A search for gamma-ray emission from a sample of highly magnetised white dwarfs using Fermi-LAT data
S.T.Β Madzime* and P.Β Meintjes
Pre-published on:
December 19, 2023
Published on:
December 27, 2023
Abstract
We present the preliminary results for the search of gamma-ray emission from three magnetized white dwarfs (EUVE J0317-855, CTCV J2056-3014, LAMOST J024048.51+195226.9) using the Fermi-LAT pass 8 dataset. This search is influenced by the recent indications of possible pulsed gamma-ray from AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii using Fermi-LAT data. A search for gamma-ray emission from these sources were conducted using a βΌ 14-year baseline of the archived upgraded Fermi-LAT pass 8 dataset. For all of these sources a standard unbinned and binned analyses have been performed, resulting in no significant gamma-ray excess above the background noise at the location of each source. However, flagging data with TS > 0 showing good convergence using the likelihood analysis, as well as data sections with TS > 4 (for comparison), resulted in evidence of sporadic gamma-ray emission that could be distinguished above the background emission. This can be considered somewhat analogous to phase gating, i.e. flagging events not associated with the main pulse of a pulsarβs pulsed emission to search for weak emitters in its immediate vicinity. Gamma-ray emissions modulated at the spin period of each white dwarf were searched for using the Rayleigh test for sparse data. Pulsed emission has been detected at the spin period of all three sources, i.e. EUVE J0317-855 (πβ = 724.673 s; β log Prob = 4.823), CTCV J2056-3014 (πβ = 29.6 s; β log Prob = β7.51), LAMOST J024048.51+195226.9 (πβ = 24.93 s; β log Prob = 5.796). To produce a phase-folded light curve the pulse arrival times were folded with an ephemeris, specified in the text. The overall statistical ignificance for all three sources appears to be βΌ 5 π after taking into account statistical penalties based on a duty cycle of βΌ 30% due to the data flagging we introduced.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/1.426.0055
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