The origin of Galactic cosmic rays is a century-long puzzle. Indirect evidence points to their acceleration by supernova Shockwaves, but we know little of their escape from the shock and their ...evolution through the turbulent medium surrounding massive stars. Gamma rays can probe their spreading through the ambient gas and radiation fields. The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) has observed the star-forming region of Cygnus X. The 1-to 100-gigaelectronvolt images reveal a 50-parsec-wide cocoon of freshly accelerated cosmic rays that flood the cavities carved by the stellar winds and ionization fronts from young stellar clusters. It provides an example to study the youth of cosmic rays in a superbubble environment before they merge into the older Galactic population.
Abstract
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation ground-based very-high-energy gamma-ray observatory. By using three types of telescopes CTA can cover a wide energy range (20 ...GeV–300 TeV) with an order of magnitude higher sensitivity than the current telescopes. The Large-Sized Telescope (LST) is designed to detect 20 GeV–1 TeV gamma rays thanks to the large light collection area, sensitive photosensors, a fast trigger system, and readout electronics. The camera readout system must have a high signal-to-noise ratio and a linear signal sampling with a large dynamic range in order to efficiently detect dim and low-energy atmospheric showers. To meet this requirement we use the Domino Ring Sampler version 4 (DRS4), which also enables ultra-fast sampling with low power consumption. Some of the intrinsic characteristics of DRS4 chips require software corrections. These procedures lower the effect of non-Gaussian noise contribution and improve the timing resolution of the system. In this contribution we discuss the calibration algorithms and the resulting performance.
Context. The blazar Markarian 421 is one of the brightest TeV gamma-ray sources of the northern sky. From December 2007 until June 2008 it was intensively observed in the very high energy (VHE, ...E > 100 GeV) band by the single-dish Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov telescope (MAGIC-I). Aims. We aimed to measure the physical parameters of the emitting region of the blazar jet during active states. Methods. We performed a dense monitoring of the source in VHE with MAGIC-I, and also collected complementary data in soft X-rays and optical-UV bands; then, we modeled the spectral energy distributions (SED) derived from simultaneous multi-wavelength data within the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) framework. Results. The source showed intense and prolonged γ-ray activity during the whole period, with integral fluxes (E > 200 GeV) seldom below the level of the Crab Nebula, and up to 3.6 times this value. Eight datasets of simultaneous optical-UV (KVA, Swift/UVOT), soft X-ray (Swift/XRT) and MAGIC-I VHE data were obtained during different outburst phases. The data constrain the physical parameters of the jet, once the spectral energy distributions obtained are interpreted within the framework of a single-zone SSC leptonic model. Conclusions. The main outcome of the study is that within the homogeneous model high Doppler factors (40 ≤ δ ≤ 80) are needed to reproduce the observed SED; but this model cannot explain the observed short time-scale variability, while it can be argued that inhomogeneous models could allow for less extreme Doppler factors, more intense magnetic fields and shorter electron cooling times compatible with hour or sub-hour scale variability.
The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) reported the first definitive GeV detections of the binaries LS I +61degrees303 and LS 5039 in the first year after its launch in 2008 June. These detections were ...unambiguous as a consequence of the reduced positional uncertainty and the detection of modulated gamma -ray emission on the corresponding orbital periods. An analysis of new data from the LAT, comprising 30 months of observations, identifies a change in the gamma -ray behavior of LS I +61degrees303. An increase in flux is detected in 2009 March and a steady decline in the orbital flux modulation is observed. Significant emission up to 30 GeV is detected by the LAT; prior data sets led to upper limits only. Contemporaneous TeV observations no longer detected the source, or found it-in one orbit-close to periastron, far from the phases at which the source previously appeared at TeV energies. The detailed numerical simulations and models that exist within the literature do not predict or explain many of these features now observed at GeV and TeV energies. New ideas and models are needed to fully explain and understand this behavior. A detailed phase-resolved analysis of the spectral characterization of LS I +61degrees303 in the GeV regime ascribes a power law with an exponential cutoff spectrum along each analyzed portion of the system's orbit. The on-source exposure of LS 5039 is also substantially increased with respect to our prior publication. In this case, whereas the general gamma -ray properties remain consistent, the increased statistics of the current data set allows for a deeper investigation of its orbital and spectral evolution.
Detection of low-intensity light relies on the conversion of photons to photoelectrons, which are then multiplied and detected as an electrical signal. To measure the actual intensity of the light, ...one must know the factor by which the photoelectrons have been multiplied. To obtain this amplification factor, we have developed a procedure for estimating precisely the signal caused by a single photoelectron. The method utilizes the fact that the photoelectrons conform to a Poisson distribution. The average signal produced by a single photoelectron can then be estimated from the number of noise events, without requiring analysis of the distribution of the signal produced by a single photoelectron. The signal produced by one or more photoelectrons can be estimated experimentally without any assumptions. This technique, and an example of the analysis of a signal from a photomultiplier tube, are described in this study.
Context. We present the results of a long M 87 monitoring campaign in very high energy γ-rays with the MAGIC-I Cherenkov telescope. Aims. We aim to model the persistent non-thermal jet emission by ...monitoring and characterizing the very high energy γ-ray emission of M 87 during a low state. Methods. A total of 150 h of data were taken between 2005 and 2007 with the single MAGIC-I telescope, out of which 128.6 h survived the data quality selection. We also collected data in the X-ray and Fermi-LAT bands from the literature (partially contemporaneous). Results. No flaring activity was found during the campaign. The source was found to be in a persistent low-emission state, which was at a confidence level of 7σ. We present the spectrum between 100 GeV and 2 TeV, which is consistent with a simple power law with a photon index Γ = 2.21 ± 0.21 and a flux normalization at 300 GeV of (7.7 ± 1.3) × 10-8 TeV-1 s-1 m-2. The extrapolation of the MAGIC spectrum into the GeV energy range matches the previously published Fermi-LAT spectrum well, covering a combined energy range of four orders of magnitude with the same spectral index. We model the broad band energy spectrum with a spine layer model, which can satisfactorily describe our data.
ABSTRACT We report on Chandra observations of the TeV-emitting high-mass X-ray binary LS5039, for a total exposure of 70ks, using the ACIS-S camera in continuous clocking mode to search for a ...possible X-ray pulsar in this system. We did not find any periodic or quasi-periodic signal in the 0.3-0.4 and 0.75-0.9 orbital phases, and in a frequency range of 0.005-175Hz. We derived an average pulsed fraction 3σ upper limit for the presence of a periodic signal of 15 per cent (depending on the frequency and the energy band), the deepest limit ever reached for this object. If the X-ray emission of LS5039 is due (at least in part) to a rotational powered pulsar, the latter is either spinning faster than 5.6ms, or having a beam pointing away from our line of sight, or contributing to 15 per cent of the total X-ray emission of the system in the orbital phases we observed. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
► We describe the impact that CTA is expected to have in cosmic ray studies. ► Population studies of supernova remnants will be possible. ► CTA will study the diffuse emission from our Galaxy and ...other galactic systems.
Galactic cosmic rays are commonly believed to be accelerated at supernova remnants via diffusive shock acceleration. Despite the popularity of this idea, a conclusive proof for its validity is still missing. Gamma-ray astronomy provides us with a powerful tool to tackle this problem, because gamma rays are produced during cosmic ray interactions with the ambient gas. The detection of gamma rays from several supernova remnants is encouraging, but still does not constitute a proof of the scenario, the main problem being the difficulty in disentangling the hadronic and leptonic contributions to the emission. Once released by their sources, cosmic rays diffuse in the interstellar medium, and finally escape from the Galaxy. The diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Galactic disk, as well as the gamma-ray emission detected from a few galaxies is largely due to the interactions of cosmic rays in the interstellar medium. On much larger scales, cosmic rays are also expected to permeate the intracluster medium, since they can be confined and accumulated within clusters of galaxies for cosmological times. Thus, the detection of gamma rays from clusters of galaxies, or even upper limits on their emission, will allow us to constrain the cosmic ray output of the sources they contain, such as normal galaxies, AGNs, and cosmological shocks. In this paper, we describe the impact that the Cherenkov Telescope Array, a future ground-based facility for very-high energy gamma-ray astronomy, is expected to have in this field of research.
We report on Chandra observations of the TeV-emitting high-mass X-ray binary LS 5039 , for a total exposure of ∼70 ks, using the ACIS-S camera in continuous clocking mode to search for a possible ...X-ray pulsar in this system. We did not find any periodic or quasi-periodic signal in the 0.3-0.4 and 0.75-0.9 orbital phases, and in a frequency range of 0.005-175 Hz. We derived an average pulsed fraction 3σ upper limit for the presence of a periodic signal of ≲15 per cent (depending on the frequency and the energy band), the deepest limit ever reached for this object. If the X-ray emission of LS 5039 is due (at least in part) to a rotational powered pulsar, the latter is either spinning faster than ∼5.6 ms, or having a beam pointing away from our line of sight, or contributing to ≲15 per cent of the total X-ray emission of the system in the orbital phases we observed.
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