Pulsar simulation tools for GLAST

Abstract

One of the most exciting targets of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will be pulsars, that are still today among the most mysterious sources in the sky. The GLAST LAT Collaboration has developed a detailed simulation of full LAT instrument. In order to better study the LAT science capabilities simulations of the most important classes of gamma-ray sources have been developed. Here are presented the current status of pulsar simulations for the GLAST LAT. PulsarSpectrum is a simulator developed for reproducing with high detail gamma-ray emission from pulsars. PulsarSpectrum takes into account advanced timing effects, e.g. period changes with time, barycentering effects and glitches. Other ancillary tools have been built to provide the simulator with a realistic population of pulsars and their ephemerides. All these tools are currently used by the GLAST collaboration for testing the LAT Science Analysis Environment and for studying LAT capabilities for pulsar science. They have been used for the generation of a simulated pulsar population in the Data Challenge 2 (DC2), one of the most important milestones in the development of the GLAST software. A description of PulsarSimTools, a suite of ancillary simulation tools is also given.