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The Eel Pulsar Wind Nebula: A PeVatron-candidate Origin for HAWC J1826-128 and HESS J182-130

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8]
  1. Columbia Astrophysics Lab., New York, NY (United States)
  2. NYU Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)
  3. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
  4. Chungbuk National Univ. (Korea, Republic of)
  5. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  6. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
  7. Univ. of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB (Canada)
  8. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

HAWC J1826–128 is one of the brightest Galactic TeV γ-ray sources detected by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, with photon energies extending up to nearly ~100 TeV. This HAWC source spatially coincides with the H.E.S.S. TeV source HESS J1826–130 and the "Eel" pulsar wind nebula (PWN), which is associated with the GeV pulsar PSR J1826–1256. In the X-ray band, Chandra and XMM-Newton revealed that the Eel PWN is composed of both a compact nebula (~15'') and diffuse X-ray emission (~6' × 2') extending away from the pulsar. Our NuSTAR observation detected hard X-ray emission from the compact PWN up to ~20 keV and evidence of the synchrotron burn-off effect. In addition to the spatial coincidence between HESS J1826–130 and the diffuse X-ray PWN, our multiwavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis using X-ray and γ-ray data establishes a leptonic origin of the TeV emission associated with the Eel PWN. Furthermore, our evolutionary PWN SED model suggests (1) a low PWN B-field of ~1 μG, (2) a significantly younger pulsar age (t ~ 5.7 kyr) than the characteristic age (τ = 14.4 kyr), and (3) a maximum electron energy of $${E}_{\max }=2$$ PeV. The low B-field, as well as the putative supersonic motion of the pulsar, may account for the asymmetric morphology of the diffuse X-ray emission. Our results suggest that the Eel PWN may be a leptonic PeVatron particle accelerator powered by the ~6 kyr old pulsar PSR J1826–1256 with a spin-down power of 3.6 × 1036 erg s–1.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
LDRD; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1869619
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-21-30784
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 930; ISSN 0004-637X
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Astronomy and astrophysics
Gamma-ray astronomy
Gamma-ray observatories
Gamma-ray telescopes
High energy astrophysics
Pulsars
Rotation powered pulsars
X-ray astronomy
X-ray telescopes