Fermi-LAT Discovery of GeV Gamma-ray Emission from the Vicinity of SNR W44

We report the detection of GeV gamma-ray emission from the molecular cloud complex that surrounds the supernova remnant (SNR) W44 using the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard Fermi. While the previously reported gamma-ray emission from SNR W44 is likely to arise from the dense radio-emitting filaments within the remnant, the gamma-ray emission that appears to come from the surrounding molecular cloud complex can be ascribed to the cosmic rays (CRs) that have escaped from W44. The non-detection of synchrotron radio emission associated with the molecular cloud complex suggests the decay of neutral pi mesons produced in hadronic collisions as the gamma-ray emission mechanism. The total kinetic energy channeled into the escaping CRs is estimated to be (0.3--3)x10^{50} erg, in broad agreement with the conjecture that SNRs are the main sources of Galactic CRs.

Restoring the Suzaku Source Position Accuracy and Point-Spread Function

We present an empirical correction of sky coordinates of X-ray photons obtained with the XIS aboard the Suzaku satellite to improve the source position accuracy and restore the point-spread function (PSF). The XIS images are known to have an uncertainty in position of up to 1 arcmin, and to show considerable degradations of the PSF. These problems are caused by a drifting of the satellite attitude due to thermal distortion of the side panel 7, where the attitude control system is mounted. We found that the position error averaged over a pointing observation can be largely reduced by using the relation between the deviation of the source position in the DETX direction and the ecliptic latitude of the pointing target. We parameterized the wobbling of the source position synchronized with the satellite orbital period with temperatures of onboard radiators and elapsed time since the night-day transition of the spacecraft. We developed software, aeattcor, to correct the image drift using these parameters, and applied it to 27 point-source images. We show that the radius of the 90% error circle of the source position was reduced to 19 arcsec and the PSF was sharpened. These improvements have enhanced the scientific capability of the Suzaku XIS.