Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars: Off-pulse Emission Characteristics, Phase-Resolved Pseudo-Luminosity--Cutoff Energy Correlation, and High-energy Pulsed Emission
Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars: Off-pulse Emission Characteristics, Phase-Resolved Pseudo-Luminosity--Cutoff Energy Correlation, and High-energy Pulsed Emission
Ming-Yu Lei, Zhao-Qiang Shen, Zi-Qing Xia, Xiaoyuan Huang
AbstractMillisecond pulsars (MSPs) are prominent GeV $\gamma$-ray emitters, but their emission mechanisms, especially during off-pulse phases and at high energies, remain debated. We analyze 38 MSPs using approximately 15 years of $Fermi$-LAT data. Employing high-precision ephemerides and Bayesian Blocks algorithm, we detect significant off-pulse emission from 15 MSPs. Spectral analysis reveals significant cutoffs in 10 of these, favoring a magnetospheric origin. The remaining 5 likely also have magnetospheric emission with cutoffs below current sensitivity. Phase-resolved spectral analysis for the 15 MSPs with off-pulse flux shows a significant correlation between cutoff energy ($E_{\text{cut}}$) and average photon counts in 11 sources. We introduce a phase-resolved pseudo-luminosity ($L$) and discover a novel, statistically significant linear correlation between $\log_{10}(L)$ and $\log_{10}(E_{\text{cut}})$ across their phase bins, with the best-fit slope $\alpha = 2.31^{+0.22}_{-0.25}$. Furthermore, we detect significant pulsed emission above 10 GeV from 9 MSPs with off-pulse emission and 7 others (totaling 16 MSPs and tripling previous cataloged detections). Emission above 25 GeV is confirmed for PSR J0614$-$3329 and newly detected for PSR J1536$-$4948, both of which also exhibit significant off-pulse emission. Their highest-energy photons ($\sim$61 GeV and $\sim$57 GeV, respectively) coincide with pulse peaks. The co-existence of significant off-pulse emission and high-energy pulsed emission challenges standard Outer Gap models, while the observed $\log_{10}(L)$-$\log_{10}(E_{\text{cut}})$ correlation may provide new evidence supporting the equatorial current sheet scenario.