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  • Accepted Manuscript: Search for gamma-ray emission from AE Aquarii with seven year of Fermi LAT observations

Title: Search for gamma-ray emission from AE Aquarii with seven year of Fermi LAT observations

AE Aquarii (AE Aqr) is a cataclysmic binary hosting one of the fastest rotating ($${P}_{\mathrm{spin}}$$ = 33.08 s) white dwarfs (WDs) known. Based on seven years of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Pass 8 data, we report on a deep search for gamma-ray emission from AE Aqr. When using X-ray observations from ASCA, XMM-Newton, Chandra, Swift, Suzaku, and NuSTAR, spanning 20 years, we substantially extend and improve the spin ephemeris of AE Aqr. Using this ephemeris, we searched for gamma-ray pulsations at the spin period of the WD. We detected no gamma-ray pulsations above 3σ significance. Neither phase-averaged gamma-ray emission nor gamma-ray variability of AE Aqr is detected by Fermi LAT. We also impose the most restrictive upper limit to the gamma-ray flux from AE Aqr to date: $$1.3\times {10}^{-12}$$ erg cm -2 s -1 in the 100 MeV–300 GeV energy range, providing constraints on models.
Authors:
ORCiD logo [1] ; ORCiD logo [2] ; ORCiD logo [3] ;  [1] ;  [4] ;  [5] ;  [6]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Inst. of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC), Barcelona (Spain)
  2. Inst. of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC), Barcelona (Spain); Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona (Spain)
  3. Inst. of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC), Barcelona (Spain); Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA)
  4. National Inst. of Astrophysics (INAF), Rome (Italy). Astronomical Observatory of Rome
  5. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Key Lab. for the Structure and Evolution of Celestial Objects
  6. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-692097
Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; AC52-07NA27344
Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online); Journal Volume: 832; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)
Research Org:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org:
USDOE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; gamma rays: stars; novae; cataclysmic variables; x-rays: individual (AE Aquarii)
OSTI Identifier:
1355715
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1368012