Search for VHE pulsed emission from the Crab with the CAT Telescope

Abstract

Since 1996, the CAT experiment, operating at the THEMIS site (French Pyrenees), has been collecting Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-ray data from the Crab. The temporal analysis of photon arrival times folded with the pulsar parameters did not reveal any significant pulsation. The upper limit of a steady pulsed flux over the 102.7 hours of observation is 1.5 10^-12 cm^-2.s^-1, 3.0 10^-13 cm^-2.s^-1 and 5.4 10^-14 cm^-2.s^-1 above 250 GeV, 1 TeV and 5 TeV, respectively. These results put stringent constraints on the models of high energy pulsar electrodynamics.

arXiv comment4 pages, 4 figures to appear in the proceedings of the 26th International Cosmic Ray Conference