Dissecting the Galactic gamma-ray pulsar population in the Galactic disc with simulation-based inference
IFPU
1 – 5 December 2025
Over the past 16 years, γ-ray astronomy has undergone remarkable advancements, largely
driven by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). One of its major contributions has been
the continuous discovery and characterisation of γ-bright pulsars, shedding new light on their
distribution and spectral properties in the Galactic disc and globular clusters. However, key
questions remain unanswered: What determines their emission properties across different wave-
bands? And, crucially, what is their contribution to the high-energy emission observed in the
inner Galaxy? The presence of pulsars in the Galactic Centre (GC) region remains particularly
uncertain, fueling an ongoing scientific debate about the nature of the GeV γ-ray excess (GCE),
which might be associated with a millisecond pulsar population or could hint at new physics
such as dark matter (DM) annihilation.
This workshop will bring together experts to advance our understanding of Galactic γ-ray
pulsars through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates astrophysical modelling, machine
learning, and Bayesian inference techniques. In particular, we will focus on simulation-based
inference (SBI), which offers a powerful means to infer source properties from complex datasets.
Recent work by attendees of this proposed Team Research Program has demonstrated the
promise of SBI in detecting and characterising high-latitude γ-ray sources. We aim to build
on this foundation, extending SBI techniques to the Galactic plane and ultimately to the GC
region, where refined modelling of diffuse γ-ray emission is crucial.
The outcome of this project will be an SBI-based framework capable of constraining the source-1 count distribution and spatial properties of Galactic γ-bright pulsars. This effort will not only
improve our understanding of pulsar populations and their multi-wavelength connections but
also provide critical input for the interpretation of the GCE and its potential links to DM
searches.
Organisers:
- Christopher Eckner (Center for Astrophysics and Cosmology/ University of Nova Gorica & IFPU)
Participants: