Title: Fermi Large Area Telescope Observation Of A Gamma-Ray Source At The Position Of Eta Carinae

Abstract

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a γ-ray source that is spatially consistent with the location of Eta Carinae. This source has been persistently bright since the beginning of the LAT survey observations (from 2008 August to 2009 July, the time interval considered here). The γ-ray signal is detected significantly throughout the LAT energy band (i.e., up to ~100 GeV). The 0.1-100 GeV energy spectrum is well represented by a combination of a cutoff power-law model (<10 GeV) and a hard power-law component (>10 GeV). The total flux (>100 MeV) is 3.7^+0.3 –0.1 × 10^–7 photons s^–1 cm^–2, with additional systematic uncertainties of 10%, and consistent with the average flux measured by AGILE. The light curve obtained by Fermi is consistent with steady emission. Our observations do not confirm the presence of a γ-ray flare in 2008 October, as reported by Tavani et al., although we cannot exclude that a flare lasting only a few hours escaped detection by the Fermi LAT. We also do not find any evidence for γ-ray variability that correlates with the large X-ray variability of Eta Carinae observed during 2008 December and 2009 January. We are thus notmore » able to establish an unambiguous identification of the LAT source with Eta Carinae.« less

Authors:

Abdo, A. A, ^[1]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Naval Research Lab. (NRL), Washington, DC (United States); et al.

Publication Date:

Wed Oct 13 00:00:00 EDT 2010

Research Org.:

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE

Contributing Org.:

Fermi LAT Collaboration

OSTI Identifier:

1357519

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-76SF00515

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

The Astrophysical Journal

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 723; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X

Publisher:

Institute of Physics (IOP)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS