The giant radio galaxy M 87 was observed at TeV energies with the Cherenkov telescopes of the H.E.S.S. collaboration (High Energy Stereoscopic System). The observations have been performed in the year 2003 during the comissioning phase and in 2004 with the full four telescope setup. The observations were motivated by the measurement of the HEGRA collaboration which reported a 4.7 sigma excess of TeV gamma-rays from the direction of M 87. The results of the H.E.S.S. observations - indicating a possible variability of TeV gamma-ray emission from M 87 (compared to the HEGRA result) - are presented.
The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is an array of four imaging atmospheric-Cherenkov telescopes located in Namibia and designed to detect extensive air showers initiated by gamma-rays in the very-high-energy domain. It is an ideal instrument for surveying the Galactic plane in search of new sources, thanks to its location in the Southern Hemisphere, its excellent sensitivity, and its large field-of-view. The efforts of the H.E.S.S. Galactic Plane Survey, the first comprehensive survey of the inner Galaxy at TeV energies, have contributed to the discovery of an unexpectedly large and diverse population of over 60 sources of VHE gamma rays within its current range of l=250 to 65 degrees in longitude and |b|<=3.5 degrees in latitude. The population of VHE gamma-ray emitters is dominated by the pulsar wind nebula and supernova remnant source classes, although nearly a third remain unidentified or confused. The sensitivity of H.E.S.S. to sources in the inner Galaxy has improved significantly over the past two years, from continued survey observations, dedicated follow-up observations of interesting source candidates, and from the development of advanced methods for discrimination of gamma-ray-induced showers from the dominant background of hadron-induced showers. The latest maps of the Galaxy at TeV energies will be presented, and a few remarkable new sources will be highlighted.
Studies of radio galaxies at TeV energies are fascinating because their jets are misaligned concerning our sightline. Thus, it provides us with a unique opportunity to study the structure of their jets, the radiative processes, and the acceleration mechanisms involved in them. In addition, some radio galaxies have presented variability in their emission, like the giant radio galaxy M87, which has reported several activity periods. Due to its duty cycle >95% and instantaneous field of view of 2 sr, HAWC provides daily monitoring of variable sources visible from the Northern Hemisphere. In this work, we show the results of monitoring M87 between January 2015 and December 2018. HAWCs observations are consistent with the low activity state reported by other instruments (like H.E.S.S and MAGIC). However, after September 2017 (~MJD 58000), the HAWC measurements of M87 show hints of higher activity.
Active galactic nuclei with misaligned jets have been recently established as a class of high-energy gamma-ray sources. M87, a nearby representative of this class, shows fast TeV variability on timescales less than one day. We present calculations performed in the framework of the scenario in which gamma-ray flares in non-blazar active galactic nuclei are produced by a red giant or a gas cloud interacting with the jet. We show that both the light curve and energy spectrum of the spectacular April 2010 flare can be reproduced by this model, assuming that a relatively massive cloud of approx 1.e29 g penetrates into the jet at few tens of Schwarzschild radii from the super-massive black hole.
Vela X is a region of extended radio emission in the western part of the Vela constellation: one of the nearest pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), and associated with the energetic Vela pulsar (PSR B0833-45). Extended very-high-energy (VHE) $gamma$-ray emission (HESS $mathrm{J0835mhyphen 455}$) was discovered using the H.E.S.S. experiment in 2004. The VHE $gamma$-ray emission was found to be coincident with a region of X-ray emission discovered with ${it ROSAT}$ above 1.5 keV (the so-called textit{Vela X cocoon}): a filamentary structure extending southwest from the pulsar to the centre of Vela X. A deeper observation of the entire Vela X nebula region, also including larger offsets from the cocoon, has been performed with H.E.S.S. This re-observation was carried out in order to probe the extent of the non-thermal emission from the Vela X region at TeV energies and to investigate its spectral properties. In order to increase the sensitivity to the faint $gamma$-ray emission from the very extended Vela X region, a multivariate analysis method combining three complementary reconstruction techniques of Cherenkov-shower images is applied for the selection of $gamma$-ray events. The analysis is performed with the On/Off background method, which estimates the background from separate observations pointing away from Vela X; towards regions free of $gamma$-ray sources but with comparable observation conditions. The $gamma$-ray surface brightness over the large Vela X region reveals that the detection of non-thermal VHE $gamma$-ray emission from the PWN HESS $mathrm{J0835mhyphen 455}$ is statistically significant over a region of radius 1.2$^{circ}$ around the position $alpha$ = 08$^{mathrm{h}}$ 35$^{mathrm{m}}$ 00$^{mathrm{s}}$, $delta$ = -45$^{circ}$ 36$^{mathrm{prime}}$ 00$^{mathrm{prime}mathrm{prime}}$ (J2000).
The southern supernova remnant (SNR)W28 was observed in 1994 and 1995 by the CANGAROO 3.8m telescope in a search formulti-TeV gamma ray emission, using the Cerenkov imaging technique. We obtained upper limits for a variety of point-like and extended features within a +-1 degree-region and briefly discuss these results, together with that of EGRET within the framework of a shock acceleration model of the W28 SNR.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sorry, something went wrong while fetching comments!