Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
The highest energy HAWC sources are likely leptonic and powered by pulsars
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Physics. Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, The Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmo Particle Physics (OKC).
Number of Authors: 32021 (English)In: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, E-ISSN 1475-7516, no 8, article id 010Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The HAWC Collaboration has observed gamma rays at energies above 56 TeV from a collection of nine sources. It has been suggested that this emission could be hadronic in nature, requiring that these systems accelerate cosmic-ray protons or nuclei up to PeV-scale energies. In this paper, we instead show that the spectra of these objects favor a leptonic (inverse Compton) origin for their emission. More specifically, the gamma-ray emission from these objects can be straightforwardly accommodated within a model in which similar to O(10%) of the host pulsar's spindown power is transferred into the acceleration of electrons and positrons with a power-law spectrum that extends to several hundred TeV or higher. The spectral break that is observed among these sources is naturally explained within the context of this simple model, and occurs at the energy where the timescale for energy losses matches the age of the pulsar. In contrast, this spectral feature cannot be straightforwardly accommodated in hadronic scenarios. Furthermore, hadronic models predict that these sources should produce more emission at GeV-scale energies than is observed. In light of these considerations, we conclude that HAWC's highest energy sources should be interpreted as TeV halos or pulsar wind nebulae, which produce their emission through inverse Compton scattering, and are powered by the rotational kinetic energy of their host pulsar.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2021. no 8, article id 010
Keywords [en]
cosmic ray theory, gamma ray theory
National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-196964DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2021/08/010ISI: 000683047800010Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85113898194OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-196964DiVA, id: diva2:1596866
Available from: 2021-09-23 Created: 2021-09-23 Last updated: 2023-03-28Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopusarXiv:2101.11026

Authority records

Linden, Tim

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Linden, Tim
By organisation
Department of PhysicsThe Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmo Particle Physics (OKC)
In the same journal
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Physical Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 22 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf