Modeling the pulse profiles of millisecond pulsars in the second LAT catalog of γ-ray pulsars

Abstract

Significant γ-ray pulsations have been detected from ∼40 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) using 3 years of sky-survey data from the Fermi LAT and radio timing solutions from across the globe. We have fit the radio and γ-ray pulse profiles of these MSPs using geometric versions of slot gap and outer gap γ-ray emission models and radio cone and core models. For MSPs with radio and γ-ray peaks aligned in phase we also explore low-altitude slot gap γ-ray models and caustic radio models. The best-fit parameters provide constraints on the viewing geometries and emission sites. While the exact pulsar magnetospheric geometry is unknown, we can use the increased number of known γ-ray MSPs to look for significant trends in the population which average over these uncertainties