High-Energy Gamma Rays from Neutron Stars in Supernova Remnants: From EGRET to GLAST

Abstract

At least three pulsars in supernova remnants were detected at E > 100 MeV by EGRET on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Efforts to search for additional pulsars in the EGRET data have been unsuccessful due to limited statistics. An example is the recently-discovered radio pulsar J2229+6114, where efforts to search the EGRET data using several different methods failed to find significant evidence of pulsation. The GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT) will have a much greater effective area and a narrower point-spread function than EGRET. In addition, the field of view will be more than 4 times larger than EGRET's, and the LAT will scan to avoid occultation by the earth, increasing by a large factor the total number of photons detected. The greater rates of photons from pulsar candidates and better discrimination of diffuse interstellar emission will enhance the sensitivity of pulsation searches. These improvements also offer the prospect of resolving point sources from extended emission in some SNR to define the nature of the associations of EGRET sources with SNR. Further, work with the GLAST LAT will benefit from ongoing multiwavelength studies (e.g., for RX 1836.2+5925) that provide specific candidate targets for gamma-ray studies.