FAST Discovery of $μ$Jy Radio Pulsations from PSR J2238+5903, Providing a DM Distance Anchor for the Candidate TeV Halo 1LHAASO J2238+5900
FAST Discovery of $μ$Jy Radio Pulsations from PSR J2238+5903, Providing a DM Distance Anchor for the Candidate TeV Halo 1LHAASO J2238+5900
Jianli Zhang, Hui Zhu, Guanhong Lin, Dejia Zhou, Yuting Chu, Songzhan Chen, Min Zha, WenJun Huang, ZiWei Ou, P. H. Thomas Tam, Sha Wu, Qiang Yuan, Yi Zhang, Ran Duan
AbstractWe report the first detection of radio pulsations from PSR J2238+5903, a gamma-ray pulsar spatially coincident with the extended TeV source 1LHAASO J2238+5900. Our 3000 s FAST L-band observation reveals a weak periodic signal at the known Fermi-LAT spin period, with $P=162.76568$ ms and $\mathrm{DM}=247.5\pm3.0~\mathrm{pc~cm^{-3}}$. The signal is independently confirmed by both FFT-based and Fast Folding Algorithm searches. The radiometer equation gives a flux density of $S_{1250}\simeq3\,μ$Jy, placing PSR J2238+5903 among the faintest radio-detected Fermi pulsars. Interpreting the DM with Galactic electron-density models gives $d_{\rm DM}=7.4\pm3.9$ kpc. At this distance, the LHAASO WCDA 39\% containment radius corresponds to a characteristic diameter of $\sim132$ pc, and the $>1$ TeV luminosity is $L_{\rm TeV}\simeq7.1\times10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$, about 8\% of the pulsar's spin-down power. The radio DM thus provides the first pulsar-specific distance constraint for assessing whether 1LHAASO J2238+5900 is a young relic-PWN / TeV-halo transition system.