Evidence for long-term Gamma-ray and X-ray variability from the unidentified TeV source HESS J0632+057
Lang, Mark Gillanders, Gary
Lang, Mark
Gillanders, Gary
Publication Date
2009
Type
Article
Downloads
Citation
VERITAS Collaboration: V. A. Acciari, E. Aliu, T. Arlen, M. Beilicke, W. Benbo...(2009)Evidence for long-term Gamma-ray and X-ray variability from the unidentified TeV source HESS J0632+057. Astrophys.J.698:L94-L97,2009
Abstract
HESS J0632+057 is one of only two unidentified very-high-energy gamma-ray sources which appear to be point-like within experimental resolution. It is possibly associated with the massive Be star MWC 148 and has been suggested to resemble known TeV binary systems like LS I +61 303 or LS 5039. HESS J0632+057 was observed by VERITAS for 31 hours in 2006, 2008 and 2009. During these observations, no significant signal in gamma rays with energies above 1 TeV was detected from the direction of HESS J0632+057. A flux upper limit corresponding to 1.1% of the flux of the Crab Nebula has been derived from the VERITAS data. The non-detection by VERITAS excludes with a probability of 99.993% that HESS J0632+057 is a steady gamma-ray emitter. Contemporaneous X-ray observations with Swift XRT reveal a factor of 1.8+-0.4 higher flux in the 1-10 keV range than earlier X-ray observations of HESS J0632+057. The variability in the gamma-ray and X-ray fluxes supports interpretation of the ob ject as a gamma-ray emitting binary.
Funder
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland