Prospects for the characterization of the VHE emission from the Crab Nebula and Pulsar with the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next generation instrument for the very high energy gamma-ray astrophysics domain. With its enhanced sensitivity in comparison with the current facilities, CTA is expected to shed light on a varied population of sources. In particular, we will achieve a deeper knowledge of the Crab nebula and pulsar, which are the best characterized pulsar wind nebula and rotation powered pulsar, respectively. We aim at studying the capabilities of CTA regarding these objects through simulations, using the main tools currently in development for the CTA future data analysis: Gammapy and ctools. We conclude that, even using conservative Instrument Response Functions, CTA will be able to resolve many uncertainties regarding the spectrum and morphology of the pulsar and its nebula. The large energy range covered by CTA will allow us to disentangle the nebula spectral shape among different hypotheses, corresponding to different underlying emitting mechanisms. In addition, resolving internal structures (smaller than ~ 0.02 degrees in size) in the nebula and unveiling their location, would provide crucial information about the propagation of particles in the magnetized medium. We used a theoretical asymmetric model to characterise the morphology of the nebula and we showed that if predictions of such morphology exist, for instance as a result of hydrodynamical or magneto-hydrodynamical simulations, it can be directly compared with CTA results. We also tested the capability of CTA to detect periodic radiation from the Crab pulsar obtaining a precise measurement of different light curves shapes.

arXiv commentin press in MNRAS

References in corpus (46)

• First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. II. Array and Instrumentation
• Observations of the Crab Nebula with H.E.S.S
• The Axisymmetric Pulsar Magnetosphere
• Sherpa: a Mission-Independent Data Analysis Application
• Gamma-ray flares from the Crab Nebula
• Observation of the Crab Nebula with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
• The Crab Nebula and Pulsar between 500 GeV and 80 TeV: Observations with the HEGRA stereoscopic air Cherenkov telescopes
• Fermi Large Area Telescope Observations of the Crab Pulsar and Nebula
• Modeling the spectral evolution of PWNe inside SNRs
• The Crab pulsar in the 0.75-30 MeV range as seen by CGRO COMPTEL
• 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
• Modeling high-energy pulsar lightcurves from first principles
• Search for Spatial Extension in High-Latitude Sources Detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• The Crab Nebula as a standard candle in very high-energy astrophysics
• Temporal and spectral gamma-ray properties of Mkn421 above 250 GeV from CAT observations between 1996 and 2000
• Teraelectronvolt pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar detected by MAGIC
• A Model of the Spectral Evolution of Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• A Precise Proper Motion for the Crab Pulsar, and the Difficulty of Testing Spin-Kick Alignment for Young Neutron Stars
• The H-test probability distribution revisited: Improved sensitivity
• Measurement of the Crab Nebula spectrum over three decades in energy with the MAGIC telescopes
• Time-dependent modeling of pulsar wind nebulae: Study on the impact of the diffusion-loss approximations
• Non-thermal emission from relativistic MHD simulations of PWNe: from synchrotron to inverse Compton
• Phase-resolved energy spectra of the Crab Pulsar in the range of 50-400 GeV measured with the MAGIC Telescopes
• Application of Deep Learning methods to analysis of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes data
• GammaLib and ctools: A software framework for the analysis of astronomical gamma-ray data
• Observations of the Crab pulsar between 25 GeV and 100 GeV with the MAGIC I telescope
• The very-high energy emission from pulsars: a case for inverse Compton scattering
• Order parameters for the high-energy spectra of pulsars
• Very high energy emission as a probe of relativistic magnetic reconnection in pulsar winds
• Observation and Spectral Measurements of the Crab Nebula with Milagro
• VLBI imaging of a flare in the Crab Nebula: More than just a spot
• Prospects for Observations of Pulsars and Pulsar Wind Nebulae with CTA
• On the spectral shape of radiation due to Inverse Compton Scattering close to the maximum cut-off
• The effects of magnetic field, age, and intrinsic luminosity on Crab-like pulsar wind nebulae
• Synchro-curvature modelling of the multi-frequency non-thermal emission of pulsars
• Inverse Compton model of pulsar high energy emission
• Six years of VERITAS observations of the Crab Nebula
• Optical phase coherent timing of the Crab nebula pulsar with Iqueye at the ESO New Technology Telescope
• Modeling of the gamma-ray pulsed spectra of Geminga, Crab, and Vela with synchro-curvature radiation
• Second large-scale Monte Carlo study for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Observations of the Crab Nebula with H.E.S.S. Phase II
• Cut-off Characterisation of Energy Spectra of Bright Fermi Sources: Current instrument limits and future possibilities
• The Energy-dependent $\gamma$-ray Morphology of the Crab Nebula Observed with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Advanced search for the extension of unresolved TeV sources with H.E.S.S.: First measurement of the extension of the Crab nebula at TeV energies
• Simulated Gamma-Ray Pulse Profile of the Crab Pulsar with the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Galactic transient sources with the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory
• Introducing the HD+B model for pulsar wind nebulae: a hybrid hydrodynamics/radiative approach
• Testing source confusion and identification capability in Cherenkov Telescope Array data
• The Crab nebula variability at short timescales with the Cherenkov Telescope Array