No Arabic abstract
We present the analysis of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) $gamma$-ray observations of HB~21 (G89.0+4.7). We detect significant $gamma$-ray emission associated with the remnant: the flux >100 MeV is $9.4pm0.8(stat)pm1.6(syst)times10^{-11}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. HB 21 is well modeled by a uniform disk centered at $l= 88{deg}.75pm 0{deg}.04$, $b = +4{deg}.65 pm 0{deg}.06$ with a radius of $1{deg}.19 pm 0{deg}.06$. The $gamma$-ray spectrum shows clear evidence of curvature, suggesting a cutoff or break in the underlying particle population at an energy of a few GeV. We complement $gamma$-ray observations with the analysis of the WMAP 7-year data from 23 to 93 GHz, achieving the first detection of HB 21 at these frequencies. In combination with archival radio data, the radio spectrum shows a spectral break which helps to constrain the relativistic electron spectrum, hence parameters of simple non-thermal radiation models. In one-zone models multiwavelength data favor the origin of $gamma$ rays from nucleon-nucleon collisions. A single population of electrons cannot produce both $gamma$ rays through bremsstrahlung and radio emission through synchrotron radiation. A predominantly inverse-Compton origin of the $gamma$-ray emission is disfavored because it requires lower interstellar densities than are inferred for HB 21. In the hadronic-dominated scenarios accelerated nuclei contribute a total energy of $sim 3 times10^{49}$ ergs, while in a two-zone bremsstrahlung-dominated scenario the total energy in accelerated particles is $sim1times10^{49}$ ergs.
In this paper we report on the detection of $gamma$-ray emission coincident with the Galactic supernova remnant Kesteven 79 (Kes 79). We analysed approximately 52 months of data obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Kes 79 is thought to be interacting with adjacent molecular clouds based on the presence of strong $^{12}$CO J = 1 $rightarrow$ 0 and HCO$^{+}$ J = 1 $rightarrow$ 0 emission and the detection of 1720 MHz line emission towards the east of the remnant. Acceleration of cosmic rays is expected to occur at SNR shocks, and SNRs interacting with dense molecular clouds provide a good testing ground for detecting and analysing the production of $gamma$-rays from the decay of $pi^0$ into two $gamma$-ray photons. This analysis investigates $gamma$-ray emission coincident with Kes 79, which has a detection significance of $sim 7 sigma$. Additionally we present an investigation of the spatial and spectral characteristics of Kes 79 using multiple archival XMM-Newton observations of this remnant. We determine the global X-ray properties of Kes 79 and estimate the ambient density across the remnant. We also performed a similar analysis for Galactic SNR Kesteven 78 (Kes 78), but due to large uncertainties in the $gamma$-ray background model, no conclusion can be made about an excess of GeV $gamma$-ray associated with the remnant.
To uniformly determine the properties of supernova remnants (SNRs) at high energies, we have developed the first systematic survey at energies from 1 to 100 GeV using data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Based on the spatial overlap of sources detected at GeV energies with SNRs known from radio surveys, we classify 30 sources as likely GeV SNRs. We also report 14 marginal associations and 245 flux upper limits. A mock catalog in which the positions of known remnants are scrambled in Galactic longitude, allows us to determine an upper limit of 22% on the number of GeV candidates falsely identified as SNRs. We have also developed a method to estimate spectral and spatial systematic errors arising from the diffuse interstellar emission model, a key component of all Galactic Fermi LAT analyses. By studying remnants uniformly in aggregate, we measure the GeV properties common to these objects and provide a crucial context for the detailed modeling of individual SNRs. Combining our GeV results with multiwavelength (MW) data, including radio, X-ray, and TeV, demonstrates the need for improvements to previously sufficient, simple models describing the GeV and radio emission from these objects. We model the GeV and MW emission from SNRs in aggregate to constrain their maximal contribution to observed Galactic cosmic rays.
We present an analysis of gamma-ray data obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in the region around SNR S147 (G180.0-1.7). A spatially extended gamma-ray source detected in an energy range of 0.2--10 GeV is found to coincide with SNR S147. We confirm its spatial extension at >5sigma confidence level. The gamma-ray flux is (3.8 pm 0.6) x 10^{-8} photons cm^{-2} s^{-1}, corresponding to a luminosity of 1.3 x 10^{34} (d/1.3 kpc)^2 erg s^{-1} in this energy range. The gamma-ray emission exhibits a possible spatial correlation with prominent Halpha filaments of S147. There is no indication that the gamma-ray emission comes from the associated pulsar PSR J0538+2817. The gamma-ray spectrum integrated over the remnant is likely dominated by the decay of neutral pi mesons produced through the proton--proton collisions in the filaments. Reacceleration of pre-existing CRs and subsequent adiabatic compression in the filaments is sufficient to provide the required energy density of high-energy protons.
We investigate the nature of the accelerated particles responsible for the production of the gamma-ray emission observed from the middle-aged supernova remnant (SNR) HB 21. The analysis of more than nine years of Fermi LAT data leads to the observation of an extended emission positionally in agreement with the SNR HB 21. The bulk of this gamma-ray emission is detected from the remnant; photons up to $sim$10,GeV show clear evidence of curvature at the lower energies. The remnant is characterized by an extension of $0^{circ}.83$, that is, 30% smaller than claimed in previous studies. The increased statistics allows us also to resolve a point-like source at the edge of the remnant, in proximity to a molecular cloud of the Cyg OB7 complex. In the southern part of the remnant, a hint of an additional gamma-ray excess in correspondence to shocked molecular clouds is observed. The spectral energy distribution of the SNR shows evidence of a break around 400 MeV, which can be properly fitted within both the hadronic and leptonic scenario. The pion-decay mechanism reproduces well the gamma rays, postulating a proton spectrum with a slope $sim 2.5$ and with a steepening around tens of GeV, which could be explained by the energy-dependent escape of particles from the remnant. In the leptonic scenario the electron spectrum within the SNR matches closely the locally measured spectrum. This remarkable and novel result shows that SNR HB 21 could be a direct contributor to the population of Galactic electrons. In the leptonic scenario, we find that the local electron spectrum with a break around 2 GeV, closely evokes the best-fitting parental spectrum within this SNR. If such a scenario is confirmed, this would indicate that the SNR might be a source of Galactic background electrons.
The supernova remnant (SNR) W49B originated from a core-collapse supernova that occurred between one and four thousand years ago, and subsequently evolved into a mixed-morphology remnant, which is interacting with molecular clouds (MC). $gamma$-ray observations of SNR/MC associations are a powerful tool to constrain the origin of Galactic cosmic-rays, as they can probe the acceleration of hadrons through their interaction with the surrounding medium and subsequent emission of non-thermal photons. The detection of a $gamma$-ray source coincident with W49B at very high energies (VHE; E > 100 GeV) with the H.E.S.S. Cherenkov telescopes is reported together with a study of the source with 5 years of Fermi-LAT high energy $gamma$-ray (0.06 - 300 GeV) data. The smoothly-connected combined source spectrum, measured from 60 MeV to multi-TeV energies, shows two significant spectral breaks at $304pm20$ MeV and $8.4_{-2.5}^{+2.2}$ GeV, the latter being constrained by the joint fit from the two instruments. The detected spectral features are similar to those observed in several other SNR/MC associations and are found to be indicative of $gamma$-ray emission produced through neutral-pion decay.