Einstein@Home discovers a radio-quiet gamma-ray millisecond pulsar.
Colin J ClarkHolger J PletschJason WuLucas GuillemotMatthew KerrTyrel J JohnsonFernando CamiloDavid SalvettiBruce AllenDavid AndersonCarsten AulbertChristian BeerOliver BockAndres CuéllarHeinz-Bernd EggensteinHenning FehrmannMichael KramerShawn A KwangBernd MachenschalkLars NiederMarkus AckermannMarco AjelloLuca BaldiniJean BalletGuido BarbielliniDenis BastieriRonaldo BellazziniElisabetta BissaldiRoger D BlandfordElliott D BloomRaffaella BoninoEugenio BottaciniTerri J BrandtJohan BregeonPhilippe BruelRolf BuehlerToby H BurnettSara BusonRob A CameronRegina CaputoPatrizia A CaraveoElisabetta CavazzutiClaudia CecchiEric CharlesAlexandre ChekhtmanStefano CipriniLynn R CominskyDenise CostantinSara CutiniFilippo D'AmmandoAndrea De LucaRachele DesianteLeonardo Di VenereMattia Di MauroNiccolò Di LallaSeth W DigelCecilia FavuzziElizabeth C FerraraAnna FranckowiakYasushi FukazawaStefan FunkPiergiorgio FuscoFabio GarganoDario GasparriniNico GigliettoFrancesco GiordanoMarcello GirolettiGermán A Gomez-VargasDavid GreenIsabelle A GrenierSylvain GuiriecAlice K HardingJohn W HewittDeirdre HoranGuðlaugur JóhannessonShiki KenseiMichael KussGiovanni La MuraStefan LarssonLuca LatronicoJian LiFrancesco LongoFrancesco LoparcoMichael N LovellettePasquale LubranoJeffrey D MagillSimone MalderaAlberto ManfredaMario N MazziottaJulie E McEneryPeter F MichelsonNestor MirabalWarit MitthumsiriTsunefumi MizunoMaria Elena MonzaniAldo MorselliIgor V MoskalenkoEric NussTakashi OhsugiNicola OmodeiMonica OrientiElena OrlandoMichele PalatielloVaidehi S PaliyaFrancesco de PalmaDavid PanequeJeremy S PerkinsMassimo PersicMelissa Pesce-RollinsTroy A PorterGiacomo PrincipeSilvia RainòRiccardo RandoPaul S RayMassimiliano RazzanoAnita ReimerOlaf ReimerRoger W RomaniPablo M Saz ParkinsonCarmelo SgróEric J SiskindDavid A SmithFrancesca SpadaGloria SpandrePaolo SpinelliJana B ThayerDavid J ThompsonDiego F TorresEleonora TrojaGiacomo VianelloKent WoodMatthew WoodPublished in: Science advances (2018)
Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are old neutron stars that spin hundreds of times per second and appear to pulsate as their emission beams cross our line of sight. To date, radio pulsations have been detected from all rotation-powered MSPs. In an attempt to discover radio-quiet gamma-ray MSPs, we used the aggregated power from the computers of tens of thousands of volunteers participating in the Einstein@Home distributed computing project to search for pulsations from unidentified gamma-ray sources in Fermi Large Area Telescope data. This survey discovered two isolated MSPs, one of which is the only known rotation-powered MSP to remain undetected in radio observations. These gamma-ray MSPs were discovered in completely blind searches without prior constraints from other observations, raising hopes for detecting MSPs from a predicted Galactic bulge population.