A survey for pulsars in EGRET error boxes

Abstract

As part of an effort to associate the unidentified Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) γ-ray sources with pulsars, error boxes for 19 sources were searched using Arecibo at 327 MHz. The sources were chosen to be out-of-plane and possibly associated with the Gould belt, a nearby starburst region with an enhanced production rate of core-collapse supernovae. The search revealed one new 597-ms pulsar, J2243+1518, within the error box of the EGRET source 3EG J2243+1509. The spin-down energy loss rate of the new pulsar is not nearly sufficient to power the γ-ray source and so the pulsar is very unlikely to be associated. Simulations we have carried out show that any pulsars at Gould belt distances should have been detected by the survey. This suggests that either the EGRET sources associated with the Gould belt are not pulsars, or that the minimum of the pulsar luminosity function is lower than the ∼1.5 mJy kpc2 inferred from the population of normal pulsars. © RAS.