A Search for Pulsations from Geminga Above 100 GeV with VERITAS

Abstract

We present the results of 71.6 hours of observations of the Geminga pulsar (PSR J0633+1746) with the VERITAS very-high-energy gamma-ray telescope array. Data taken with VERITAS between November 2007 and February 2013 were phase-folded using a Geminga pulsar timing solution derived from data recorded by the XMM-\emph{Newton} and \emph{Fermi}-LAT space telescopes. No significant pulsed emission above 100 GeV is observed, and we report upper limits at the 95% confidence level on the integral flux above 135 GeV (spectral analysis threshold) of 4.0$\times 10^{-13}$ s${}^{-1}$ cm${}^{-2}$ and 1.7$\times 10^{-13}$ s${}^{-1}$ cm${}^{-2}$ for the two principal peaks in the emission profile. These upper limits, placed in context with phase-resolved spectral energy distributions determined from five years of data from the \emph{Fermi}-LAT, constrain possible hardening of the Geminga pulsar emission spectra above $\sim$50 GeV.

arXiv comment7 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (34)

• The Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Mission
• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• Fermi Large Area Telescope Second Source Catalog
• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• The Second Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars
• The First VERITAS Telescope
• TeV Gamma-Ray Sources from a Survey of the Galactic Plane with Milagro
• Milagro Observations of Multi-TeV Emission from Galactic Sources in the Fermi Bright Source List
• Monte Carlo design studies for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• The First Fermi-LAT Catalog of Sources Above 10 GeV
• Detection of Pulsed Gamma Rays Above 100 GeV from the Crab Pulsar
• Phase-Resolved Studies of the High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from the Crab, Geminga, and Vela Pulsars
• The Vela Pulsar: Results from the First Year of Fermi LAT Observations
• Phase-resolved energy spectra of the Crab Pulsar in the range of 50-400 GeV measured with the MAGIC Telescopes
• Gamma-ray Pulsar Revolution
• Comparison of techniques to reconstruct VHE gamma-ray showers from multiple stereoscopic Cherenkov images
• Observations of the Crab pulsar between 25 GeV and 100 GeV with the MAGIC I telescope
• Ultraviolet, X-ray, and Optical Radiation from the Geminga Pulsar
• Evidence for VHE Gamma-ray Emission from the Distant BL Lac PG 1553+113
• The very-high energy emission from pulsars: a case for inverse Compton scattering
• High-energy emission from the pulsar striped wind: a synchrotron model for gamma-ray pulsars
• Gamma-Hadron Separation Methods for the VERITAS Array of Four Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes
• Fermi LAT observations of the Geminga pulsar
• Radio-to-TeV Phase-resolved Emission from the Crab Pulsar: The Annular Gap Model
• Phase-resolved spectroscopy of Geminga shows rotating hot spot(s)
• High-Resolution Timing Observations of Spin-Powered Pulsars with the AGILE Gamma-Ray Telescope
• The Highest-Energy Photons Seen by the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
• Fermi-LAT Detection of Pulsed Gamma-rays Above 50 GeV from the Vela Pulsar
• VERITAS Observations of the BL Lac Object PG 1553+113
• On the origin of sub-TeV gamma-ray pulsed emission from rotating neutron stars
• Observation of TeV Gamma Rays from the Fermi Bright Galactic Sources with the Tibet Air Shower Array
• A VLA Search for the Geminga Pulsar: A Bayesian Limit on a Scintillating Source
• The gamma-ray spectrum of Geminga and the inverse Compton model of pulsar high energy emission

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Multiwavelength Evidence for Quasi-periodic Modulation in the Gamma-ray Blazar PG 1553+113
• Synchrotron Self-Compton Emission from the Crab and Other Pulsars
• Detection of the Geminga pulsar with MAGIC hints at a power-law tail emission beyond 15 GeV
• First Ground-based Measurement of Sub-20 GeV to 100 GeV $\gamma$-rays from the Vela Pulsar with H.E.S.S. II
• Search for VHE gamma-ray emission from Geminga pulsar and nebula with the MAGIC telescopes
• A stacked analysis of 115 pulsars observed by the Fermi LAT
• Modeling of the gamma-ray pulsed spectra of Geminga, Crab, and Vela with synchro-curvature radiation
• Prospects for the detection of high-energy (E>25 GeV) Fermi pulsars with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• TeV Gamma-Ray Emission Observed from Geminga with HAWC
• A Search for Pulsed Very High-Energy Gamma Rays from Thirteen Young Pulsars in Archival VERITAS Data
• Science Highlights from VERITAS
• On Integral Upper Limits Assuming Power Law Spectra and the Sensitivity in High-Energy Astronomy
• Highlights of Galactic Physics with VERITAS