IGF::OT::IGF FERMI CYCLE 7. THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA) RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT…

Public award description

IGF::OT::IGF FERMI CYCLE 7. THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA) RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT AWARD. PROPOSAL TITLE: GBT SEARCHES FOR RADIO MILLISECOND PULSARS IN FERMI UNASSOCIATED SOURCES - DR. SCOTT M. RANSOM: FERMI HAS REVOLUTIONIZED THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE GEV SKY AS WELL AS HOW WE FIND RADIO MILLISECOND PULSARS (MSPS). IN THE PAST FIVE (5) YEARS, RADIO ASTRONOMERS AND LAT TEAM MEMBERS HAVE DISCOVERED 56 NEW MSPS SOURCES. THE CONTRACTOR AIMS TO CONTINUE THIS AMAZING PACE OF MSP DISCOVERY USING THE GREEN BANK TELESCOPE (GBT). WITH FIVE (5) YEARS OF FERMI DATA, AND MANY NEW LAT SOURCES FROM THE PASS 7 ANALYSIS, THERE ARE SCORES OF NEW HIGH GALACTIC LATITUDE UNASSOCIATED SOURCES TO SEARCH. IN ADDITION, THE CONTRACTOR WILL RESEARCH TWENTY-FIVE (25) BRIGHT AND VERY PULSAR LIKE SOURCES IN CASE ECLIPSES OR UNFORTUNATE SCINTILLATION HAMPERED EARLIER SEARCHES. IN THIS PROPOSAL, THE CONTRACTOR WILL SURVEY A LARGE NUMBER OF NEWLY IDENTIFIED UNASSOCIATED FERMI SOURCES FOR MSPS, BASED ON AN INTERNAL LAT-TEAM ANALYSIS OF FOUR (4) YEAR DATA USING MUCH-IMPROVED BACKGROUND MODELLING, REVISED EARTH-LIMB TREATMENT, AND IMPROVED INSTRUMENT RESPONSE (I.E., THE PASS 7 REPROCESSED DATA). GIVEN THE SUCCESSES OF EACH OF THE PREVIOUS SURVEYS, AND THE FACT THAT THE FLUX DENSITY OF THE RADIO EMISSION DOES NOT SEEM TO CORRELATE STRONGLY WITH THE GAMMA RAY FLUX, IT IS HIGHLY LIKELY THAT THESE NEW SEARCHES WILL UNCOVER SEVERAL ADDITIONAL PULSARS. ALL OF THESE NEW PULSARS WILL BE IMPORTANT FOR MULTI-WAVELENGTH PULSAR STUDIES, AND SOME OF THEM WILL BE CRUCIAL FOR BASIC PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS SUCH AS THE DETERMINATION OF THE NUCLEAR EQUATION OF STATE AND THE DIRECT DETECTION OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES.