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تسجيل مستخدم جديدProbing the hadronic nature of the gamma-ray emission associated with Westerlund 2
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Star-forming regions have been proposed as potential Galactic cosmic-ray accelerators for decades. Cosmic-ray acceleration can be probed through observations of gamma-rays produced in inelastic proton-proton collisions, at GeV and TeV energies. In this paper, we analyze more than 11 years of Fermi-LAT data from the direction of Westerlund 2, one of the most massive and best-studied star-forming regions in our Galaxy. In particular, we investigate the characteristics of the bright pulsar PSR J1023-5746 that dominates the gamma-ray emission below a few GeV at the position of Westerlund 2, and the underlying extended source FGES J1023.3-5747. The analysis results in a clear identification of FGES J1023.3-5747 as the GeV counterpart of the TeV source HESS J1023-575, through its morphological and spectral properties. This identification provides new clues about the origin of the HESS J1023-575 gamma-ray emission, favouring a hadronic origin of the emission, powered by Westerlund 2, rather than a leptonic origin related to either the pulsar wind nebula associated with PSR J1023-5746 or the cluster itself. This result indirectly supports the hypothesis that star-forming regions can contribute to the cosmic-ray sea observed in our Galaxy
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Star-forming regions have been proposed as potential Galactic cosmic-ray accelerators for decades. Cosmic ray acceleration can be probed through observations of gamma-rays produced in inelastic proton-proton collisions, at GeV and TeV energies. We an
alyze more than 11 years of Fermi-LAT data from the direction of Westerlund 2, one of the most massive and best-studied star-forming regions in our Galaxy. The spectral and morphological characteristics of the LAT source agree with the ones in the TeV regime (HESS J1023-575), allowing the description of the gamma-ray source from a few hundreds of MeV to a few tens of TeVs. We will present the results and discuss the implications of the identification with the stellar cluster and the radiation mechanism involved.
Westerlund 1 (Wd 1) is the most massive stellar cluster in the Galaxy and associated with an extended region of TeV emission. Here we report the results of a search for GeV gamma-ray emission in this region. The analysis is based on ~4.5 years of Fer
mi-LAT data and reveals significantly extended emission which we model as a Gaussian, resulting in a best-fit sigma of sigma_S = (0.475 +/- 0.05) deg and an offset from Wd 1 of ~1 deg. A partial overlap of the GeV emission with the TeV signal as reported by H.E.S.S. is found. We investigate the spectral and morphological characteristics of the gamma-ray emission and discuss its origin in the context of two distinct scenarios. Acceleration of electrons in a Pulsar Wind Nebula provides a reasonably natural interpretation of the GeV emission, but leaves the TeV emission unexplained. A scenario in which protons are accelerated in or near Wd 1 in supernova explosion(s) and are diffusing away and interacting with molecular material, seems consistent with the observed GeV and TeV emission, but requires a very high energy input in protons, ~10^51 erg, and rather slow diffusion. Observations of Wd 1 with a future gamma-ray detector such as CTA provide a very promising route to fully resolve the origin of the TeV and GeV emission in Wd 1 and provide a deeper understanding of the high-energy (HE) astrophysics of massive stellar clusters.
Particle acceleration in massive star forming regions can proceed via a large variety of possible emission scenarios, including high-energy gamma-ray production in the colliding wind zone of the massive Wolf-Rayet binary (here WR 20a and WR 121a), co
llective wind scenarios, diffusive shock acceleration at the boundaries of wind-blown bubbles in the stellar cluster, and outbreak phenomena from hot stellar winds into the interstellar medium. In view of the recent Fermi-LAT detection of HESS J1023-575 (in the vicinity of Westerlund 2), we examine another very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray source, HESS J1848-0145 (in the vicinity of W43), possibly associated with a massive star cluster. Considering multi-wavelength data, in particular TeV gamma-rays, we examine the available evidence that the gamma-ray emission coincident with Westerlund 2 and W43 could originate in particles accelerated by the above-mentioned mechanisms in massive star clusters.
New generation TeV gamma-ray telescopes have discovered many new sources, including several enigmatic unidentified TeV objects. HESS J0632+057 is a particularly interesting unidentified TeV source since: it is a point source, it has a possible hard-s
pectrum X-ray counterpart and a positionally consistent Be star, it has evidence of long-term VHE flux variability, and it is postulated to be a newly detected TeV/X-ray binary. We have obtained Swift X-ray telescope observations of this source from MJD 54857 to 54965, in an attempt to ascertain its nature and to investigate the hypothesis that its a previously unknown X-ray/TeV binary. Variability and spectral properties similar to those of the other 3 known X-ray/TeV binaries have been observed, with measured flux increases by factors of approximately 3. X-ray variability is present on multiple timescales including days to months; however, no clear signature of periodicity is present on the timescales probed by these data. If binary modulation is present and dominating the measured variability, then the period of the orbit is likely to be more than 54 days (half of this campaign), or it has a shorter period with a variable degree of flux modulation on successive high states. If the two high states measured to date are due to binary modulation, then the favored period is approximately 35-40 days. More observations are required to determine if this object is truly a binary system and to determine the extent that the measured variability is due to inter-orbit flaring effects or periodic binary modulation.
Hadronic gamma-ray emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) is an important tool to test shock acceleration of cosmic ray protons. Tycho is one of nearly a dozen Galactic SNRs which are suggested to emit hadronic gamma-ray emission. Among them, howeve
r, it is the only one in which the hadronic emission is proposed to arise from the interaction with low-density (~0.3 cm^{-3}) ambient medium. Here we present an alternative hadronic explanation with a modest conversion efficiency (of order 1%) for this young remnant. With such an efficiency, a normal electron-proton ratio (of order 10^{-2}) is derived from the radio and X-ray synchrotron spectra and an average ambient density that is at least one-order-of-magnitude higher is derived from the hadronic gamma-ray flux. This result is consistent with the multi-band evidence of the presence of dense medium from the north to the east of the Tycho SNR. The SNR-cloud association, in combination with the HI absorption data, helps to constrain the so-far controversial distance to Tycho and leads to an estimate of 2.5 kpc.
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