Searching for Millisecond Pulsar Binaries Among Fermi Sources

Abstract

The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (Fermi) has opened a new window for our studies of pulsars, particularly the millisecond pulsars (MSPs). Among the sources detected by Fermi, a significant number of pulsars should exist and have not been identified. We have carried out a candidate MSP selection based on the known properties of pulsars, and Fermi data analysis for the selected sources for further selection has also been conducted. We propose to search for the MSP binaries among them through optical observations by finding their orbital flux modulation. The proposed optical observations would be an alternatively effective method for finding MSP binaries, particularly if they are eclipsing systems. The observations could be a good program carried out with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) given SALT's capabilities.