The host galaxy and Fermi -LAT counterpart of HESS J1943+213
Abstract
The very-high energy (VHE, E> 100 GeV) gamma-ray sky shows diverse Galactic and extragalactic source populations. For some sources the astrophysical object class could not be identified so far. The nature (Galactic or extragalactic) of the VHE gamma-ray source HESS J1943+213 is explored. We specifically investigate the proposed near-infrared counterpart 2MASS J19435624+2118233 of HESS J1943+213 and investigate the implications of a physical association. We present K-band imaging from the 3.5 m CAHA telescope of 2MASS J19435624+2118233. Furthermore, 5 years of Fermi-LAT data were analyzed to search for a high-energy (HE, 100 MeV < 100 GeV) counterpart. Results. The CAHA observations revealed that the near-infrared counterpart is extended with an intrinsic half light radius of 2"–2.5". These observations also show a smooth, centrally concentrated light profile that is typical of a galaxy, and thus point toward an extragalactic scenario for the VHE gamma-ray source, assuming that the near-infrared source is the counterpart of HESS J1943+213. A high-Sérsic index profile provides a better fit than an exponential profile, indicating that the surface brightness profile of 2MASS J19435624+2118233 follows that of a typical, massive elliptical galaxy more closely than that of a disk galaxy. With Fermi-LAT a HE counterpart is found with amore »
- Authors:
-
- Max Planck Inst. fur Astronomie, Heidelberg (Germany)
- Max Planck Inst. fur Kernphysik, Heidelberg (Germany)
- Univ. de Savoie, Annecy-le-Vieux (France)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1356351
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 571; Journal ID: ISSN 0004-6361
- Publisher:
- EDP Sciences
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD; BL Lacertae objects: individual: HESS J1943+213; gamma rays: galaxies; radiation mechanisms: non-thermal
Citation Formats
Peter, D., Domainko, W., Sanchez, D. A., van der Wel, A., and Gässler, W. The host galaxy and Fermi -LAT counterpart of HESS J1943+213. United States: N. p., 2014.
Web. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201423807.
Peter, D., Domainko, W., Sanchez, D. A., van der Wel, A., & Gässler, W. The host galaxy and Fermi -LAT counterpart of HESS J1943+213. United States. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201423807
Peter, D., Domainko, W., Sanchez, D. A., van der Wel, A., and Gässler, W. Thu .
"The host galaxy and Fermi -LAT counterpart of HESS J1943+213". United States. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201423807. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1356351.
@article{osti_1356351,
title = {The host galaxy and Fermi -LAT counterpart of HESS J1943+213},
author = {Peter, D. and Domainko, W. and Sanchez, D. A. and van der Wel, A. and Gässler, W.},
abstractNote = {The very-high energy (VHE, E> 100 GeV) gamma-ray sky shows diverse Galactic and extragalactic source populations. For some sources the astrophysical object class could not be identified so far. The nature (Galactic or extragalactic) of the VHE gamma-ray source HESS J1943+213 is explored. We specifically investigate the proposed near-infrared counterpart 2MASS J19435624+2118233 of HESS J1943+213 and investigate the implications of a physical association. We present K-band imaging from the 3.5 m CAHA telescope of 2MASS J19435624+2118233. Furthermore, 5 years of Fermi-LAT data were analyzed to search for a high-energy (HE, 100 MeV < 100 GeV) counterpart. Results. The CAHA observations revealed that the near-infrared counterpart is extended with an intrinsic half light radius of 2"–2.5". These observations also show a smooth, centrally concentrated light profile that is typical of a galaxy, and thus point toward an extragalactic scenario for the VHE gamma-ray source, assuming that the near-infrared source is the counterpart of HESS J1943+213. A high-Sérsic index profile provides a better fit than an exponential profile, indicating that the surface brightness profile of 2MASS J19435624+2118233 follows that of a typical, massive elliptical galaxy more closely than that of a disk galaxy. With Fermi-LAT a HE counterpart is found with a power-law spectrum above 1 GeV, with a normalization of (3.0 ± 0.8stat ± 0.6sys) × 10-15 cm-2 s-1 MeV-1 at the decorrelation energy Edec = 15.1 GeV and a spectral index of Γ = 1.59 ± 0.19stat ± 0.13sys. This gamma-ray spectrum shows a rather sharp break between the HE and VHE regimes of ΔΓ = 1.47 ± 0.36. In conclusion, the infrared and HE data strongly favor an extragalactic origin of HESS J1943+213, where the infrared counterpart traces the host galaxy of an extreme blazar and where the rather sharp spectral break between the HE and VHE regime indicates attenuation on extragalactic background light. The source is most likely located at a redshift between 0.03 and 0.45 according to extension and EBL attenuation arguments.},
doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201423807},
journal = {Astronomy and Astrophysics},
number = ,
volume = 571,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Nov 06 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Thu Nov 06 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}
Web of Science
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