Radio and Gamma-Ray Constraints on the Emission Geometry and Birthplace of PSR J2043+2740

Abstract

We report on the first year of Fermi gamma-ray observations of pulsed high-energy emission from the old PSR J2043+2740. The study of the gamma-ray efficiency of such old pulsars gives us an insight into the evolution of pulsars' ability to emit in gammma rays as they age. The gamma-ray lightcurve of this pulsar above 0.1 GeV is clearly defined by two sharp peaks, 0.353+/-0.035 periods apart. We have combined the gamma-ray profile characteristics of PSR J2043+2740 with the geometrical properties of the pulsar's radio emission, derived from radio polarization data, and constrained the pulsar-beam geometry in the framework of a Two Pole Caustic and an Outer Gap model. The ranges of magnetic inclination and viewing angle were determined to be {alpha,zeta}~{52-57,61-68} for the Two Pole Caustic model, and {alpha,zeta}~{62-73,74-81} and {alpha,zeta}~{72-83,60-75} for the Outer Gap model. Based on this geometry, we assess possible birth locations for this pulsar and derive a likely proper motion, sufficiently high to be measurable with VLBI. At a characteristic age of 1.2 Myr, PSR J2043+2740 is the third oldest of all discovered, non-recycled, gamma-ray pulsars: it is twice as old as the next oldest, PSR J0357+32, and younger only than the recently discovered PSR J1836+5925 and PSR J2055+25, both of which are at least 5 and 10 times less energetic, respectively.

17 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• A Fan Beam Model for Radio Pulsars. I. Observational Evidence
• PSR J1838-0537: Discovery of a young, energetic gamma-ray pulsar
• Sub-luminous gamma-Ray pulsars
• Fermi LAT pulsed detection of PSR J0737-3039A in the double pulsar system
• Modeling the non-recycled Fermi gamma-ray pulsar population
• Disclosing the catalog pulsars dominating the Galactic positron flux
• Observations of one young and three middle-aged $\gamma$-ray pulsars with the Gran Telescopio Canarias
• Large Binocular Telescope observations of PSR J2043+2740