Probing the millisecond pulsar origin of the $\gamma$-ray excess in the Galactic centre with LISA

Abstract

The gigaelectronvolt $\gamma$-ray excess observed towards the Galactic centre remains unexplained. While dark matter annihilation has long been considered a leading explanation, an alternative scenario involving a large population of millisecond pulsars remains viable. Testing this hypothesis with electromagnetic observations is difficult, as pulsar searches in the bulge are strongly affected by interstellar scattering, high sky temperature, and source confusion. We investigate whether gravitational-wave observations with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) could provide an independent probe of the millisecond pulsar binary population in the Galactic bulge in the future. We constructed synthetic populations of detached millisecond pulsar-white dwarf binaries under two illustrative formation scenarios: an accreted scenario, in which systems are deposited by disrupted globular clusters, and an in situ scenario, in which binaries form through isolated binary evolution. In both cases, only $10^{-5}$-$10^{-4}$ of the underlying bulge population is detectable by LISA. Still, even a few detections would imply tens to hundreds of thousands of unseen systems. Accreted binaries are expected to have lower chirp masses ($\sim$0.4 M${}_{\odot }$), while in situ binaries produce more massive companions ($\sim$0.9 M${}_{\odot }$), though part of this contrast reflects our modelling assumptions. LISA will measure binary frequencies with high precision, but chirp masses can only be determined for the most massive or highest-frequency systems. Thus, identifying millisecond-pulsar binaries among the far more numerous double white dwarfs will be challenging, as their gravitational-wave signals alone are indistinguishable. However, coordinated follow-up with the Square Kilometre Array of LISA-selected targets could directly test the millisecond-pulsar explanation of the $\gamma$-ray excess.

References in corpus (81)

• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• Dark Matter Annihilation in The Galactic Center As Seen by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope
• Angular Resolution of the LISA Gravitational Wave Detector
• On The Origin Of The Gamma Rays From The Galactic Center
• Background model systematics for the Fermi GeV excess
• A strong magnetic field around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Galaxy
• Dark Matter and Pulsar Model Constraints from Galactic Center Fermi-LAT Gamma Ray Observations
• Chemo-spectrophotometric evolution of spiral galaxies: I. The model and the Milky Way
• Strong support for the millisecond pulsar origin of the Galactic center GeV excess
• Supernova Type Ia progenitors from merging double white dwarfs: Using a new population synthesis model
• Post-common-envelope binaries from SDSS. IX: Constraining the common-envelope efficiency
• Reconstructing the evolution of white dwarf binaries: further evidence for an alternative algorithm for the outcome of the common-envelope phase in close binaries
• Life in the fast lane: a direct view of the dynamics, formation, and evolution of the Milky Way's bar
• The Consistency of Fermi-LAT Observations of the Galactic Center with a Millisecond Pulsar Population in the Central Stellar Cluster
• From dawn till disk: Milky Way's turbulent youth revealed by the APOGEE+Gaia data
• Dissipationless Formation and Evolution of the Milky Way Nuclear Star Cluster
• The observed velocity distribution of young pulsars
• Co-Evolution of Galactic Nuclei and Globular Cluster Systems
• A comment on the emission from the Galactic Center as seen by the Fermi telescope
• Formation of black widows and redbacks -- two distinct populations of eclipsing binary millisecond pulsars
• GeV excess in the Milky Way: The Role of Diffuse Galactic gamma ray Emission template
• The Evolution of the Globular Cluster System in a Triaxial Galaxy: Can a Galactic Nucleus Form by Globular Cluster Capture?
• The effect of common-envelope evolution on the visible population of post-common-envelope binaries
• The GIRAFFE Inner Bulge Survey (GIBS). I. Survey Description and a kinematical map of the Milky Way bulge
• Disrupted Globular Clusters Can Explain the Galactic Center Gamma Ray Excess
• Evolution towards and beyond accretion-induced collapse of massive white dwarfs and formation of millisecond pulsars
• Optical spectra of the carbon-oxygen accretion discs in the ultra-compact X-ray binaries 4U 0614+09, 4U 1543-624 and 2S 0918-549
• Multiwavelength Constraints on Pulsar Populations in the Galactic Center
• Discovery of Three Pulsars from a Galactic Center Pulsar Population
• Monte Carlo simulations of post-common-envelope white dwarf + main sequence binaries: comparison with the SDSS DR7 observed sample
• The formation of low-mass helium white dwarfs orbiting pulsars: Evolution of low-mass X-ray binaries below the bifurcation period
• Mass transfer in white dwarf-neutron star binaries
• The Globular Cluster Migratory Origin of Nuclear Star Clusters
• Parameter estimation for Galactic binaries by LISA
• Ultra-compact (X-ray) binaries
• Finding Radio Pulsars in and Beyond the Galactic Center
• Disentangling Coalescing Neutron Star-White Dwarf Binaries for LISA
• Discovery of two pulsars towards the Galactic Centre
• The observed velocity distribution of young pulsars II: analysis of complete PSR$\pi$
• The demographics of neutron star - white dwarf mergers: rates, delay-time distributions and progenitors
• Detecting Double Neutron Stars with LISA
• Dark matter vs. Pulsars: Catching the impostor
• Narrowband searches for continuous and long-duration transient gravitational waves from known pulsars in the LIGO-Virgo third observing run
• Nitrogen enrichment and clustered star formation at the dawn of the Galaxy
• Can Astrophysical Gamma Ray Sources Mimic Dark Matter Annihilation in Galactic Satellites?
• Formation of millisecond pulsars with helium white dwarfs, ultra-compact X-ray binaries and gravitational wave sources
• The disc origin of the Milky Way bulge
• Modelling the formation of double white dwarfs
• Monte Carlo simulations of post-common-envelope white dwarf + main sequence binaries: The effects of including recombination energy
• The Gamma-Ray Pulsar Population of Globular Clusters: Implications for the GeV Excess
• A 6.5-GHz Multibeam Pulsar Survey
• Gravitational wave sources in our Galactic backyard: Predictions for BHBH, BHNS and NSNS binaries detectable with LISA
• Anatomy of a buckling galactic bar
• Identifying LISA verification binaries among the Galactic population of double white dwarfs
• Millisecond Pulsars from Accretion Induced Collapse as the Origin of the Galactic Centre Gamma-ray Excess Signal
• Deep Einstein@Home all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in LIGO O3 public data
• Combined analysis of neutron star natal kicks using proper motions and parallax measurements for radio pulsars and Be X-ray binaries
• Consistency Between the Luminosity Function of Resolved Millisecond Pulsars and the Galactic Center Excess
• Ultra-compact X-ray binaries with He star companions
• Novel modelling of ultra-compact X-ray binary evolution - stable mass transfer from white dwarfs to neutron stars
• On the detectability of eccentric binary pulsars
• Black widow evolution: magnetic braking by an ablated wind
• UltraCompCAT: a comprehensive Catalogue of Ultra-Compact and Short Orbital Period X-ray Binaries
• Continuous gravitational waves from Galactic neutron stars: demography, detectability and prospects
• Stars stripped in binaries -- the living gravitational wave sources
• Was the Milky Way Bulge Formed From The Buckling Disk Instability, Hierarchical Collapse, Accretion of Clumps, or All of the Above?
• The age distribution of stars in the Milky Way bulge
• A population of compact radio variables and transients in the radio bright zone at the Galactic center observed with the Jansky Very Large Array
• Theoretical Models of the Galactic Bulge
• Catalogue of model star clusters in the Milky Way and M31 galaxies
• Search for Neutron Star Binaries in the Local Group Galaxies Using LISA
• A pulsar-helium star compact binary system formed by common envelope evolution
• Detection of a dense group of hyper-compact radio sources in the central parsec of the Galaxy
• How can LISA probe a population of GW190425-like binary neutron stars in the Milky Way?
• The High Time Resolution Universe Pulsar Survey -- XVIII. The reprocessing of the HTRU-S Low Lat survey around the Galactic centre using a Fast Folding Algorithm pipeline for accelerated pulsars
• Expected insights on type Ia supernovae from LISA's gravitational wave observations
• A New Determination of the Millisecond Pulsar Gamma-Ray Luminosity Function and Implications for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess
• Discovering neutron stars with LISA via measurements of orbital eccentricity in Galactic binaries
• Natal kicks of compact objects
• The effects of Galactic model uncertainties on LISA observations of double neutron stars
• On the Gravitational Wave Counterpart to a Gamma-ray Galactic Center Signal from Millisecond Pulsars