Discovery of extended VHE gamma-ray emission from the asymmetric pulsar wind nebula in MSH 15-52 with HESS

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 435, Number 1, May III 2005


Page(s)		L17 - L20
Section		Letters
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:200500105

A&A 435, L17-L20 (2005)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200500105

Letter

Discovery of extended VHE gamma-ray emission from the asymmetric pulsar wind nebula in MSH 15-52 with HESS

F. Aharonian¹, A. G. Akhperjanian², K.-M. Aye³, A. R. Bazer-Bachi⁴, M. Beilicke⁵, W. Benbow¹, D. Berge¹, P. Berghaus⁶, K. Bernlöhr^{1, 7}, C. Boisson⁸, O. Bolz¹, I. Braun¹, F. Breitling⁷, A. M. Brown³, J. Bussons Gordo⁹, P. M. Chadwick³, L.-M. Chounet¹⁰, R. Cornils⁵, L. Costamante^{1, 11}, B. Degrange¹⁰, A. Djannati-Ataï⁶, L. O'C. Drury¹², G. Dubus¹⁰, D. Emmanoulopoulos¹³, P. Espigat⁶, F. Feinstein⁹, P. Fleury¹⁰, G. Fontaine¹⁰, Y. Fuchs¹⁴, S. Funk¹, Y. A. Gallant⁹, B. Giebels¹⁰, S. Gillessen¹, J. F. Glicenstein¹⁵, P. Goret¹⁵, C. Hadjichristidis³, M. Hauser¹³, G. Heinzelmann⁵, G. Henri¹⁴, G. Hermann¹, J. A. Hinton¹, W. Hofmann¹, M. Holleran¹⁶, D. Horns¹, O. C. de Jager¹⁶, B. Khélifi¹, Nu. Komin⁷, A. Konopelko^{1, 7}, I. J. Latham³, R. Le Gallou³, A. Lemière⁶, M. Lemoine-Goumard¹⁰, N. Leroy¹⁰, T. Lohse⁷, O. Martineau-Huynh¹⁷, A. Marcowith⁴, C. Masterson^{1, 11}, T. J. L. McComb³, M. de Naurois¹⁷, S. J. Nolan³, A. Noutsos³, K. J. Orford³, J. L. Osborne³, M. Ouchrif^{17, 11}, M. Panter¹, G. Pelletier¹⁴, S. Pita⁶, G. Pühlhofer^{1, 13}, M. Punch⁶, B. C. Raubenheimer¹⁶, M. Raue⁵, J. Raux¹⁷, S. M. Rayner³, I. Redondo^{10, 11}, A. Reimer¹⁸, O. Reimer¹⁸, J. Ripken⁵, L. Rob¹⁹, L. Rolland¹⁷, G. Rowell¹, V. Sahakian², L. Saugé¹⁴, S. Schlenker⁷, R. Schlickeiser¹⁸, C. Schuster¹⁸, U. Schwanke⁷, M. Siewert¹⁸, H. Sol⁸, R. Steenkamp²⁰, C. Stegmann⁷, J.-P. Tavernet¹⁷, R. Terrier⁶, C. G. Théoret⁶, M. Tluczykont^{10, 11}, G. Vasileiadis⁹, C. Venter¹⁶, P. Vincent¹⁷, H. J. Völk¹ and S. J. Wagner¹³

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany
e-mail: Bruno.Khelifi@mpi-hd.mpg.de
² Yerevan Physics Institute, Armenia
³ University of Durham, Department of Physics, UK
⁴ Centre d'Étude Spatiale des Rayonnements, CNRS/UPS, Toulouse, France
⁵ Universität Hamburg, Institut für Experimentalphysik, Germany
⁶ APC, Paris, France
⁷ Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
⁸ LUTH, UMR 8102 du CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, Section de Meudon, France
⁹ Groupe d'Astroparticules de Montpellier, IN2P3/CNRS, Université Montpellier II, France
¹⁰ Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet, IN2P3/CNRS, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
¹¹ European Associated Laboratory for Gamma-Ray Astronomy, jointly supported by CNRS and MPG
¹² Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Ireland
¹³ Landessternwarte, Königstuhl, Heidelberg, Germany
¹⁴ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, INSU/CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier, France
¹⁵ DAPNIA/DSM/CEA, CE Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹⁶ Unit for Space Physics, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
¹⁷ Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies, IN2P3/CNRS, Universités Paris VI & VII, France
¹⁸ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Lehrstuhl IV: Weltraum und Astrophysik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
¹⁹ Institute of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
²⁰ University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia

(Received 2 March 2005 / Accepted 27 March 2005)

Abstract
The Supernova Remnant MSH 15-52 has been observed in very high energy (VHE) $\gamma$ -rays using the HESS 4-telescope array located in Namibia. A $\gamma$ -ray signal is detected at the 25 sigma level during an exposure of 22.1 h live time. The image reveals an elliptically shaped emission region around the pulsar PSR B1509-58, with semi-major axis ~6' in the NW-SE direction and semi-minor axis ~2'. This morphology coincides with the diffuse pulsar wind nebula as observed at X-ray energies by ROSAT. The overall energy spectrum from 280 GeV up to 40 TeV can be fitted by a power law with photon index $\Gamma=2.27\pm0.03_{\textrm {\scriptsize\,stat}}\pm 0.20_{\textrm{\scriptsize\,syst}}$ . The detected emission can be plausibly explained by inverse Compton scattering of accelerated relativistic electrons with soft photons.

Key words: gamma-rays: observations -- ISM: supernova remnants -- pulsar wind nebula -- ISM: individual objects: PSR B1509-58 -- ISM: individual objects: G 320.4-1.2

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