SUMMARY OF PROPOSAL 51015

DR. NOBUYUKI KAWAI
NKAWAI@POSTMAN.RIKEN.GO.JP

THE INSTITUTE OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL RESEARCH (RIKEN)
SAITAMA JAPAN 351-01
WAKO
HIROSAWA 2-1
Tel: 048-467-9336 Fax: 048-462-4640
Medium: 4GBDAT
Subject: STARS

AN ASCA SEARCH FOR GEMINGA-LIKE PULSARS IN SOUTHERN EGRET ERROR BOXES


ABSTRACT

The nature of unidentified Galactic gamma-ray sources remains a central puzzle in high energy astrophysics. One important source class is Geminga-like rotation powered pulsars not visible in the radio. We propose here exposures of two EGRET error boxes highly likely to host such pulsars -- we have improved the source localization and found soft X-ray counterparts for these fields. ASCA's spectral sensitivity and modest spatial resolution provides the key observations that can select any pulsar source responsible for the GeV photon emission. We also will search for plerionic emission in these fields. These data will greatly advance the quest to identify another object like Geminga and characterize the galactic plane sources as a class.

CO-INVESTIGATORS
CO-I NAME INSTITUTE COUNTRY
ROGER ROMANISTANFORD UNIV.USA
YOSHITAKA SAITOUNIV. TOKYOJAPAN
MALLORY ROBERTSSTANFORD UNIVUSA
TADASHI KIFUNEUNIV. TOKYOJAPAN
SHINPEI SHIBATAYAMAGATA UNIV.JAPAN

TARGETS

TARGET NAMEPRIRADECTIMETCOFFGISSIS CNTOBS
1)2EG J1811-2339
1
272.4833-23.5736 80 ksN
N
P
0.01000
1