Discovery of the source HESS J1356-645 associated with the young and energetic PSR J1357-6429

Abstract

Several newly discovered very-high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray sources in the Galaxy are thought to be associated with energetic pulsars. Among them, middle-aged (> 1E+4 yr) systems exhibit large centre-filled VHE nebulae, offset from the pulsar position, which result from the complex relationship between the pulsar wind and the surrounding medium, and reflect the past evolution of the pulsar. Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) have been successful in revealing extended emission from these sources in the VHE regime. Together with radio and X-ray observations, this observational window allows one to probe the energetics and magnetic field inside these large-scale nebulae. H.E.S.S., with its large field of view, angular resolution of < 0.1deg and unprecedented sensitivity, has been used to discover a large population of such VHE sources. In this paper, the H.E.S.S. data from the continuation of the Galactic Plane Survey (-80deg < l < 60deg, |b| < 3deg), together with the existing multi-wavelength observations, are used. A new VHE gamma-ray source was discovered at R.A. (J2000) = 13h56m00s, Dec. (J2000) = -64d30m00s with a 2' statistical error in each coordinate, namely HESS J1356-645. The source is extended, with an intrinsic Gaussian width of (0.20 +/- 0.02)deg. Its integrated energy flux between 1 and 10 TeV of 8E-12 erg cm-2 s-1 represents ~ 11% of the Crab Nebula flux in the same energy band. The energy spectrum between 1 and 20 TeV is well described by a power law dN/dE ~ E-Gamma with photon index Gamma = 2.2 +/- 0.2stat +/- 0.2sys. The inspection of archival radio images at three frequencies and the analysis of X-ray data from ROSAT/PSPC and XMM-Newton/MOS reveal the presence of faint non-thermal diffuse emission coincident with HESS J1356-645. HESS J1356-645 is most likely associated with the young and energetic pulsar PSR J1357-6429 (Abridged)

Accepted for publication in A&A (August 08th 2011); 11 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (18)

• Observations of the Crab Nebula with H.E.S.S
• Background Modelling in Very-High-Energy gamma-ray Astronomy
• Teraelectronvolt Astronomy
• The Molonglo Galactic Plane Survey (MGPS-2): Compact Source Catalogue
• HESS VHE Gamma-Ray Sources Without Identified Counterparts
• First detection of a VHE gamma-ray spectral maximum from a Cosmic source: H.E.S.S. discovery of the Vela X nebula
• A Dynamical Model for the Evolution of a Pulsar Wind Nebula inside a Non-Radiative Supernova Remnant
• Energy dependent gamma-ray morphology in the Pulsar wind nebula HESSJ1825-137
• The XMM-Newton EPIC Background and the production of Background Blank Sky Event Files
• Fermi-LAT Search for Pulsar Wind Nebulae around gamma-ray Pulsars
• Probing the radio to X-ray connection of the Vela X PWN with Fermi LAT and H.E.S.S
• X-ray emission from PSR J1809-1917 and its pulsar wind nebula, possibly associated with the TeV gamma-ray source HESS J1809-193
• Probing the Nature of the Vela X Cocoon
• First X-ray observations of the young pulsar J1357-6429
• Discovery of gamma and X-ray pulsations from the young and energetic PSR J1357-6429 with Fermi and XMM-Newton
• Nucleonic gamma-ray production in Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Discovery of X-ray emission from the young radio pulsar PSR J1357-6429
• Theory of Pulsar Wind Nebulae

Cited by in corpus (28)

• The Second Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars
• The H.E.S.S. Galactic plane survey
• 2FHL: The Second Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources
• Constraints on the Galactic Population of TEV Pulsar Wind Nebulae Using Fermi Large Area Telescope Observations
• Search for extended sources in the Galactic Plane using 6 years of Fermi-Large Area Telescope Pass 8 data above 10 GeV
• Pulsar-wind nebulae and magnetar outflows: observations at radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths
• Identification of HESS J1303-631 as a Pulsar Wind Nebula through gamma-ray, X-ray and radio observations
• Search for Galactic PeV Gamma Rays with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
• The Young Pulsar J1357-6429 and Its Pulsar Wind Nebula
• Probing the gamma-ray emission from HESS J1834-087 using H.E.S.S. and Fermi LAT observations
• Revised predictions of neutrino fluxes from Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Search for continuous gravitational waves from ten H.E.S.S. sources using a hidden Markov model
• Possible optical counterpart of PSR J1357-6429
• Compton scattering of blackbody photons by relativistic electrons
• Search for PeV Gamma-Ray Emission from the Southern Hemisphere with 5 Years of Data from the IceCube Observatory
• HESS J1640-465 and HESS J1641-463: two intriguing TeV sources in the light of new Fermi LAT observations
• Deceleration of kicked objects due to the Galactic potential
• Multiwavelength constraints on the unidentified Galactic TeV sources HESS J1427$-$608, HESS J1458$-$608, and new VHE $\gamma$-ray source candidates
• GeV gamma-ray emission from pulsar wind nebula HESS J1356-645 with Fermi-LAT
• X-ray studies of the gamma-ray pulsar J1826-1256 and its pulsar wind nebula with Chandra and XMM-Newton
• Near-infrared observations of PSR J1357-6429
• A Catalog of Galactic Supernova Remnants and Supernova Remnant Candidates from the EMU/POSSUM Radio Sky Surveys. I
• Search for continuous gravitational waves from HESS~J1427-608 with a hidden Markov model
• Observations of PSR J1357-6429 at 2.1 GHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array
• Suzaku Observations of the old pulsar wind nebula candidate HESS J1356-645
• Cosmic Rays and Non-thermal Emission Induced by Accretion of Cool Gas onto the Galactic Disk
• Constraining the production of cosmic rays by pulsars
• Investigating the mysterious nature of 1LHAASO J1740+0948u through deep XMM-Newton observations