Discovery of New Gamma-Ray Pulsars with AGILE

Using gamma-ray data collected by the Astro-rivelatore Gamma ad Immagini LEggero (AGILE) satellite over a period of almost one year (from 2007 July to 2008 June), we searched for pulsed signals from 35 potentially interesting radio pulsars, ordered according to Fγ ∝ √ E ̇d^−2 and for which contemporary or recent radio data were available. AGILE detected three new top-ranking nearby and Vela-like pulsars with good confidence both through timing and spatial analysis. Among the newcomers we find pulsars with very high rotational energy losses, such as the remarkable PSR B1509 - 58 with a magnetic field in excess of 10^13 Gauss, and PSR J2229 + 6114 providing a reliable identification for the previously unidentified EGRET source 3EG 2227 + 6122. Moreover, the powerful millisecond pulsar B1821 - 24, in the globular cluster M28, is detected during a fraction of the observations. Four other promising gamma-ray pulsar candidates, among which is the notable J2043 + 2740 with an age in excess of 1 million years, show a possible detection in the timing analysis only and deserve confirmation.