SEARCH FOR PULSED γ-RAY EMISSION FROM GLOBULAR CLUSTER M28

Using the data from the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, we have searched for γ-ray pulsations from the direction of the globular cluster M28 (NGC 6626). We report the discovery of a signal with a frequency consistent with that of the energetic millisecond pulsar (MSP) PSR B1821−24 in M28. A weighted H-test test statistic of 28.8 is attained, which corresponds to a chance probability of ∼10−5 (4.3σ detection). With a phase-resolved analysis, the pulsed component is found to contribute ∼25 % of the total observed γ-ray emission from the cluster. However, the unpulsed level provides a constraint for the underlying MSP population and the fundamental plane relations for the scenario of inverse Compton scattering. Follow-up timing observations in radio/X-ray are encouraged to further investigate this periodic signal candidate