A Search for Pulsed Very High-Energy Gamma Rays from Thirteen Young Pulsars in Archival VERITAS Data

A. Archer, W. Benbow, R. Bird, R. Brose, M. Buchovecky, J. H. Buckley, A. J. Chromey, W. Cui, A. Falcone, Q. Feng, J. P. Finley, L. Fortson, A. Furniss, A. Gent, O. Gueta, D. Hanna, T. Hassan, O. Hervet, J. Holder, G. Hughes, T. B. Humensky, C. A. Johnson, P. Kaaret, P. Kar, N. Kelley-Hoskins, M. Kertzman, D. Kieda, F. Krennrich, S. Kumar, M. J. Lang, T. T. Y. Lin, A. McCann, P. Moriarty, R. Mukherjee, S. O'Brien, R. A. Ong, A. N. Otte, D. Pandel, N. Park, A. Petrashyk, M. Pohl, E. Pueschel, J. Quinn, K. Ragan, G. T. Richards, E. Roache, I. Sadeh, M. Santander, S. S. Scott, G. H. Sembroski, K. Shahinyan, I. Sushch, J. Tyler, S. P. Wakely, A. Weinstein, R. M. Wells, P. Wilcox, A. Wilhelm, D. A. Williams, T. J Williamson, B. Zitzer

Published 2019-04-19Version 1

We conduct a search for periodic emission in the very high-energy gamma-ray band (VHE; E > 100 GeV) from a total of 13 pulsars in an archival VERITAS data set with a total exposure of over 450 hours. The set of pulsars includes many of the brightest young gamma-ray pulsars visible in the Northern Hemisphere. The data analysis resulted in non-detections of pulsed VHE gamma rays from each pulsar. Upper limits on a potential VHE gamma-ray flux are derived at the 95% confidence level above three energy thresholds using two methods. These are the first such searches for pulsed VHE emission from each of the pulsars, and the obtained limits constrain a possible flux component manifesting at VHEs as is seen for the Crab pulsar.