A Search for Pulsed Very High-energy Gamma-Rays from 13 Young Pulsars in Archival VERITAS Data
Archer, A.; Benbow, W.; Bird, R.; Brose, R.; Buchovecky, M.; Cui, W.; Falcone, A.; Feng, Q.; Finley, J. P.; Fortson, L.; Furniss, A.; Hanna, D.; Hervet, O.; Holder, J.; Hughes, G.; Humensky, T. B.; Johnson, C. A.; Kaaret, P.; Kar, P.; Kelley-Hoskins, N.; Kertzman, M.; Kieda, D.; Kumar, S.; Lang, M. J.; Lin, T. T. Y.; Moriarty, P.; Mukherjee, R.; O'Brien, S.; Ong, R. A.; Otte, A. N.; Pandel, D.; Park, N.; Petrashyk, A.; Pohl, M.; Pueschel, E.; Quinn, J.; Ragan, K.; Richards, G. T.; Roache, E.; Sadeh, I.; Santander, M.; Sembroski, G. H.; Shahinyan, K.; Tyler, J.; Wakely, S. P.; Weinstein, A.; Wells, R. M.; Wilcox, P.; Wilhelm, A.; Williams, D. A.; Zitzer, B.; Buckley, J. H.; McCann, A.; Hassan, T.; Sushch, I.; Krennrich, F.; Chromey, A. J.; Gent, A.; Williamson, T. J.; Gueta, O.; Scott, S. S.
United States, Germany, China, Canada, Ireland
Abstract
We conduct a search for periodic emission in the very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray band (E > 100 GeV) from a total of 13 pulsars in an archival VERITAS data set with a total exposure of over 450 hr. The set of pulsars includes many of the brightest young gamma-ray pulsars visible in the Northern Hemisphere. The data analysis resulted in nondetections of pulsed VHE gamma-rays from each pulsar. Upper limits on a potential VHE gamma-ray flux are derived at the 95% confidence level above three energy thresholds using two methods. These are the first such searches for pulsed VHE emission from each of the pulsars, and the obtained limits constrain a possible flux component manifesting at VHEs as is seen for the Crab pulsar.