HESS J1741-302: a hidden accelerator in the Galactic plane


الملخص بالإنكليزية

The H.E.S.S. collaboration has discovered a new very high energy (VHE, E $>$ 0.1 TeV) $gamma$-ray source, HESS J1741-302, located in the Galactic plane. Despite several attempts to constrain its nature, no plausible counterpart has been found so far at X-ray and MeV/GeV $gamma$-ray energies, and the source remains unidentified. An analysis of 145-hour of observations of HESS J1741-302 at VHEs has revealed a steady and relatively weak TeV source ($sim$1$%$ of the Crab Nebula flux), with a spectral index of $Gamma$ = 2.3 $pm$ 0.2$_{text{stat}}$ $pm$ 0.2$_{text{sys}}$, extending to energies up to 10 TeV without any clear signature of a cut-off. In a hadronic scenario, such a spectrum implies an object with particle acceleration up to energies of several hundred TeV. Contrary to most H.E.S.S. unidentified sources, the angular size of HESS J1741-302 is compatible with the H.E.S.S. point spread function at VHEs, with an extension constrained to be below 0.068$^{circ}$ at a 99$%$ confidence level. The $gamma$-ray emission detected by H.E.S.S. can be explained both within a hadronic scenario, due to collisions of protons with energies of hundreds of TeV with dense molecular clouds, and in a leptonic scenario, as a relic pulsar wind nebula, possibly powered by the middle-aged (20 kyr) pulsar PSR B1737-30. A binary scenario, related to the compact radio source 1LC 358.266+0.038 found to be spatially coincident with the best fit position of HESS J1741-302, is also envisaged.

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