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Register a new userSearch for Very-High-Energy (E $>$ 100 GeV) Emission from Geminga Supernova by VERITAS
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A. U. Abeysekara
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Geminga is a nearby (250 pc) middle-aged (spin-down time scale ~12,000 years) pulsar associated with a supernova remnant. Geminga has been a prime candidate for the origin of the unexpectedly high flux of cosmic-ray positrons above 10 GeV detected at Earth. Extended TeV gamma-ray emission from a 2-degree region around the Geminga pulsar was detected by the HAWC observatory, thus suggesting efficient, high-energy leptonic acceleration. Fermi-LAT observations show that the density of GeV leptons in the TeV nebula is lower than predicted by single zone and two zone diffusion models constrained with the HAWC measurements. However, the energy gap between Fermi-LAT and HAWC (~500 GeV to ~1 TeV) remains under-examined. The VERITAS gamma-ray observatory is sensitive in the energy range from 100 GeV to greater than 30 TeV, filling the gap between Fermi-LAT and HAWC. Therefore, VERITAS measurements potentially provide missing information. VERITAS has observed Geminga for 93 hours since 2009 including 28 hours in the 2018/2019 season. However, the standard VERITAS data analysis techniques have insufficient sensitivity to sources extended at the scale of the HAWC detection, due to difficulties with background estimation. We developed the Matched Runs Method (MRM) for VERITAS analysis of spatially extended sources. MRM has been demonstrated to be an effective technique by applying it to archival VERITAS data, and we are currently applying it to the Geminga observations. Here we present the summary of the MRM.
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We present the results of 71.6 hours of observations of the Geminga pulsar (PSR J0633+1746) with the VERITAS very-high-energy gamma-ray telescope array. Data taken with VERITAS between November 2007 and February 2013 were phase-folded using a Geminga pulsar timing solution derived from data recorded by the XMM-emph{Newton} and emph{Fermi}-LAT space telescopes. No significant pulsed emission above 100 GeV is observed, and we report upper limits at the 95% confidence level on the integral flux above 135 GeV (spectral analysis threshold) of 4.0$times10^{-13}$ s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ and 1.7$times10^{-13}$ s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ for the two principal peaks in the emission profile. These upper limits, placed in context with phase-resolved spectral energy distributions determined from five years of data from the emph{Fermi}-LAT, constrain possible hardening of the Geminga pulsar emission spectra above $sim$50 GeV.
The vast majority of pulsars detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) display exponentially cutoff spectra with cutoffs falling in a narrow band around a few GeV. Early spectral modelling predicted spectral cutoffs at energies of up to 100 GeV, assuming curvature radiation. It was therefore not expected that pulsars would be visible in the very-high energy (VHE) regime (>100 GeV). The VERITAS announcement of the detection of pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar at energies up to 400 GeV (and now up to 1.5 TeV as detected by MAGIC) therefore raised important questions about our understanding of the electrodynamics and local environment of pulsars. H.E.S.S. has now detected pulsed emission from the Vela pulsar down to tens of GeV, making this the second pulsar detected by a ground-based Cherenkov telescope. Deep upper limits have also been obtained by VERITAS and MAGIC for the Geminga pulsar. We will review the latest developments in VHE pulsar science, including an overview of the latest observations, refinements, and extensions to radiation models and magnetic field structures, and the implementation of new radiation mechanisms. This will assist us in understanding the VHE emission detected from the Crab pulsar, and predicting the level of VHE emission expected from other pulsars, which is very important for the upcoming CTA.
We conduct a search for periodic emission in the very high-energy gamma-ray band (VHE; E > 100 GeV) from a total of 13 pulsars in an archival VERITAS data set with a total exposure of over 450 hours. The set of pulsars includes many of the brightest young gamma-ray pulsars visible in the Northern Hemisphere. The data analysis resulted in non-detections of pulsed VHE gamma rays from each pulsar. Upper limits on a potential VHE gamma-ray flux are derived at the 95% confidence level above three energy thresholds using two methods. These are the first such searches for pulsed VHE emission from each of the pulsars, and the obtained limits constrain a possible flux component manifesting at VHEs as is seen for the Crab pulsar.
From radio and higher-frequency observations, more than 300 SNRs have been discovered in the Milky Way, of which 220 fall into the H.E.S.S. Galactic Plane Survey. However only 50 SNRs are coincident with a H.E.S.S source and in 8 cases the VHE emission is firmly associated with the SNR. The H.E.S.S. dataset includes now more than 8 years of observations and it is of great interest to extract VHE flux upper limits from undetected SNRs. These new measurements can then be used to test the standard paradigm of the SNRs as the origin of Galactic cosmic rays. In this contribution, the H.E.S.S. results on the population of SNRs and the subsequent constraints on the cosmic-ray acceleration efficiency in these sources will be presented.
PSR J0218+4232 is one of the most energetic millisecond pulsars known and has long been considered as one of the best candidates for very high-energy (VHE; >100 GeV) gamma-ray emission. Using 11.5 years of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data between 100 MeV and 870 GeV, and ~90 hours of MAGIC observations in the 20 GeV to 20 TeV range, we have searched for the highest energy gamma-ray emission from PSR J0218+4232. Based on the analysis of the LAT data, we find evidence for pulsed emission above 25 GeV, but see no evidence for emission above 100 GeV (VHE) with MAGIC. We present the results of searches for gamma-ray emission, along with theoretical modeling, to interpret the lack of VHE emission. We conclude that, based on the experimental observations and theoretical modeling, it will remain extremely challenging to detect VHE emission from PSR J0218+4232 with the current generation of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), and maybe even with future ones, such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA).
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