Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-20-2013
Abstract
Einstein@Home aggregates the computer power of hundreds of thousands of volunteers from 193 countries, to search for new neutron stars using data from electromagnetic and gravitational-wave detectors. This paper presents a detailed description of the search for new radio pulsars using Pulsar ALFA survey data from the Arecibo Observatory. The enormous computing power allows this search to cover a new region of parameter space; it can detect pulsars in binary systems with orbital periods as short as 11 minutes. We also describe the first Einstein@Home discovery, the 40.8 Hz isolated pulsar PSR J2007+2722, and provide a full timing model. PSR J2007+2722's pulse profile is remarkably wide with emission over almost the entire spin period. This neutron star is most likely a disrupted recycled pulsar, about as old as its characteristic spin-down age of 404 Myr. However, there is a small chance that it was born recently, with a low magnetic field. If so, upper limits on the X-ray flux suggest but cannot prove that PSR J2007+2722 is at least ∼100 kyr old. In the future, we expect that the massive computing power provided by volunteers should enable many additional radio pulsar discoveries. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Recommended Citation
Allen, B., B. Knispel, J. M. Cordes, J. S. Deneva, J. W. T. Hessels, D. Anderson, C. Aulbert et al. "The Einstein@ Home search for radio pulsars and PSR J2007+ 2722 discovery." The Astrophysical Journal 773, no. 2 (2013): 91. http://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/773/2/91
Publication Title
Astrophysical Journal
DOI
10.1088/0004-637X/773/2/91
Comments
© Astrophysical Journal. Original version available at: http://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/773/2/91