Seminario: Searching for pulsars in the Galactic center

Speaker: Dr. Jompoj Wongphecauxson
Affiliation: University of Würzburg

Abstract: Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that observed with pulsating signals. They serve as valuable tools for studying a wide range of topics, from general relativity to the interstellar medium. The discovery of a pulsar in the Galactic centre (GC) would be particularly fascinating due to its proximity to the Sgr A*, the black hole at the centre of our Galaxy. Such a discovery could provide insights into the local environment and the nature of the black hole itself.

In the GC, up to 1000 pulsars were predicted, but thus far only six have been found, including a magnetar. One of the explanations is that the dense environment in the GC causes extreme interstellar scattering, reducing the sensitivity of pulsar surveys. To improve our sensitivity to long-period pulsars, a Fast Folding Algorithm (FFA) was used rather than the traditional Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). In this talk, I will show results and discoveries of applying an FFA pipeline for accelerated pulsars to search for pulsars within 1° around GC using the data from the High Time Resolution Universe Pulsar Survey-South Low latitude as well as the three most sensitive stations from the Event Horizon Telescope observations of Sgr A* in 2017, including ALMA phased mode.