Detection of gamma-ray emission from the Vela pulsar wind nebula with AGILE.

نویسندگان

A Pellizzoni

A Trois

M Tavani

M Pilia

A Giuliani

G Pucella

P Esposito

S Sabatini

G Piano

A Argan

G Barbiellini

A Bulgarelli

M Burgay

P Caraveo

P W Cattaneo

A W Chen

V Cocco

T Contessi

E Costa

F D'Ammando

E Del Monte

G De Paris

G Di Cocco

G Di Persio

I Donnarumma

Y Evangelista

M Feroci

A Ferrari

M Fiorini

F Fuschino

M Galli

F Gianotti

A Hotan

C Labanti

I Lapshov

F Lazzarotto

P Lipari

F Longo

M Marisaldi

M Mastropietro

S Mereghetti

E Moretti

A Morselli

L Pacciani

J Palfreyman

F Perotti

P Picozza

C Pittori

A Possenti

M Prest

M Rapisarda

A Rappoldi

E Rossi

A Rubini

P Santolamazza

E Scalise

P Soffitta

E Striani

M Trifoglio

E Vallazza

S Vercellone

F Verrecchia

V Vittorini

A Zambra

D Zanello

P Giommi

S Colafrancesco

A Antonelli

L Salotti

N D'Amico

G F Bignami

چکیده

Pulsars are known to power winds of relativistic particles that can produce bright nebulae by interacting with the surrounding medium. These pulsar wind nebulae are observed by their radio, optical, and x-ray emissions, and in some cases also at TeV (teraelectron volt) energies, but the lack of information in the gamma-ray band precludes drawing a comprehensive multiwavelength picture of their phenomenology and emission mechanisms. Using data from the AGILE satellite, we detected the Vela pulsar wind nebula in the energy range from 100 MeV to 3 GeV. This result constrains the particle population responsible for the GeV emission and establishes a class of gamma-ray emitters that could account for a fraction of the unidentified galactic gamma-ray sources.

برای دانلود رایگان متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

H . E . S . S . observation of the Vela X nebula

Vela X is one of the nearest Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWN) and has served as prototype for evolutionary studies. Associated with the pulsar B0833-45, Vela X has been observed at different wavelengths and in particular in and X-ray bands. The H.E.S.S. Cherenkov telescope array has observed Vela X in 2004 and 2005, discovering very high energy gamma-ray emission in this region, centered to the south ...

متن کامل

Nucleonic gamma-ray production in Pulsar Wind Nebulae

Observations of the inner radian of the Galactic disk at very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays have revealed at least 16 new sources. Besides shell type supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae (PWN) appear to be a dominant source population in the catalogue of VHE gamma-ray sources. Except for the Crab nebula, the newly discovered PWN are resolved at VHE gamma-rays to be spatially extended (5-20 pc...

متن کامل

54 0 v 1 2 8 M ay 2 00 3 Search for the Optical Counterpart of the Vela Pulsar X - ray Nebula

Observations of the Vela pulsar region with the Chandra X-ray observatory have revealed the fine structure of its synchrotron pulsar-wind nebula (PWN), which showed an overall similarity with the Crab PWN. However, contrary to the Crab, no firm detection of the Vela PWN in optical has been reported yet. To search for the optical counterpart of the X-ray PWN, we analyzed deep optical observation...

متن کامل

ar X iv : a st ro - p h / 97 11 21 2 v 2 1 9 N ov 1 99 7 Supernova Remnants and Plerions in the Compton Gamma - Ray Observatory Era

Due to observations made by the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory over the last six years, it appears that a number of galactic supernova remnants may be candidates for sources of cosmic gamma-rays. These include shell-type remnants such as IC443 and γ Cygni, which have no known parent pulsars, but have significant associations with unidentified EGRET sources, and others that appear to be composite...

متن کامل