole Binaries in the Galactic Center
- Broadband Pulsations from PSR B1821-24: Implications for Emission Models and the Pulsar Population of M28
- Luminosities of recycled radio pulsars in globular clusters
- The Gamma-Ray Pulsar Population of Globular Clusters: Implications for the GeV Excess
- Gamma-ray pulsars: a gold mine
- Very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from the direction of the Galactic globular cluster Terzan 5
- Discovery of the millisecond pulsar PSR J2043+1711 in a Fermi source with the Nancay Radio Telescope
- Low Mass X-Ray Binaries in the Inner Galaxy: Implications for Millisecond Pulsars and the GeV Excess
- Testing the millisecond pulsar scenario of the Galactic center gamma-ray excess with very high energy gamma-rays
- Millisecond Pulsars from Accretion Induced Collapse as the Origin of the Galactic Centre Gamma-ray Excess Signal
- A Deep X-ray Survey of the Globular Cluster Omega Centauri
- Millisecond pulsar origin of the Galactic center excess and extended gamma-ray emission from Andromeda - a closer look
- Six New Recycled Globular Cluster Pulsars Discovered with the Green Bank Telescope
- Population syntheses of millisecond pulsars from the Galactic Disk and Bulge
- Search for transitions between states in redbacks and black widows using seven years of Fermi-LAT observations
- A Highly Eccentric 3.9-Millisecond Binary Pulsar in the Globular Cluster NGC 6652
- Ejection of globular cluster interstellar media through ionization by white dwarfs
- Gamma-ray and X-ray emission from the Galactic Centre: hints on the nuclear star cluster formation history
- Discovery of γ-ray pulsation and X-ray emission from the black widow pulsar PSR J2051-0827
- A Chandra Look at the X-ray Faint Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster NGC 6752
- Discovery and timing of ten new millisecond pulsars in the globular cluster Terzan 5
- Non-thermal radiation from collisions of compact objects with intermediate scale jets in active galaxies
- The Fundamental Plane of Gamma-ray Globular Clusters
- Estimating the GeV Emission of Millisecond Pulsars in Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
- A Census of X-ray Millisecond Pulsars in Globular Clusters
- Gamma rays from the Galactic Centre region: a review
- Discovery of Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster Omega Centauri
- Evidence for a high-energy tail in the gamma-ray spectra of globular clusters
- Search for pulsed gamma-ray emission from globular cluster M28
- Suzaku X-ray Follow-up Observations of Seven Unassociated Fermi-LAT Gamma-ray Sources at High Galactic Latitudes
- Detection of gamma-ray emission from globular clusters M 15, NGC 6397, NGC 5904, NGC 6218 and NGC 6139 with Fermi-LAT
- Gamma-rays from millisecond pulsar population within the central stellar cluster in the Galactic Center
- Dark and luminous mass components of Omega Centauri with stellar kinematics
- An Examination of the X-ray Sources in the Globular Cluster NGC 6652
- Searching for pulsars associated with polarised point sources using LOFAR: Initial discoveries from the TULIPP project
- Evidence for Cosmic-Ray Escape in the Small Magellanic Cloud using Fermi Gamma-rays
- Milky Way globular clusters in gamma-rays: analyzing the dynamical formation of millisecond pulsars
- TeV cosmic ray electrons from millisecond pulsars
- Multi-wavelength environment of the Galactic globular cluster Terzan 5
- Prospects for a Dark Matter annihilation signal towards the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy with ground based Cherenkov telescopes
- Dynamically formed black hole+millisecond pulsar binaries in globular clusters
- Search for Very-high-energy γ-ray emission from Galactic globular clusters with H.E.S.S
- FAST Discovery of Eight Isolated Millisecond Pulsars in NGC 6517
- A NuSTAR Observation of the Gamma-Ray-Emitting X-ray Binary and Transitional Millisecond Pulsar Candidate 1RXS J154439.4-112820
- TeV gamma-ray emission initiated by the population or individual millisecond pulsars within globular clusters
- A dwarf nova in the globular cluster M13
- Detecting Axion Dark Matter through the Radio Signal from Omega Centauri
- Search for dark matter signals with Fermi-LAT observation of globular clusters NGC 6388 and M 15
- Gamma-ray emission from globular clusters
- Finding short GRB remnants in globular clusters: the VHE gamma-ray source in Terzan 5
- The MAVERIC Survey: Simultaneous Chandra and VLA observations of the transitional millisecond pulsar candidate NGC 6652B
- Artificial Neural Network Classification of 4FGL Sources
- Misaligned TeV gamma-ray sources in the vicinity of globular clusters
- The peculiar isolated neutron star in the Carina Nebula - Deep XMM-Newton and ESO-VLT observations of 2XMM J104608.7-594306
- The cross-correlation search for a hot spot of gravitational waves
- A Search for Diffuse X-ray Emission from GeV Detected Galactic Globular Clusters
- Deep observations of the globular cluster M15 with the MAGIC telescopes
- Numerical modelling of gamma-ray emission produced by electrons originating from the magnetospheres of millisecond pulsars in globular clusters
- High energy gamma-ray emission from compact galactic sources in the context of observations with the next generation Cherenkov Telescope Arrays
- Discovery of gamma-ray pulsations of PSR J18353259B in the Globular Cluster NGC 6652
- Chandra detection of a new diffuse X-ray component from the globular cluster 47 Tucanae
- The MAVERIC survey: A catalogue of radio sources in southern globular clusters from the Australia Telescope Compact Array
- Gamma-ray spectral properties of the Galactic globular clusters: constraint on the numbers of millisecond pulsars
- Gamma-ray emission from globular clusters 2MS-GC01, IC 1257, NGC5904, NGC6656 and FSR1735
- Comment on "Understanding the -ray emission from the globular cluster 47 Tuc: evidence for dark matter?"
- Gamma-ray emission from high Galactic latitude globular clusters
- Second Repeating FRB 180814.J0422+73: Ten-year Fermi-LAT Upper limits and Implications
- Likely detection of gamma-ray pulsations of PSR~J1717+4308A in NGC~6341 and implication of the gamma-ray millisecond pulsars in globular clusters
- Searches for Pulsar-like Candidates from Unidentified Objects in the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT (3FHL) sources with Machine Learning Techniques
- Formation of massive globular clusters with dark matter and its implication on dark matter annihilation
- Gamma-rays from electrons accelerated by rotating magnetized White Dwarfs in Globular Clusters
- On the gamma-ray emission from the core of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy
- Timing of Pulsars in the Globular Cluster Omega Centauri
- Identifying the brightest Galactic globular clusters for future observations by H.E.S.S. and CTA
- Probing the pulsar population of Terzan 5 via spectral modeling
- Search for multiwavelength emission from the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1836-2354A in the globular cluster M22
- Stacking Star Clusters in M51: Searching for Faint X-Ray Binaries
- Millisecond Pulsar Kicks Cause Difficulties in Explaining the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess
- CV1 in the globular cluster M 22: confirming its nature through X-ray observations and optical spectroscopy
- Millisecond Pulsars in Dense Star Clusters: Evolution, Scaling Relations, and the Galactic-Center Gamma-ray Excess
- A gamma-ray periodic modulation in Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae
- A history of the gamma-ray burst flux at the Earth from Galactic globular clusters
- Gamma-rays from millisecond pulsars in Globular Clusters
- How the dynamical properties of globular clusters impact their -ray and X-ray emission
- What Could be the Observational Signature of Dark Matter in Globular Clusters?
- A Population of Non-Recycled Pulsars Orginating in Globular Clusters
- Assessing Uncertainties in the Predicted Very-High-Energy Flux of Globular Clusters in the Cherenkov Telescope Array Era
- Galactic Traversability: A New Concept for Extragalactic SETI
- A Fermi-LAT Study of Globular Cluster Dynamical Evolution in the Milky Way: Millisecond Pulsars as the Probe
- A possible GeV-TeV connection in the direction of the Globular Cluster UKS 1
- Characterizing the Gamma-ray Emission Properties of the Globular Cluster M5 with the Fermi-LAT
- Millisecond Pulsars in Globular Clusters and Implications for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess
- Discovery and Timing of the First Millisecond Pulsar in NGC 6316
- A deep Chandra study verifies diffuse non-thermal X-ray emission from the globular cluster Terzan 5
- A Model of High Energy Activity of Millisecond Pulsars in Globular Clusters