diff --git a/index.html b/index.html index 4baee69b7c96ae2dc5eea87068da402192c05036..65ea13a087771f41076810258c051fc840238611 100644 --- a/index.html +++ b/index.html @@ -10,12 +10,43 @@ <h2>Einstein@Home Gamma-ray Pulsar Discoveries in Fermi-LAT Data</h2> <h3>Info</h3> +<p>Einstein@Home searches data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope for signals from +gamma-ray pulsars. Pulsars are very compact stars with extreme physical properties compared to normal matter. +They are rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit pulses, observable from radio to +gamma-ray wavelengths.</p> -Bla -<h3>Results</h3> +<p>Searching for new pulsars is an enormous computational challenge, because their spin +frequencies, sky position and other parameters are unknown. Thus, this requires a blind +search, where one explicitly searches over a dense grid in parameter space. However, the +number of discrete grid points to cover such multi-dimensional parameter spaces is +tremendous and renders "brute forces approaches" computationally unfeasible.</p> -Bla -<h3>Einstein@Home new pulsar discoveries</h3> +<p>We have developed novel and much more efficient data-analysis methods for the volunteer +supercomputer Einstein@Home, which ranks among the fastest 25 computer systems worldwide. +Einstein@Home has now discovered four new gamma-ray pulsars that were previously +inaccessible on computational grounds.</p> + +<p>These radio and gamma-ray pulsar discoveries provide important contributions to advance +our (yet very poor) understanding these stellar objects, their population, and their role +in our Universe.</p> +<br> + +<h3>New Einstein@Home gamma-ray pulsar discoveries</h3> + +<p>This page contains information about the Einstein@Home gamma-ray pulsar discoveries. For +each pulsar we list the volunteers whose computers discovered the pulsar, and the date at +which the pulsar was found.</p> + +<p>We also provide a list of selected characteristics for each +of the pulsars. Right ascension is one of the two celestial coordinates that specify the +sky position of the pulsar. Declination is the second of these. The spin frequency describes +how many time per second the pulsar is rotating. The first frequency derivative describes +how much the pulsar is slowing down over time. The energy required to emit electromagnetic +radiation is drawn from the pulsar rotation. The characteristic age is a rough estimate of +the pulsar's age, computed from the spin frequency and its derivative. Finally, the +spin-down power is a measure of the total energy emitted by the pulsar. For comparison, our +Sun outputs roughly 4 x 10<sup>33</sup> erg per second. All pulsars below have a much higher +spin-down power.</p> <!-- <div style="text-align: center;"> @@ -62,8 +93,17 @@ Bla </tr> <tr> <td style="vertical-align: top;"> - Volunteers (Country):<br> - Date:<br> + <b>Volunteers (Country):</b><br> + <a href="http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=107849">David Z (Canada)</a> and <a href="http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=557206">Test (France)</a><br><br> + <b>Date:</b><br> + 06 Jan 2012<br><br> + <b>Selected pulsar parameters:</b><br> + Right ascension: 05:54:05.01(3)<br> + Declination: +31:07:41(4)<br> + Spin frequency: 2.15 Hz<br> + First frequency derivate: -0.66 x 10<sup>-12</sup> Hz/s<br> + Characteristic age: 51.7 kyrs<br> + Spin-down power: 5.6 x 10<sup>34</sup> erg/s<br> </td> </tr> </tbody> @@ -97,8 +137,18 @@ Bla </tr> <tr> <td style="vertical-align: top;"> - Volunteers (Country):<br> - Date:<br> + <b>Volunteers (Country):</b><br> + <a href="http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=63414">Mak-ino (Japan)</a> and <a href="http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=574023">Thomas M. Jackson (USA)</a><br><br> + <b>Date:</b><br> + 14 Dec 2011<br><br> + <b>Selected pulsar parameters:</b><br> + Right ascension: 14:22:27.07(1)<br> + Declination: -61:38:28(1)<br> + Spin frequency: 2.93 Hz<br> + First frequency derivate: -0.83 x 10<sup>-12</sup> Hz/s<br> + Characteristic age: 55.8 kyrs<br> + Spin-down power: 9.6 x 10<sup>34</sup> erg/s<br> + </td> </td> </tr> </tbody> @@ -132,8 +182,17 @@ Bla </tr> <tr> <td style="vertical-align: top;"> - Volunteers (Country):<br> - Date:<br> + <b>Volunteers (Country):</b><br> + <a href="http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=337084">The NEMO computing cluster (USA)</a> and --<br><br> + <b>Date:</b><br> + 30 Sep 2011<br><br> + <b>Selected pulsar parameters:</b><br> + Right ascension: 15:22:05.3(1)<br> + Declination: -57:35:00(1)<br> + Spin frequency: 9.79 Hz<br> + First frequency derivate: -2.99 x 10<sup>-12</sup> Hz/s<br> + Characteristic age: 51.8 kyrs<br> + Spin-down power: 115.7 x 10<sup>34</sup> erg/s<br> </td> </tr> </tbody> @@ -167,8 +226,17 @@ Bla </tr> <tr> <td style="vertical-align: top;"> - Volunteers (Country):<br> - Date:<br> + <b>Volunteers (Country):</b><br> + <a href="http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=125291">Doug Lean (Australia)</a> and <a href="http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=103374">Hans-Peter Tobler (Germany)</a><br><br> + <b>Date:</b><br> + 19 Sep 2011<br><br> + <b>Selected pulsar parameters:</b><br> + Right ascension: 19:32:19.70(4)<br> + Declination: +19:16:39(1)<br> + Spin frequency: 4.80 Hz<br> + First frequency derivate: -2.15 x 10<sup>-12</sup> Hz/s<br> + Characteristic age: 35.4 kyrs<br> + Spin-down power: 40.7 x 10<sup>34</sup> erg/s<br> </td> </tr> </tbody>