Optimized Blind Gamma-ray Pulsar Searches at Fixed Computing Budget

Abstract

The sensitivity of blind gamma-ray pulsar searches in multiple years worth of photon data, as from the Fermi LAT, is primarily limited by the finite computational resources available. Addressing this "needle in a haystack" problem, we here present methods for optimizing blind searches to achieve the highest sensitivity at fixed computing cost. For both coherent and semicoherent methods, we consider their statistical properties and study their search sensitivity under computational constraints. The results validate a multistage strategy, where the first stage scans the entire parameter space using an efficient semicoherent method and promising candidates are then refined through a fully coherent analysis. We also find that for the first stage of a blind search incoherent harmonic summing of powers is not worthwhile at fixed computing cost for typical gamma-ray pulsars. Further enhancing sensitivity, we present efficiency-improved interpolation techniques for the semicoherent search stage. Via realistic simulations we demonstrate that overall these optimizations can significantly lower the minimum detectable pulsed fraction by almost 50% at the same computational expense.

22 pages, 13 figures; includes ApJ proof corrections

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• Einstein@Home discovers a radio-quiet gamma-ray millisecond pulsar
• FAST discovery of an extremely radio-faint millisecond pulsar from the Fermi-LAT unassociated source 3FGL J0318.1+0252
• Detection and timing of gamma-ray pulsations from the $707$ Hz pulsar J0952$-$0607
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• Spherical ansatz for parameter-space metrics
• Discovery, Timing, and Multiwavelength Observations of the Black Widow Millisecond Pulsar PSR J1555-2908
• Constraining the origin of the puzzling source HESS J1640-465 and the PeVatron candidate HESS J1641-463 using Fermi-LAT observations
• Radio and gamma-ray timing of TRAPUM L-band Fermi pulsar survey discoveries
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• Einstein@Home Searches for Gamma-ray Pulsars in the Inner Galaxy
• On a Couple of Unresolved Group Testing Conjectures