Time-dependent absorption of very high-energy gamma-rays from the Galactic center by pair-production

Journal Article · Wed Dec 24 00:00:00 EST 2008 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3076683· OSTI ID:21255156

Abramowski, Attila; Horns, Dieter; Ripken, Joachim ^[1]; Gillessen, Stefan ^[2]; Eldik, Christopher van ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, Institute for Experimental Physics, University of Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, D-22761 Hamburg (Germany)
2. MPI for Extraterrestrial Physics Garching, Giessenbachstrasse, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
3. MPI for Nuclear Physics Heidelberg, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)

Very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays have been detected from the direction of the Galactic center. The H.E.S.S. Cherenkov telescopes have located this {gamma}-ray source with a preliminary position uncertainty of 8.5'' per axis (6'' statistic+6'' sytematic per axis). Within the uncertainty region several possible counterpart candidates exist: the Super Massive Black Hole Sgr A*, the Pulsar Wind Nebula candidate G359.95-0.04, the Low Mass X-Ray Binary-system J174540.0-290031, the stellar cluster IRS 13, as well as self-annihilating dark matter. It is experimentally very challenging to further improve the positional accuracy in this energy range and therefore, it may not be possible to clearly associate one of the counterpart candidates with the VHE-source. Here, we present a new method to investigate a possible link of the VHE-source with the near environment of Sgr A*(within approximately 1000 Schwarzschild radii). This method uses the time- and energy-dependent effect of absorption of VHE {gamma}-rays by pair-production (in the following named pair-eclipse) with low-energy photons of stars closely orbiting the SMBH Sgr A*.

• OSTI ID: 21255156
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1085, Issue 1; Conference: 4. international meeting on high energy gamma-ray astronomy, Heidelberg (Germany), 7-11 Jul 2008; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3076683; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
ABSORPTION
BLACK HOLES
ECLIPSE
ELECTRON PAIRS
ENERGY DEPENDENCE
ENERGY RANGE
GAMMA RADIATION
GAMMA SOURCES
NEBULAE
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
PAIR PRODUCTION
PHOTONS
PULSARS
SCHWARZSCHILD RADIUS
STARS
TELESCOPES
TIME DEPENDENCE