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J.W.T. Hessels (McGill), S.M. Ransom (McGill/MIT), I.H. Stairs (UBC), V.M. Kaspi (McGill), D. Backer (Berkeley), P.C.C. Freire (NAIC, Arecibo), D.R. Lorimer (Jodrell Bank)
Globular clusters are known to harbour a disproportionately large number of millisecond pulsars (and other exotic pulsar systems) compared to the Galactic disk. Our team is conducting deep searches for radio pulsations at L-band (~20cm) towards more than 30 globular clusters using the 305m Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and the 100m Green Bank telescope in West Virginia. The high time and frequency resolution of this data, along with newly developed search algorithms we are using, increase our sensitivity to sub-millisecond pulsations as well as pulsars in ultra-compact binary systems. With roughly half of our search data analyzed, we have discovered a total of nine new millisecond pulsars, eight of which appear to be in binary systems, and at least three which show eclipses. We have recently determined timing solutions (i.e. accurate positions, orbital ephemerides, and pulsar spin-down rates) for several of these systems and discuss their implications. We would like to acknowledge funding of this work by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, NSERC, and a McGill University Tomlinson Fellowship.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: hessels@physics.mcgill.ca
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,
35#2
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.