A gamma-ray periodic modulation in Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae

Peng-Fei Zhang, Jia-Neng Zhou, Da-Hai Yan, Jing-Zhi Yan, Yi-Zhong Fan, Li Zhang

Published 2018-10-24Version 1

The Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae was firstly detected in gamma-rays by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the \emph{Fermi} Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and the gamma-ray emission has been widely attributed to the millisecond pulsars. In this work, we analyze the Fermi-LAT pass 8 data ranging from 2008 August to 2017 May and report the detection of a modulation with a period of $18.416\pm0.008$ hours at a significance level of $\sim 4.8\sigma$. This is the first time to detect a significant modulation with a period much longer than that of millisecond pulsars in gamma-rays from Globular Clusters. The periodic modulation signal displays in the {\it Swift}-BAT data as well. The phase-folded Chandra X-ray light curve of a point source may have provided an additional clue. These facts indicate the detection of the first young pulsar binary in gamma-rays in Globular Clusters.