The Galactic population and properties of young, highly energetic pulsars. Issue 2 (20th July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Johnston, Simon; Smith, D A; Karastergiou, A; Kramer, M
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 497:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 1957
• Page End: 1965
• Publication Date: 2020-07-20
• Subjects: pulsars: general; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa2110
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The population of young, non-recycled pulsars with spin-down energies $\dot{E} \gt 10^{35}$ erg s −1 is sampled predominantly at γ-ray and radio wavelengths. A total of 137 such pulsars are known, with partial overlap between the sources detectable in radio and γ-rays. We use a very small set of assumptions in an attempt to test whether the observed pulsar sample can be explained by a single underlying population of neutron stars. For radio emission we assume a canonical conal beam with a fixed emission height of 300 km across all spin periods and a luminosity law which depends on $\dot{E}^{0.25}$ . For γ-ray emission we assume the outer-gap model and a luminosity law which depends on $\dot{E}^{0.5}$ . We synthesize a population of fast-spinning pulsars with a birth rate of one per 100 yr. We find that this simple model can reproduce most characteristics of the observed population with two caveats. The first is a deficit of γ-ray pulsars at the highest $\dot{E}$ which we surmise to be an observational selection effect due to the difficulties of finding γ-ray pulsars in the presence of glitches without prior knowledge from radio frequencies. The second is a deficit of radio pulsars with interpulse emission, which may be related to radio emission physics. We discuss the implications of these findings.