Very-high-energy gamma-ray observations of the Type Ia Supernova SN 2014J with the MAGIC telescopes

¹ ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
² Università di Udine, and INFN Trieste, 33100 Udine, Italy
³ INAF National Institute for Astrophysics, 00136 Rome, Italy
⁴ Università di Siena, and INFN Pisa, 53100 Siena, Italy
⁵ Università di Padova and INFN, 35131 Padova, Italy
⁶ Croatian MAGIC Consortium, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, University of Rijeka, University of Split and University of Zagreb, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
⁷ Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhannagar, Salt Lake, Sector-1, 700064 Kolkata, India
⁸ Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, 80805 München, Germany
⁹ Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain
¹⁰ Inst. de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹¹ Universidad de La Laguna, Dpto. Astrofísica, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹² University of Łódź, 90236 Lodz, Poland
¹³ Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), 15738 Zeuthen, Germany
¹⁴ Institut de Fisica d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra ( Barcelona), Spain
¹⁵ Universität Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
¹⁶ Institute for Space Sciences (CSIC/IEEC), 08193 Barcelona, Spain
¹⁷ Technische Universität Dortmund, 44221 Dortmund, Germany
¹⁸ Finnish MAGIC Consortium, Tuorla Observatory, University of Turku and Astronomy Division, University of Oulu, 90014 Oulu, Finland
¹⁹ Unitat de Física de les Radiacions, Departament de Física, and CERES-IEEC, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
²⁰ Universitat de Barcelona, ICC, IEEC-UB, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
²¹ Japanese MAGIC Consortium, ICRR, The University of Tokyo, Department of Physics and Hakubi Center, Kyoto University, Tokai University, The University of Tokushima, Japan
²² Inst. for Nucl. Research and Nucl. Energy, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria
²³ Università di Pisa, and INFN Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy
²⁴ ICREA and Institute for Space Sciences (CSIC/IEEC), 08193 Barcelona, Spain
²⁵ Also at the Department of Physics of Kyoto University, 606-8501 Japan
²⁶ Now at Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (CBPF/MCTI), R. Dr. Xavier Sigaud, 150 – Urca, 22290-180 Rio de Janeiro – RJ, Brazil
²⁷ Now at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
²⁸ Humboldt University of Berlin, Institut für Physik Newtonstr. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
²⁹ Also at University of Trieste, Italy
³⁰ Now at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
³¹ Now at Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, PO Box 103980, 69029 Heidelberg, Germany
³² Also at Japanese MAGIC Consortium, Japan
³³ Now at Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA), 21500 Turku, Finland
³⁴ Also at INAF-Trieste and Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
³⁵ Also at ISDC – Science Data Center for Astrophysics, 1290 Versoix ( Geneva), Switzerland
³⁶ Now at Department of Physics and Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

^⋆ Corresponding author: A. Fernández-Barral, e-mail: afernandez@ifae.es; C. Fruck, e-mail: fruck@mpp.mpg.de

Received: 24 August 2016
Accepted: 22 February 2017

Abstract

Context. In this work we present data from observations with the MAGIC telescopes of SN 2014J detected on January 21 2014, the closest Type Ia supernova since Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes started to operate.

Aims. We aim to probe the possibility of very-high-energy (VHE; E ≥ 100 GeV) gamma rays produced in the early stages of Type Ia supernova explosions.

Methods. We performed follow-up observations after this supernova (SN) explosion for five days, between January 27 and February 2 2014. We searched for gamma-ray signals in the energy range between 100 GeV and several TeV from the location of SN 2014J using data from a total of ~5.5 h of observations. Prospects for observing gamma rays of hadronic origin from SN 2014J in the near future are also being addressed.

Results. No significant excess was detected from the direction of SN 2014J. Upper limits at 95% confidence level on the integral flux, assuming a power-law spectrum, dF/dE ∝ E^{− Γ}, with a spectral index of Γ = 2.6, for energies higher than 300 GeV and 700 GeV, are established at 1.3 × 10^-12 and 4.1 × 10^-13 photons cm^-2 s^-1, respectively.

Conclusions. For the first time, upper limits on the VHE emission of a Type Ia supernova are established. The energy fraction isotropically emitted into TeV gamma rays during the first ~ 10 days after the supernova explosion for energies greater than 300 GeV is limited to 10^-6 of the total available energy budget (~10⁵¹ erg). Within the assumed theoretical scenario, the MAGIC upper limits on the VHE emission suggest that SN 2014J will not be detectable in the future by any current or planned generation of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes.