Observations of the unidentified gamma-ray source TeV J2032+4130 by Veritas

Journal Article · Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/783/1/16· OSTI ID:22351379

Aliu, E.; Errando, M. ^[1]; Aune, T. ^[2]; Behera, B.; Chen, X.; Federici, S. ^[3]; Beilicke, M.; Buckley, J. H.; Bugaev, V. ^[4]; Benbow, W.; Cerruti, M. ^[5]; Berger, K. ^[6]; Bird, R. ^[7]; Cardenzana, J. V. ^[8]; Ciupik, L. ^[9]; Connolly, M. P. ^[10]; Cui, W. ^[11]; Duke, C. ^[12]; Dumm, J. ^[13]; others, and

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Barnard College, Columbia University, NY 10027 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
3. DESY, Platanenallee 6, D-15738 Zeuthen (Germany)
4. Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130 (United States)
5. Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Amado, AZ 85645 (United States)
6. Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States)
7. School of Physics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4 (Ireland)
8. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011 (United States)
9. Astronomy Department, Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago, IL 60605 (United States)
10. School of Physics, National University of Ireland Galway, University Road, Galway (Ireland)
11. Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (United States)
12. Department of Physics, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA 50112-1690 (United States)
13. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States)

TeV J2032+4130 was the first unidentified source discovered at very high energies (VHEs; E > 100 GeV), with no obvious counterpart in any other wavelength. It is also the first extended source to be observed in VHE gamma rays. Following its discovery, intensive observational campaigns have been carried out in all wavelengths in order to understand the nature of the object, which have met with limited success. We report here on a deep observation of TeV J2032+4130 based on 48.2 hr of data taken from 2009 to 2012 by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System experiment. The source is detected at 8.7 standard deviations (σ) and is found to be extended and asymmetric with a width of 9.'5 ± 1.'2 along the major axis and 4.'0 ± 0.'5 along the minor axis. The spectrum is well described by a differential power law with an index of 2.10 ± 0.14{sub stat} ± 0.21{sub sys} and a normalization of (9.5 ± 1.6{sub stat} ± 2.2{sub sys}) × 10{sup –13} TeV{sup –1} cm{sup –2} s{sup –1} at 1 TeV. We interpret these results in the context of multiwavelength scenarios which particularly favor the pulsar wind nebula interpretation.

• OSTI ID: 22351379
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 783, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ASYMMETRY
GAMMA RADIATION
GAMMA SOURCES
GEV RANGE
NEBULAE
PULSARS
SPECTRA
TELESCOPES
TEV RANGE
WAVELENGTHS