2017/01/31 by Daryl Haggard, C. O. Heinke, Craig Heinke +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Galactic Center #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Globular cluster #Low Mass #Milky Way #Millisecond pulsar #Physics #Population #Pulsar #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #RADIUS #Stars #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.HE #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2017/05/056
17 pages, 3 figures
openalex publication_date 2017/05/31 · arxiv created 2017/06/14 · arxiv updated 2017/06/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
If millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are responsible for the excess gamma-ray emission observed from the region surrounding the Galactic Center, the same region should also contain a large population of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). In this study, we compile and utilize a sizable catalog of LMXBs observed in the the Milky Way's globular cluster system and in the Inner Galaxy, as well as the gamma-ray emission observed from globular clusters, to estimate the flux of gamma rays predicted from MSPs in the Inner Galaxy. From this comparison, we conclude that only up to ∼ 4-23% of the observed gamma-ray excess is likely to originate from MSPs. This result is consistent with, and more robust than, previous estimates which utilized smaller samples of both globular clusters and LMXBs. If MSPs had been responsible for the entirety of the observed excess, INTEGRAL should have detected ∼ 10 3 LMXBs from within a 10 o radius around the Galactic Center, whereas only 42 LMXBs (and 46 additional LMXB candidates) have been observed.