The Gamma-Ray Luminosity Function of Millisecond Pulsars and Implications for the GeV Excess
Abstract
It has been proposed that a large population of unresolved millisecond pulsars (MSPs) could potentially account for the excess of GeV-scale gamma-rays observed from the region surrounding the Galactic Center. The viability of this scenario depends critically on the gamma-ray luminosity function of this source population, which determines how many MSPs Fermi should have already detected as resolved point sources. In this paper, we revisit the gamma-ray luminosity function of MSPs, without relying on uncertain distance measurements. Our determination, based on a comparison of models with the observed characteristics of the MSP population, suggests that Fermi should have already detected a significant number of sources associated with such a hypothesized Inner Galaxy population. We cannot rule out a scenario in which the MSPs residing near the Galactic Center are systematically less luminous than those present in the Galactic Plane or within globular clusters.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1512.04966,
title = {The Gamma-Ray Luminosity Function of Millisecond Pulsars and Implications for the GeV Excess},
author = {Dan Hooper and Gopolang Mohlabeng},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.04966},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
10 pages, 8 figures