Phase-resolved energy spectra of the Crab Pulsar in the range of 50-400 GeV measured with the MAGIC Telescopes

Abstract

We use 73 h of stereoscopic data taken with the MAGIC telescopes to investigate the very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission of the Crab pulsar. Our data show a highly significant pulsed signal in the energy range from 50 to 400 GeV in both the main pulse (P1) and the interpulse (P2) phase regions. We provide the widest spectra to date of the VHE components of both peaks, and these spectra extend to the energy range of satellite-borne observatories. The good resolution and background rejection of the stereoscopic MAGIC system allows us to cross-check the correctness of each spectral point of the pulsar by comparison with the corresponding (strong and well-known) Crab nebula flux. The spectra of both P1 and P2 are compatible with power laws with photon indices of 4.0 \pm 0.8 (P1) and 3.42 \pm 0.26 (P2), respectively, and the ratio P1/P2 between the photon counts of the two pulses is 0.54 \pm 0.12. The VHE emission can be understood as an additional component produced by the inverse Compton scattering of secondary and tertiary e\pm pairs on IR-UV photons.

6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A on 16 February 2012

References in corpus (5)

• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• Performance of the MAGIC stereo system obtained with Crab Nebula data
• Observation of Pulsed Gamma-rays Above 25 GeV from the Crab Pulsar with MAGIC
• Detection of Pulsed Gamma Rays Above 100 GeV from the Crab Pulsar
• Observations of the Crab pulsar between 25 GeV and 100 GeV with the MAGIC I telescope

Cited by in corpus (61)

• The Second Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars
• The surprising Crab pulsar and its nebula: A review
• The First Fermi-LAT Catalog of Sources Above 10 GeV
• Teraelectronvolt pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar detected by MAGIC
• Three-dimensional relativistic pair plasma reconnection with radiative feedback in the Crab Nebula
• Constraints on the Emission Geometries and Spin Evolution of Gamma-ray Millisecond Pulsars
• Gamma-ray Pulsar Revolution
• Diffuse gamma-ray emission from galactic pulsars
• Synchrotron Self-Compton Emission from the Crab and Other Pulsars
• Radio-to-TeV Phase-resolved Emission from the Crab Pulsar: The Annular Gap Model
• Gamma-ray pulsars: a gold mine
• Cosmic Ray Origins: An Introduction
• Proton acceleration in pulsar magnetospheres
• Observations of the Crab Nebula and Pulsar with the Large-Sized Telescope Prototype of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Constraining Lorentz invariance violation using the Crab Pulsar emission observed up to TeV energies by MAGIC
• First Ground-based Measurement of Sub-20 GeV to 100 GeV $\gamma$-rays from the Vela Pulsar with H.E.S.S. II
• Very high energy emission as a probe of relativistic magnetic reconnection in pulsar winds
• Rapid Gamma-ray flux variability during the 2013 March Crab Nebula flare
• Very-high energy gamma-ray astronomy: A 23-year success story in high-energy astroparticle physics
• Cold ultrarelativistic pulsar winds as potential sources of galactic gamma-ray lines above 100 GeV
• Detection of bridge emission above 50 GeV from the Crab pulsar with the MAGIC telescopes
• Prospects for Observations of Pulsars and Pulsar Wind Nebulae with CTA
• The development of ground-based Gamma-ray astronomy: a historical overview of the pioneering experiments
• Multi-TeV Emission From the Vela Pulsar
• Constraints on particle acceleration in SS433/W50 from MAGIC and H.E.S.S. observations
• Very-High-Energy Emission From Pulsars
• Discovery of a Radiation Component from the Vela Pulsar Reaching 20 Teraelectronvolts
• Three-dimensional non-vacuum pulsar outer-gap model: Localized acceleration electric field in the higher altitudes
• Search for VHE gamma-ray emission from Geminga pulsar and nebula with the MAGIC telescopes
• Inverse Compton model of pulsar high energy emission
• Luminosity Evolution of Gamma-ray Pulsars
• A stacked analysis of 115 pulsars observed by the Fermi LAT
• A Search for Pulsations from Geminga Above 100 GeV with VERITAS
• On the origin of sub-TeV gamma-ray pulsed emission from rotating neutron stars
• Magnetocentrifugal acceleration of bulk motion of plasma in pulsar magnetosphere
• Magnetic Pair Creation Transparency in Gamma-Ray Pulsars
• Search for a correlation between very-high-energy gamma rays and giant radio pulses in the Crab pulsar
• High energy gamma-ray emission from compact galactic sources in the context of observations with the next generation Cherenkov Telescope Arrays
• Galactic and Extragalactic Sources of Very High Energy Gamma-rays
• The effect of an offset polar cap dipolar magnetic field on the modeling of the Vela pulsar's $\gamma$-ray light curves
• Technological Novelties of Ground-Based Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Astrophysics with the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes
• Highlights from VERITAS on VHE Gamma-ray Sources in our Galaxy
• Prospects for the detection of high-energy (E>25 GeV) Fermi pulsars with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• High-Time-Resolution Measurements of the Polarization of the Crab Pulsar at 1.38 GHz
• A Search for Pulsed Very High-Energy Gamma Rays from Thirteen Young Pulsars in Archival VERITAS Data
• Does a strong particle accelerator arise very close to the light cylinder in a pulsar magnetosphere?
• High-energy studies of the 3HWC J1954+286 region: likely Gamma-ray detection of the supernova remnant G65.1+0.6
• The Crab pulsar at VHE
• Observation of the Black Widow B1957+20 millisecond pulsar binary system with the MAGIC telescopes
• Prospects for the characterization of the VHE emission from the Crab Nebula and Pulsar with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Magnetic absorption of VHE photons in the magnetosphere of the Crab pulsar
• Study of the very high energy gamma-ray spectrum from the Galactic Center and future prospects
• Congruity of the Crab pulsar's gamma-ray spectrum with the spectral distribution of tightly focused caustics
• CTA: the future of ground-based gamma-ray astrophysics
• Statistics of VHE gamma-Rays in Temporal Association with Radio Giant Pulses from the Crab Pulsar
• Simulated Gamma-Ray Pulse Profile of the Crab Pulsar with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Detection of the Geminga pulsar at energies down to 20 GeV with the LST-1 of CTAO
• On the possible mechanism to form the radio emission spectrum of the Crab pulsar
• A mechanism-independent methodology for modeling γ-ray phaseograms of pulsars in the framework of north-south symmetry
• Pulsar emission in the very-high-energy regime
• Very high energy emission of Crab-like pulsars driven by the Cherenkov drift radiation