Sparse Bayes Blocks: A New Method for Catching Sharply-Peaked High Energy Pulsars

Details Sparse Bayes Blocks: A New Method for Catching Sharply-Peaked High Energy Pulsars Sparse Bayes Blocks: A New Method for Catching Sharply-Peaked High Energy Pulsars

Apr 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aps..aprb17074c&link_type=abstract

American Physical Society, April Meeting, Jointly Sponsored with the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the American As

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Many of the bright unidentified sources in the gamma-ray sky may well turn out to be relatively nearby (Gould-belt: Gehrels et al2000, Nature, 404, 363) radio-quiet, gamma-ray loud pulsars, such as Geminga (Halpern and Holt 1992, Nature, 357, 222; Bertsch et al 1992, Nature, 357, 306). However Thompson (2001/astro-ph/0101039) points out that at the highest energies, these light-curves can become exceedingly sharply peaked. The best current methods, being Fourier-transform based, may not be optimal for detecting this class of `spiky' light-curve (Z_n^2; e.g. de Jager et al./astro-ph/0010179 and references therein). Hence, we have derived a statistic for detecting pulsars at X- or gamma-ray energies with the `spikiness' explictly built in. We use one or a very few `Bayes Blocks' (Scargle/astro-ph/9711233) of arbitrary height and width to represent the light-curve; then derive an optimum statistic (likelihood ratio) for testing against flatness via Bayesian Inference. Preliminary Monte Carlo tests show that it works as well or better than a standard Z_6^2 statistic for sharply peaked light-curves, especially at low signal-to-noise. We demonstrate it using CGRO/EGRET and COMPTEL data; and discuss its use for even higher energy instruments, including GLAST and TeV telescopes.

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