Issue |
A&A
Volume 617, September 2018
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A78 | |
Number of page(s) | 8 | |
Section | Interstellar and circumstellar matter | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201833356 | |
Published online | 18 September 2018 |
Disentangling multiple high-energy emission components in the Vela X pulsar wind nebula with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
1
IRAP, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, CNES,
31028
Toulouse, France
e-mail: luigi.tibaldo@irap.omp.eu
2
Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik,
69029
Heidelberg, Germany
3
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Torino,
10125
Torino, Italy
4
Laboratoire AIM, CEA-IRFU/CNRS/Université Paris Diderot, Service d’Astrophysique, CEA Saclay,
91191
Gif-sur-Yvette, France
5
Centre d’Études Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan, IN2P3/CNRS,
Université Bordeaux 1, BP120,
33175
Gradignan Cedex, France
Received:
3
May
2018
Accepted:
29
June
2018
Context. Vela X is a pulsar wind nebula in which two relativistic particle populations with distinct spatial and spectral distributions dominate the emission at different wavelengths. An extended 2° × 3° nebula is seen in radio and GeV gamma rays. An elongated cocoon prevails in X-rays and TeV gamma rays.
Aims. We use ~9.5 yr of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) to disentangle gamma-ray emission from the two components in the energy range from 10 GeV to 2 TeV, bridging the gap between previous measurements at GeV and TeV energies.
Methods. We determine the morphology of emission associated to Vela X separately at energies <100 and >100 GeV, and compare it to the morphology seen at other wavelengths. Then, we derive the spectral energy distribution of the two gamma-ray components over the full energy range.
Results. The best overall fit to the LAT data is provided by the combination of the two components derived at energies <100 and >100 GeV. The first component has a soft spectrum, spectral index 2.19 ± 0.16−0.22+0.05, and extends over a region of radius 1.°36±0.°04, consistent with the size of the radio nebula. The second component has a harder spectrum, spectral index 0.9 ± 0.3−0.1+0.3, and is concentrated over an area of radius 0.°63±0.°03, coincident with the X-ray cocoon that had already been established as accounting for the bulk of the emission at TeV energies.
Conclusions. The spectrum measured for the low-energy component corroborates previous evidence for a roll-over of the electron spectrum in the extended radio nebula at energies of a few tens of GeV possibly due to diffusive escape. The high-energy component has a very hard spectrum: if the emission is produced by electrons with a power-law spectrum, the electrons must be uncooled, and there is a hint that their spectrum may be harder than predictions by standard models of Fermi acceleration at relativistic shocks.
© ESO 2018
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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