Fermi Large Area Telescope observations of the Vela-X Pulsar Wind Nebula

Abstract

We report on gamma-ray observations in the off-pulse window of the Vela pulsar PSR B0833-45, using 11 months of survey data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). This pulsar is located in the 8 degree diameter Vela supernova remnant, which contains several regions of non-thermal emission detected in the radio, X-ray and gamma-ray bands. The gamma-ray emission detected by the LAT lies within one of these regions, the 2*3 degrees area south of the pulsar known as Vela-X. The LAT flux is signicantly spatially extended with a best-fit radius of 0.88 +/- 0.12 degrees for an assumed radially symmetric uniform disk. The 200 MeV to 20 GeV LAT spectrum of this source is well described by a power-law with a spectral index of 2.41 +/- 0.09 +/- 0.15 and integral flux above 100 MeV of (4.73 +/- 0.63 +/- 1.32) * 10^{-7} cm^{-2} s^{-1}. The first errors represent the statistical error on the fit parameters, while the second ones are the systematic uncertainties. Detailed morphological and spectral analyses give strong constraints on the energetics and magnetic field of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) system and favor a scenario with two distinct electron populations.

21 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal

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• Search for Spatially Extended Fermi-LAT Sources Using Two Years of Data
• Constraints on the Galactic Population of TEV Pulsar Wind Nebulae Using Fermi Large Area Telescope Observations
• The Vela Pulsar: Results from the First Year of Fermi LAT Observations
• Gamma-Ray Observations of the Supernova Remnant RX J0852.0-4622 with the Fermi LAT
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• TeV Halos are Everywhere: Prospects for New Discoveries
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• Probing the extent of the non-thermal emission from the Vela X region at TeV energies with H.E.S.S
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• Multi-Zone Modeling of The Pulsar Wind Nebula HESS J1825-137
• Discovery of the source HESS J1356-645 associated with the young and energetic PSR J1357-6429
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• Fermi-LAT constraints on the Pulsar Wind Nebula nature of HESS J1857+026
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• Suzaku Detection of Diffuse Hard X-Ray Emission outside Vela X
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• Prospects for the detection of high-energy (E>25 GeV) Fermi pulsars with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
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• AGILE results on relativistic outflows above 100 MeV
• Search for gamma-ray variability around Fermi-LAT pulsar glitches
• Pulsar observations with the Fermi LAT: what we have seen
• GeV emission in the region of Vela: a new view of the supernova remnant
• Prospects for PWNe and SNRs science with the ASTRI mini-array of pre-production small-sized telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array