Gamma-ray pulsars, Radio Data, and Some News from the Milky Way

David Smith
Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires de Bordeaux-Gradignan (CNRS/IN2P3 - France)

Abstract:

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on NASA's Fermi satellite is approaching 100 pulsars detected in GeV gamma rays, compared to fewer than 10 known before launch. I will talk about how our observations help improve pulsar emission models, including the essential role of radio timing and polarization data. I will also illustrate how this improves knowledge of neutron star populations. Pulsars are the dominant Milky Way GeV source class (and pulsar wind nebulae dominate the TeV sky), and are thus unavoidable in any quest to understand the sky at high energies.