A survey for radio pulsars and transients in the 10 pc region around Sgr A*

Here we report on a new survey for pulsars and transients in the 10 pc region around Sgr A ∗ using the Effelsberg radio telescope at frequencies between 4 and 8 GHz. Our calibrated full-Stokes data were searched for pulsars and transients using PULSARX, TRANSIENTX, and PRESTO. Polarisation information is used in the scoring of the candidates. Our periodicity acceleration and jerk searches allowed us to maintain good sensitivity towards binary pulsars in ≳10-h orbits. In addition, we performed a dedicated search in linear polarisation for slow transients. While our searches yielded no new discovery beyond the redetection of the magnetar SGR J1745−2900, we report on a faint single pulse candidate in addition to several weak periodicity search candidates. After thoroughly assessing our survey’s sensitivity, we determined that it is still not sensitive to a population of millisecond pulsars. Next generation radio interferometers can overcome the limitations of traditional single-dish pulsar searches of the Galactic Centre.