FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE DETECTION OF SUPERNOVA REMNANT RCW 86

Journal Article · Sun Apr 20 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/785/2/L22· OSTI ID:22365903

Yuan, Qiang ^[1]; Huang, Xiaoyuan; Liu, Siming ^[2]; Zhang, Bing ^[3]

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1. Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China)
2. Key Laboratory of Dark Matter and Space Astronomy, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154 (United States)

Using 5.4 yr Fermi Large Area Telescope data, we report the detection of GeV γ-ray emission from the shell-type supernova remnant RCW 86 (G315.4-2.3) with a significance of ∼5.1σ. The data slightly favors an extended emission of this supernova remnant. The spectral index of RCW 86 is found to be very hard, Γ ∼ 1.4, in the 0.4-300 GeV range. A one-zone leptonic model can well fit the multi-wavelength data from radio to very high energy γ-rays. The very hard GeV γ-ray spectrum and the inferred low gas density seem to disfavor a hadronic origin for the γ-rays. The γ-ray behavior of RCW 86 is very similar to several other TeV shell-type supernova remnants, e.g., RX J1713.7-3946, RX J0852.0-4622, SN 1006, and HESS J1731-347.

• OSTI ID: 22365903
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 785; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
COSMIC PHOTONS
GAMMA DETECTION
GAMMA RADIATION
GAMMA SPECTRA
GEV RANGE
HADRONS
INDEXES
PHOTON EMISSION
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
TELESCOPES
TEV RANGE
WAVELENGTHS
ZONES