Publication

Detection of Pulsed Gamma Rays Above 100 GeV from the Crab Pulsar

Lang, Mark
Gillanders, Gary
Repository DOI
Publication Date
2011
Type
Article
Downloads
Citation
VERITAS Collaboration: E. Aliu, T. Arlen, T. Aune, M. Beilicke, W. Benbow, A. Bouvier, S. M. Bradbury, J. H. Buckley, V. Bugaev, K. Byrum, A. Cannon, A. Cesarini, J. L. Christiansen, L. Ciupik, E. Collins-Hughes, M. P. Connolly, W. Cui, R. Dickherber, C. Duke, M. Errando, A. Falcone, J. P. Finley, G. Finnegan, L. Fortson, A. Furniss, N. Galante, D. Gall, K. Gibbs, G. H. Gillanders, S. Godambe, S. Griffin, J. Grube, R. Guenette, G. Gyuk, D. Hanna, J. Holder, H. Huan, G. Hughes, C. M. Hui, T. B. Humensky, A. Imran, P. Kaaret, N. Karlsson, M. Kertzman, D. Kieda, H. Krawczynski, F. Krennrich, M. J. Lang, M. Lyutikov, A. S Madhavan, G. Maier, P. Majumdar, S. McArthur, A. McCann, M. McCutcheon, P. Moriarty, R. Mukherjee, P. Nu\~nez, R. A. Ong, M. Orr, A. N. Otte, N. Park, J. S. Perkins, F. Pizlo, M. Pohl, H. Prokoph, J. Quinn, K. Ragan, L. C. Reyes, P. T. Reynolds, E. Roache, J. Rose, J. Ruppel, D. B. Saxon, M. Schroedter, G. H. Sembroski, G. D. \c{S}ent\"urk, A. W. Smith, D. Staszak, G. Te\v{s}i\'c, M. Theiling, S. Thibadeau, K. Tsurusaki, J. Tyler, A. Varlotta, V. V. Vassiliev, S. Vincent, M. Vivier, S. P. Wakely, J. E. Ward, T. C. Weekes, A. Weinstein, T. Weisgarber, D. A. Williams, B. Zitzer(2011)Detection of Pulsed Gamma Rays Above 100 GeV from the Crab Pulsar, Science 7 October 2011: Vol. 334 no. 6052 pp. 69-72
Abstract
We report the detection of pulsed gamma rays from the Crab pulsar at energies above 100 Gigaelectronvolts (GeV) with the VERITAS array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The detection cannot be explained on the basis of current pulsar models. The photon spectrum of pulsed emission between 100 Megaelectronvolts (MeV) and 400 GeV is described by a broken power law that is statistically preferred over a power law with an exponential cutoff. It is unlikely that the observation can be explained by invoking curvature radiation as the origin of the observed gamma rays above 100 GeV. Our findings require that these gamma rays be produced more than 10 stellar radii from the neutron star.
Funder
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland