Timing Gamma-ray Pulsars with the Fermi Large Area Telescope: Timing Noise and Astrometry

Abstract

We have constructed timing solutions for 81 gamma-ray pulsars covering more than five years of Fermi data. The sample includes 37 radio-quiet or radio-faint pulsars which cannot be timed with other telescopes. These timing solutions and the corresponding pulse times of arrival are prerequisites for further study, e.g. phase-resolved spectroscopy or searches for mode switches. Many gamma-ray pulsars are strongly affected by timing noise, and we present a new method for characterizing the noise process and mitigating its effects on other facets of the timing model. We present an analysis of timing noise over the population using a new metric for characterizing its strength and spectral shape, namely its time-domain correlation. The dependence of the strength on spin frequency and spin-down rate is in good agreement with previous studies. We find that noise process power spectra $S(f)$ for unrecycled pulsars are steep, with strong correlations over our entire data set and spectral indices $S(f)\propto f^{-\alpha}$ of 5 to 9. One possible explanation for these results is the occurrence of unmodelled, episodic 'microglitches'. Finally, we show that our treatment of timing noise results in robust parameter estimation, and in particular we measure a precise timing position for each pulsar. We extensively validate our results with multi-wavelength astrometry, and using our updated position, we firmly identify the X-ray counterpart of PSR J1418-6058.