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arXiv · 2504.02677

Monte Carlo evaluations of gamma-ray and radio pulsar populations

Shawaiz Tabassum·Duncan Lorimer
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Abstract

Based on well-grounded Galactic neutron star populations formed from radio pulsar population syntheses of canonical pulsars (CPs) and millisecond pulsars (MSPs), we use the latest Fermi-LAT catalog (4FGL-DR4) to investigate the implications of proposed $\gamma-$ray luminosity models. Using Monte Carlo techniques, we calculate the number of CPs and MSPs that would comprise the sample of pulsar-like unidentified sources (PLUIDs) in 4FGL-DR4. While radio beaming fractions were used to scale the sizes of the populations, when forming the mock 4FGL-DR4 samples, we make the simplifying assumption that all $\gamma-$ray pulsars are beaming towards the Earth. We then explore the observable outcomes of seven different $\gamma-$ray luminosity models. Four of the models provide a good match to the observed number of PLUIDs, while three others significantly over-predict the number of PLUIDs. For these latter models, either the average beaming fraction of $\gamma-$ray pulsars is more like 25--50\%, or a revision in the luminosity scaling is required. Most of the radio detectable MSPs that our models predict as part of the PLUIDs within 4FGL-DR4 are, unsurprisingly, fainter than the currently observed sample and at larger dispersion measures. For CPs, in spite of an excellent match to the observed radio population, none of the $\gamma-$ray models we investigated could replicate the observed sample of 150 $\gamma-$ray CPs. Further work is required to understand this discrepancy. For both MSPs and CPs, we provide encouraging forecasts for targeted radio searches of PLUIDs from 4FGL-DR4 to elucidate the issues raised in this study.

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Shawaiz Tabassum, Duncan Lorimer. 2025-04-03. Monte Carlo evaluations of gamma-ray and radio pulsar populations. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.02677

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