Title

Detection of Extended VHE Gamma Ray Emission from G106.3+2.7 with VERITAS

Authors

P. T. Reynolds, Department of Physical Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Bishopstown, Cork, Ireland
et al

Document Type

Article

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Disciplines

Astrophysics and Astronomy | Cosmology, Relativity, and Gravity | External Galaxies | Other Astrophysics and Astronomy | Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy

Publication Details

Astrophysical Journal Letters

Abstract

We report the detection of very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission from supernova remnant (SNR) G106.3+2.7. Observations performed in 2008 with the VERITAS atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray telescope resolve extended emission overlapping the elongated radio SNR. The 7.3σ (pre-trials) detection has a full angular extent of roughly 06 by 04. Most notably, the centroid of the VHE emission is centered near the peak of the coincident 12CO (J = 1-0) emission, 04 away from the pulsar PSR J2229+6114, situated at the northern end of the SNR. Evidently the current-epoch particles from the pulsar wind nebula are not participating in the gamma-ray production. The VHE energy spectrum measured with VERITAS is well characterized by a power law dN/dE = N 0(E/3 TeV)–Γ with a differential index of Γ = 2.29 ± 0.33stat ± 0.30sys and a flux of N 0 = (1.15 ± 0.27stat ± 0.35sys) × 10–13 cm–2 s–1 TeV–1. The integral flux above 1 TeV corresponds to ~5 percent of the steady Crab Nebula emission above the same energy. We describe the observations and analysis of the object and briefly discuss the implications of the detection in a multiwavelength context.

Recommended Citation

Acciari, V.A., Aliu, E., Arlen, T., Aune, T., Bautista, M., Beilicke, M., Benbow, W., Boltuch, D., Bradbury, S.M., Buckley, J.H., Bugaev, V., Butt, Y., Byrum, K., Cannon, A., Cesarini, A., Chow, Y.C., Ciupik, L., Cogan, P., Cui, W., Dickherber, R., Ergin, T., Fegan, S.J., Finley, J.P., Fortin, P., Fortson, L., Furniss, A., Gall, D., Gillanders, G.H., Gotthelf, E.V., Grube, J., Guenette, R., Gyuk, G., Hanna, D., Holder, J., Horan, D., Hui, C.M., Humensky, T.B., Kaaret, P., Karlsson, N., Kertzman, M., Kieda, D., Konopelko, A., Krawczynski, H., Krennrich, F., Lang, M.J., LeBohec, S., Maier, G., McCann, A., McCutcheon, M., Millis, J., Moriarty, P., Mukherjee, R., Ong, R.A., Otte, A.N., Pandel, D., Perkins, J.S., Pohl, M., Quinn, J., Ragan, K., Reyes, L.C., Reynolds, P.T., Roache, E., Rose, H.J., Schroedter, M., Sembroski, G.H., Smith, A.W., Steele, D., Swordy, S.P., Theiling, M., Toner, J.A., Vassiliev, V.V., Vincent, S., Wagner, R.G., Wakely, S.P., Ward, J.E., Weekes, T.C., Weinstein, A., Weisgarber, T., Williams, D.A., Wissel, S., Wood, M. and Zitzer, B. (2009). DETECTION OF EXTENDED VHE GAMMA RAY EMISSION FROM G106.3+2.7 WITH VERITAS. The Astrophysical Journal, 703(1), pp.L6–L9. Available at: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/703/1/L6 ‌