Observation of gamma rays up to 320 TeV from the middle-aged TeV pulsar wind nebula HESS J1849$-$000

Abstract

Gamma rays from HESS J1849$-$000, a middle-aged TeV pulsar wind nebula (PWN), are observed by the Tibet air shower array and the muon detector array. The detection significance of gamma rays reaches $4.0\sigma$ and $4.4\sigma$ levels above 25 TeV and 100 TeV, respectively, in units of Gaussian standard deviation $\sigma$. The energy spectrum measured between $40\mathrm{TeV}<E<320\mathrm{TeV}$ for the first time is described with a simple power-law function of $\mathrm{d}N/\mathrm{d}E=(2.86\pm 1.44)\times 10^{-16}(E/40\mathrm{TeV}{)}^{-2.24\pm 0.41}{\mathrm{TeV}}^{-1}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. The gamma-ray energy spectrum from the sub-TeV ($E<1\mathrm{TeV}$) to sub-PeV ($100\mathrm{TeV}<E<1\mathrm{PeV}$) ranges including the results of previous studies can be modeled with the leptonic scenario, inverse Compton scattering by high-energy electrons accelerated by the PWN of PSR J1849$-$0001. On the other hand, the gamma-ray energy spectrum can also be modeled with the hadronic scenario in which gamma rays are generated from the decay of neutral pions produced by collisions between accelerated cosmic-ray protons and the ambient molecular cloud found in the gamma-ray emitting region. The cutoff energy of cosmic-ray protons $E_{\mathrm{p}\mathrm{cut}}$, cut is estimated at ${\log }_{10}(E_{\mathrm{p},\mathrm{cut}}/\mathrm{TeV})=3.73_{-0.66}^{+2.98}$, suggesting that protons are accelerated up to the PeV energy range. Our study thus proposes that HESS J1849$-$000 should be further investigated as a new candidate for a Galactic PeV cosmic-ray accelerator, PeVatron.

10 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication from the Astrophysical Journal

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Deriving pulsar pair-production multiplicities from pulsar wind nebulae using H.E.S.S. and LHAASO observations
• Chandra X-ray Observations of PSR J1849-0001, its Pulsar Wind Nebula, and the TeV Source HESS J1849-000
• An extreme particle accelerator powered by pulsar PSR J1849-0001
• Particle acceleration to PeV energies in Pulsar Wind Nebula: a two zone model