English

Deeper Chandra Follow-up of Cygnus TeV Source Perpetuates Mystery

Astrophysics 2008-11-26 v3

Abstract

A 50 ksec Chandra observation of the unidentified TeV source in Cygnus reported by the HEGRA collaboration reveals no obvious diffuse X-ray counterpart. However, 240 Pointlike X-ray sources are detected within or nearby the extended TeV J2032+4130 source region, of which at least 36 are massive stars and 2 may be radio emitters. That the HEGRA source is a composite, having as counterpart the multiple point-like X-ray sources we observe, cannot be ruled out. Indeed, the distribution of point-like X-ray sources appears non-uniform and concentrated broadly within the extent of the TeV source region. We offer a hypothesis for the origin of the very high energy gamma-ray emission in Cyg OB2 based on the local acceleration of TeV range cosmic rays and the differential distribution of OB vs. less massive stars in this association.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0509191,
  title  = {Deeper Chandra Follow-up of Cygnus TeV Source Perpetuates Mystery},
  author = {Yousaf Butt and Jeremy Drake and Paula Benaglia and Jorge Combi and Thomas Dame and Francesco Miniati and Gustavo Romero},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0509191},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

Substantially revised version; incorporates referee suggestions & expanded discussion