The Radio and Gamma-Ray Sky for Millisecond Pulsars


Population synthesis of millisecond pulsars (MSP) from the Galactic disk
is a core problem addressing the understanding of the origin and
evolution of pulsars. This talk summarizes the key issues for this
problem, and presents preliminary results of a new analysis that uses
Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques to better understand the model
parameter space.  The analysis includes empirical radio and gamma-ray
luminosity models that are dependent on the pulsar period and period
derivative.  These models are adjusted to reproduce the number of MSPs
detected in radio surveys and also the number of MSPs detected by Fermi
in gamma-rays.  The analysis explores various high-energy emission
geometries like the slot gap, outer gap, two pole caustic and pair
starved polar cap models.  The talk presents preliminary comparisons of
the simulated and detected distributions of radio and gamma-ray pulsar
characteristics. Estimates for the contribution of MSPs to the diffuse
gamma-ray background are obtained, in particular for the Galactic Center
(GC) region. We explore the extent to which MSPs can account for the
Fermi GeV excess in the GC, serving as a possible alternative to topical
dark matter annihilation scenarios.