DETECTION OF EXTENDED VHE GAMMA RAY EMISSION FROM G106.3+2.7 WITH VERITAS

Journal Article · Sun Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/703/1/L6· OSTI ID:21372041

Acciari, V A; Benbow, W ^[1]; Aliu, E; Boltuch, D ^[2]; Arlen, T; Chow, Y C ^[3]; Aune, T ^[4]; Bautista, M; Cogan, P ^[5]; Beilicke, M; Buckley, J H; Bugaev, V; Dickherber, R ^[6]; Bradbury, S M ^[7]; Butt, Y ^[8]; Byrum, K ^[9]; Cannon, A ^[10]; Cesarini, A ^[11]; Ciupik, L ^[12]; Cui, W ^[13]

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1. Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Amado, AZ 85645 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States)
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
4. Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics and Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
5. Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2T8 (Canada)
6. Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130 (United States)
7. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT (United Kingdom)
8. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
9. Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)
10. School of Physics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4 (Ireland)
11. School of Physics, National University of Ireland, Galway (Ireland)
12. Astronomy Department, Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago, IL 60605 (United States)
13. Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (United States)

We report the detection of very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission from supernova remnant (SNR) G106.3+2.7. Observations performed in 2008 with the VERITAS atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray telescope resolve extended emission overlapping the elongated radio SNR. The 7.3sigma (pre-trials) detection has a full angular extent of roughly 0.{sup 0}6 by 0.{sup 0}4. Most notably, the centroid of the VHE emission is centered near the peak of the coincident {sup 12}CO (J = 1-0) emission, 0.{sup 0}4 away from the pulsar PSR J2229+6114, situated at the northern end of the SNR. Evidently the current-epoch particles from the pulsar wind nebula are not participating in the gamma-ray production. The VHE energy spectrum measured with VERITAS is well characterized by a power law dN/dE = N {sub 0}(E/3 TeV){sup -G}AMMA with a differential index of GAMMA = 2.29 +- 0.33{sub stat} +- 0.30{sub sys} and a flux of N{sub 0} = (1.15 +- 0.27{sub stat} +- 0.35{sub sys}) x 10{sup -13} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} TeV{sup -1}. The integral flux above 1 TeV corresponds to {approx}5 percent of the steady Crab Nebula emission above the same energy. We describe the observations and analysis of the object and briefly discuss the implications of the detection in a multiwavelength context.

• OSTI ID: 21372041
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 703, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/703/1/L6; ISSN 1538-4357
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CRAB NEBULA
EMISSION
ENERGY SPECTRA
GAMMA RADIATION
PULSARS
TELESCOPES
TEV RANGE
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENERGY RANGE
IONIZING RADIATIONS
NEBULAE
RADIATIONS
SPECTRA
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS