TeV Gamma Rays From Galactic Center Pulsars

Abstract

Measurements of the nearby pulsars Geminga and B0656+14 by the HAWC and Milagro telescopes have revealed the presence of bright TeV-emitting halos surrounding these objects. If young and middle-aged pulsars near the Galactic Center transfer a similar fraction of their energy into TeV photons, then these sources could plausibly dominate the emission that is observed by HESS and other ground-based telescopes from the innermost $\sim$$10^2$ parsecs of the Milky Way. In particular, both the spectral shape and the angular extent of this emission is consistent with TeV halos produced by a population of pulsars, although the reported correlation of this emission with the distribution of molecular gas suggests that diffuse hadronic processes also must contribute. The overall flux of this emission requires a birth rate of ~100-1000 neutron stars per Myr near the Galactic Center, in good agreement with recent estimates.

13 pages, 2 figure

References in corpus (5)

• The Fermi Galactic Center GeV Excess and Implications for Dark Matter
• Possible Evidence For Dark Matter Annihilation In The Inner Milky Way From The Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope
• Millisecond pulsars and the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess: the importance of luminosity function and secondary emission
• On Detecting Millisecond Pulsars at the Galactic Center
• Cosmic-ray positrons from millisecond pulsars

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Pulsar TeV Halos Explain the TeV Excess Observed by Milagro
• Search for Scalar Dark Matter via Pseudoscalar Portal Interactions: In Light of the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess
• The Cherenkov Telescope Array view of the Galactic Center region