A Search for Pulsars around Sgr A* in the First Event Horizon Telescope Data Set
Journal article, 2023
In 2017 the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observed the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), at a frequency of 228.1 GHz (lambda = 1.3 mm). The fundamental physics tests that even a single pulsar orbiting Sgr A* would enable motivate searching for pulsars in EHT data sets. The high observing frequency means that pulsars-which typically exhibit steep emission spectra-are expected to be very faint. However, it also negates pulse scattering, an effect that could hinder pulsar detections in the Galactic center. Additionally, magnetars or a secondary inverse Compton emission could be stronger at millimeter wavelengths than at lower frequencies. We present a search for pulsars close to Sgr A* using the data from the three most sensitive stations in the EHT 2017 campaign: the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, the Large Millimeter Telescope, and the IRAM 30 m Telescope. We apply three detection methods based on Fourier-domain analysis, the fast folding algorithm, and single-pulse searches targeting both pulsars and burst-like transient emission. We use the simultaneity of the observations to confirm potential candidates. No new pulsars or significant bursts were found. Being the first pulsar search ever carried out at such high radio frequencies, we detail our analysis methods and give a detailed estimation of the sensitivity of the search. We conclude that the EHT 2017 observations are only sensitive to a small fraction (less than or similar to 2.2%) of the pulsars that may exist close to Sgr A*, motivating further searches for fainter pulsars in the region.
Author
Pablo Torne
Max Planck Society
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Kuo Liu
Max Planck Society
Ralph P. Eatough
Max Planck Society
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jompoj Wongphechauxsorn
Max Planck Society
James M. Cordes
Cornell University
Gregory Desvignes
Max Planck Society
Paris Descartes University
Mariafelicia De Laurentis
Goethe University Frankfurt
National Institute for Nuclear Physics
University of Naples Federico II
Michael Kramer
University of Manchester
Max Planck Society
Scott M. Ransom
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Shami Chatterjee
Cornell University
Robert Wharton
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Ramesh Karuppusamy
Max Planck Society
Lindy Blackburn
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard University
Michael Janssen
Max Planck Society
Chi-Kwan Chan
University of Arizona
Geoffrey B. Crew
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Lynn D. Matthews
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Ciriaco Goddi
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
University of Cagliari
National Institute for Nuclear Physics
University of Sao Paulo (USP)
Helge Rottmann
Max Planck Society
Jan Wagner
Max Planck Society
Salvador Sanchez
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Ignacio Ruiz
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Federico Abbate
Max Planck Society
Geoffrey C. Bower
University of Hawaii
Academia Sinica
Juan J. Salamanca
University of Oviedo
Arturo I. Gomez-Ruiz
Inst Nacl Astrofis Optic & Elect
National Council for Science and Technology Mexico
Alfredo Herrera-Aguilar
Benemerita Univ Autonoma Puebla
Wu Jiang
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ru-Sen Lu
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Max Planck Society
Ue-Li Pen
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
Academia Sinica
University of Toronto
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Alexander W. Raymond
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard University
Lijing Shao
Beijing University of Technology
Max Planck Society
Zhiqiang Shen
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Gabriel Paubert
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Miguel Sanchez-Portal
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Carsten Kramer
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Manuel Castillo
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Santiago Navarro
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
David John
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Karl-Friedrich Schuster
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Michael D. Johnson
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard University
Kazi L. J. Rygl
Italian ALMA Regional Centre
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
Kazunori Akiyama
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Harvard University
University of Sao Paulo (USP)
Antxon Alberdi
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Walter Alef
Max Planck Society
Juan Carlos Algaba
University of Malaya
Richard Anantua
Harvard University
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
University of Texas at San Antonio
Keiichi Asada
Academia Sinica
Rebecca Azulay
Max Planck Society
Universitat de Valencia
Uwe Bach
Max Planck Society
Anne-Kathrin Baczko
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory
David Ball
University of Arizona
Mislav Balokovic
Yale University
John Barrett
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Michi Baubock
University of Illinois
Bradford A. Benson
University of Chicago
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Dan Bintley
East Asian Observatory
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
Raymond Blundell
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Katherine L. Bouman
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Hope Boyce
McGill University
Michael Bremer
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Christiaan D. Brinkerink
Radboud University
Roger Brissenden
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard University
Silke Britzen
Max Planck Society
Avery E. Broderick
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
University of Waterloo
Dominique Broguiere
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Thomas Bronzwaer
Radboud University
Sandra Bustamante
University of Massachusetts
Do-Young Byun
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
University of Science and Technology (UST)
John E. Carlstrom
Univ Chicago, Enrico Fermi Inst, 5640 S Ellis Ave
Univ Chicago, Dept Phys, 5720 S Ellis Ave
Univ Chicago, Kavli Inst Cosmol Phys, 5640 S Ellis Ave
University of Chicago
Chiara Ceccobello
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory
Andrew Chael
Princeton University
Dominic O. Chang
Harvard University
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Koushik Chatterjee
Harvard University
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Ming-Tang Chen
Academia Sinica
Yongjun Chen
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xiaopeng Cheng
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
I. Cho
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Pierre Christian
Fairfield Univ, Dept Phys, 1073 N Benson Rd
Nicholas S. Conroy
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
University of Illinois
John E. Conway
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory
Thomas M. Crawford
Univ Chicago, Kavli Inst Cosmol Phys, 5640 S Ellis Ave
University of Chicago
Alejandro Cruz-Osorio
Max Planck Society
Goethe University Frankfurt
Yuzhu Cui
Zhejiang Lab
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Thomas M. Crawford
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Jordy Davelaar
Columbia University
Radboud University
Flatiron Inst, Ctr Comp Astrophys, 162 Fifth Ave
Roger Deane
Rhodes University
University of Witwatersrand
University of Pretoria
Jessica Dempsey
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
East Asian Observatory
Jason Dexter
University of Colorado at Boulder
Vedant Dhruv
University of Illinois
Sheperd S. Doeleman
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard University
Sean Dougal
University of Arizona
Sergio A. Dzib
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Max Planck Society
Razieh Emami
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Heino Falcke
Radboud University
Joseph Farah
Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network
University of California at Santa Barbara
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Ed Fomalont
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
H. Alyson Ford
University of Arizona
Marianna Foschi
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Raquel Fraga-Encinas
Radboud University
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
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James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
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Cistian M. Fromm
University of Würzburg
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Goethe University Frankfurt
Antonio Fuentes
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Peter Galison
Harvard University
Charles F. Gammie
University of Illinois
Roberto Garcia
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Olivier Gentaz
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Boris Georgiev
University of Waterloo
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Roman Gold
University of Southern Denmark
Jose L. Gomez
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Minfeng Gu
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Mark Gurwell
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Kazuhiro Hada
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
Daryl Haggard
McGill University
Kari Haworth
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Michael H. Hecht
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Ronald Hesper
University of Groningen
Dirk Heumann
University of Arizona
Luis C. Ho
Beijing University of Technology
Paul Ho
East Asian Observatory
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
Academia Sinica
Mareki Honma
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
University of Tokyo
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Chih-Wei L. Huang
Academia Sinica
Lei Huang
Chinese Academy of Sciences
David H. Hughes
Inst Nacl Astrofis Optic & Elect
Shiro Ikeda
The Institute of Statistical Mathematics
University of Tokyo
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
C. M. Violette Impellizzeri
Leiden University
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Makoto Inoue
Academia Sinica
Sara Issaoun
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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Boston University
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Max Planck Society
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University of Science and Technology (UST)
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Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
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University of Tokyo
Garrett K. Keating
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Mark Kettenis
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)
Jae-Young Kim
Max Planck Society
Kyungpook National University
Jongsoo Kim
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
Junhan Kim
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
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National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
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University of Illinois
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Chinese University of Hong Kong
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California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
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Nanjing University
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Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory
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Goethe University Frankfurt
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Universitat de Valencia
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University of Amsterdam
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University of Illinois
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National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
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University of Concepcion
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National Institute of Technology, Hachinohe College
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University of Massachusetts
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Goethe University Frankfurt
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University of Arizona
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Seoul National University
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University of Illinois
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Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE)
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University of New Mexico
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University of Illinois
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Institute for Advanced Study
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Huazhong University of Science and Technology
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Astrophysical Journal
0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)
Vol. 959 1 14Onsala space observatory infrastructure
Swedish Research Council (VR) (2017-00648), 2018-01-01 -- 2021-12-31.
Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
DOI
10.3847/1538-4357/acf4f2