Search for Pulsed TeV Gamma-ray Emission from the Crab Pulsar
Lang, Mark Gillanders, Gary Lessard, R. W. Bond, I. H. Bradbury, S. M. Buckley, J. H. Burdett, A. M. Carter-Lewis, D. A. Catanese, M. Cawley, M. F.
Lang, Mark
Gillanders, Gary
Lessard, R. W.
Bond, I. H.
Bradbury, S. M.
Buckley, J. H.
Burdett, A. M.
Carter-Lewis, D. A.
Catanese, M.
Cawley, M. F.
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http://hdl.handle.net/10379/2489
https://doi.org/10.13025/15651
https://doi.org/10.13025/15651
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1999
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Abstract
We present the results of a search for pulsed TeV emission from the Crab pulsar using the Whipple Observatory's 10 m gamma-ray telescope. The direction of the Crab pulsar was observed for a total of 73.4 hours between 1994 November and 1997 March. During this period the Whipple 10 m telescope was operated at its lowest energy threshold to date. Spectral analysis techniques were applied to search for the presence of a gamma-ray signal from the Crab pulsar over the energy band 250 GeV to 4 TeV. We do not see any evidence of the 33 ms pulsations present in other energy bands from the Crab pulsar. The 99.9% confidence level upper limit for pulsed emission above 250 GeV is derived to be 4.8x10^-12 cm^-2 s^-1 or <3% of the steady flux from the Crab Nebula. These results imply a sharp cut-off of the power-law spectrum seen by the EGRET instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. If the cut-off is exponential, it must begin at 60 GeV or lower to accommodate these upper limits.
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland