The cores of neutron stars harbor the highest matter densities known to occur in nature, up to several times the densities in atomic nuclei. Similarly, magnetic field strengths can exceed the ...strongest fields generated in terrestrial laboratories by ten orders of magnitude. Hyperon-dominated matter, deconfined quark matter, superfluidity, even superconductivity are predicted in neutron stars. Similarly, quantum electrodynamics predicts that in strong magnetic fields the vacuum becomes birefringent. The properties of matter under such conditions is governed by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), and the close study of the properties of neutron stars offers the unique opportunity to test and explore the richness of QCD and QED in a regime that is utterly beyond the reach of terrestrial experiments. Experimentally, this is almost virgin territory.
This is a report on the findings of the Galactic compact objects working group for the white paper on the status and future of TeV gamma-ray astronomy. The white paper is an APS commissioned ...document, and the full version has also been released and can be found on astro-ph. This section of the white paper discusses the potential of future ground-based gamma-ray experiments to advance our understanding of the physics of Galactic compact objects including pulsars, pulsar wind nebulae, and X-ray binaries.
Astrophys.J. 598 (2003) 481-485 We report the discovery of millisecond oscillations in an X-ray burst from
the X-ray transient SAX J1748.9-2021 in the globular cluster NGC 6440.
Oscillations at a ...frequency of 409.7 +/- 0.3 Hz were present in one of nine
X-ray bursts observed with the Proportional Counter Array on the Rossi X-ray
Timing Explorer during the outburst which occurred in 2001. The burst was one
of the two dimmest and had the longest duration and decay time. The average
peak luminosity of two bursts showing radius expansion is (3.6 +/- 0.4) x 10^38
erg/s, consistent with the Eddington luminosity for a 1.4 solar mass and 10 km
radius neutron star burning hydrogen-poor matter. We speculate that the
dichotomy observed between sources with burst oscillations at once versus twice
the frequency difference of kHz quasiperiodic oscillations in the persistent
emission may be related to the magnetic field geometry of the neutron stars.
M87 is a nearby radio galaxy that is detected at energies ranging from radio to VHE gamma-rays. Its proximity and its jet, misaligned from our line-of-sight, enable detailed morphological studies and ...extensive modeling at radio, optical, and X-ray energies. Flaring activity was observed at all energies, and multi-wavelength correlations would help clarify the origin of the VHE emission. In this paper, we describe a detailed temporal and spectral analysis of the VERITAS VHE gamma-ray observations of M87 in 2008 and 2009. In the 2008 observing season, VERITAS detected an excess with a statistical significance of 7.2 sigma from M87 during a joint multi-wavelength monitoring campaign conducted by three major VHE experiments along with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In February 2008, VERITAS observed a VHE flare from M87 occurring over a 4-day timespan. The peak nightly flux above 250GeV was 7.7% of the Crab Nebula flux. M87 was marginally detected before this 4-day flare period, and was not detected afterwards. Spectral analysis of the VERITAS observations showed no significant change in the photon index between the flare and pre-flare states. Shortly after the VHE flare seen by VERITAS, the Chandra X-ray Observatory detected the flux from the core of M87 at a historical maximum, while the flux from the nearby knot HST-1 remained quiescent. Acciari et al. (2009) presented the 2008 contemporaneous VHE gamma-ray, Chandra X-ray, and VLBA radio observations which suggest the core as the most likely source of VHE emission, in contrast to the 2005 VHE flare that was simultaneous with an X-ray flare in the HST-1 knot. In 2009, VERITAS continued its monitoring of M87 and marginally detected a 4.2 sigma excess corresponding to a flux of ~1% of the Crab Nebula. No VHE flaring activity was observed in 2009.
Astrophys.J. 622 (2005) 508-519 Multiwavelength observations of Galactic black hole (GBH) transients during
the state transitions and in the low/hard state may provide detailed
information on the ...accretion structure of these systems. 4U1543-47 is a GBH
transient that was covered exceptionally well in X-ray and infrared (daily
observations) and reasonably well in optical and radio during its outburst
decay in 2002. When all the available information is gathered in the
intermediate and the low/hard state, 4U1543-47 makes an important contribution
to our understanding of state transitions and the role of outflows on the high
energy emission properties of black hole binaries. The evolution of the X-ray
spectral and temporal properties and the IR light curve place strong
constraints on different models for explaining the overall emission from
accreting black holes. The overall spectral energy distribution is consistent
with synchrotron origin for the optical and infrared emission, however, the
X-ray flux is above the power-law continuation of the optical and infrared
flux. The infrared light curve, the HEXTE light curve and the evolution of the
X-ray photon index indicate that the major source of hard X-rays cannot be
direct synchrotron radiation from an acceleration region in a jet for most of
the outburst decay.
We report on observations of very high-energy gamma rays from the shell-type supernova remnant Cassiopeia A with the VERITAS stereoscopic array of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes in ...Arizona. The total exposure time for these observations is 22 hours, accumulated between September and November of 2007. The gamma-ray source associated with the SNR Cassiopeia A was detected above 200 GeV with a statistical significance of 8.3 s.d. The estimated integral flux for this gamma-ray source is about 3% of the Crab-Nebula flux. The photon spectrum is compatible with a power law dN/dE ~ E^(-Gamma) with an index Gamma = 2.61 +/- 0.24(stat) +/- 0.2(sys). The data are consistent with a point-like source. We provide a detailed description of the analysis results, and discuss physical mechanisms that may be responsible for the observed gamma-ray emission.
VERITAS is a state-of-the-art ground-based gamma-ray observatory that operates in the very high-energy (VHE) region of 100 GeV to 50 TeV. The observatory consists of an array of four 12m-diameter ...imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes located in southern Arizona, USA. The four-telescope array has been fully operational since September 2007, and over the last two years, VERITAS has been operating with high efficiency and with excellent performance. This talk summarizes the recent results from VERITAS, including the discovery of eight new VHE gamma-ray sources.
We present results from an intensive VERITAS monitoring campaign of the high-frequency peaked BL Lac object 1ES 1218+304 in 2008/2009. Although 1ES 1218+304 was detected previously by MAGIC and ...VERITAS at a persistent level of ~6% of the Crab Nebula flux, the new VERITAS data reveal a prominent flare reaching ~20% of the Crab. While very high energy (VHE) flares are quite common in many nearby blazars, the case of 1ES 1218+304 (redshift z = 0.182) is particularly interesting since it belongs to a group of blazars that exhibit unusually hard VHE spectra considering their redshifts. When correcting the measured spectra for absorption by the extragalactic background light, 1ES 1218+304 and a number of other blazars are found to have differential photon indices less than 1.5. The difficulty in modeling these hard spectral energy distributions in blazar jets has led to a range of theoretical gamma-ray emission scenarios, one of which is strongly constrained by these new VERITAS observations. We consider the implications of the observed light curve of 1ES 1218+304, which shows day scale flux variations, for shock acceleration scenarios in relativistic jets, and in particular for the viability of kiloparsec-scale jet emission scenarios.
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 7.3 sigma (pre-trials) detection has a full angular extent of roughly 0.6deg by 0.4deg. Most notably, the centroid of the VHE emission is centered near the peak of the coincident 12CO (J = 1-0) emission, 0.4deg 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)^{-G} with a differential index of G = 2.29 +/- 0.33stat +/- 0.30sys and a flux of N_0 = (1.15 +/- 0.27stat +/- 0.35sys)x 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.
We report the discovery of very high energy gamma-ray emission from the
direction of the SNR G54.1+0.3 using the VERITAS ground-based gamma-ray
observatory. The TeV signal has an overall significance ...of 6.8$\sigma$ and
appears point-like given the 5$^{arcminute}$ resolution of the instrument. The
integral flux above 1 TeV is 2.5% of the Crab Nebula flux and significant
emission is measured between 250 GeV and 4 TeV, well described by a power-law
energy spectrum dN/dE $\sim$ E$^{-\Gamma}$ with a photon index $\Gamma=
2.39\pm0.23_{stat}\pm0.30_{sys}$. We find no evidence of time variability among
observations spanning almost two years. Based on the location, the morphology,
the measured spectrum, the lack of variability and a comparison with similar
systems previously detected in the TeV band, the most likely counterpart of
this new VHE gamma-ray source is the PWN in the SNR G54.1+0.3. The measured
X-ray to VHE gamma-ray luminosity ratio is the lowest among all the nebulae
supposedly driven by young rotation-powered pulsars, which could indicate a
particle-dominated PWN.
