Discovery of a Radiation Component from the Vela Pulsar Reaching 20 Teraelectronvolts
Abstract
Gamma-ray observations have established energetic isolated pulsars as outstanding particle accelerators and antimatter factories in the Galaxy. There is, however, no consensus regarding the acceleration mechanisms and the radiative processes at play, nor the locations where these take place. The spectra of all observed gamma-ray pulsars to date show strong cutoffs or a break above energies of a few gigaelectronvolt (GeV). Using the H.E.S.S. array of Cherenkov telescopes, we discovered a novel radiation component emerging beyond this generic GeV cutoff in the Vela pulsar's broadband spectrum. The extension of gamma-ray pulsation energies up to at least 20 teraelectronvolts (TeV) shows that Vela pulsar can accelerate particles to Lorentz factors higher than . This is an order of magnitude larger than in the case of the Crab pulsar, the only other pulsar detected in the TeV energy range. Our results challenge the state-of-the-art models for high-energy emission of pulsars while providing a new probe, i.e. the energetic multi-TeV component, for constraining the acceleration and emission processes in their extreme energy limit.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2310.06181,
title = {Discovery of a Radiation Component from the Vela Pulsar Reaching 20 Teraelectronvolts},
author = {The H. E. S. S. Collaboration and : and F. Aharonian and F. Ait Benkhali and J. Aschersleben and H. Ashkar and M. Backes and V. Barbosa Martins and R. Batzofin and Y. Becherini and D. Berge and K. Bernlöhr and B. Bi and M. Böttcher and C. Boisson and J. Bolmont and M. de Bony de Lavergne and J. Borowska and F. Bradascio and M. Breuhaus and R. Brose and F. Brun and B. Bruno and T. Bulik and C. Burger-Scheidlin and T. Bylund and F. Cangemi and S. Caroff and S. Casanova and J. Celic and M. Cerruti and T. Chand and S. Chandra and A. Chen and O. Chibueze and G. Cotter and J. Damascene Mbarubucyeye and A. Djannati-Ataï and A. Dmytriiev and K. Egberts and J. -P. Ernenwein and K. Feijen and A. Fiasson and G. Fichet de Clairfontaine and G. Fontaine and M. Füßling and S. Funk and S. Gabici and Y. A. Gallant and S. Ghafourizadeh and G. Giavitto and L. Giunti and D. Glawion and J. F. Glicenstein and P. Goswami and G. Grolleron and M. -H. Grondin and L. Haerer and M. Haupt and J. A. Hinton and W. Hofmann and T. L. Holch and M. Holler and D. Horns and Zhiqiu Huang and M. Jamrozy and F. Jankowsky and V. Joshi and I. Jung-Richardt and E. Kasai and K. Katarzyński and B. Khélifi and S. Klepser and W. Kluźniak and Nu. Komin and K. Kosack and D. Kostunin and R. G. Lang and S. Le Stum and A. Lemière and M. Lemoine-Goumard and J. -P. Lenain and F. Leuschner and T. Lohse and A. Luashvili and I. Lypova and J. Mackey and D. Malyshev and D. Malyshev and V. Marandon and P. Marchegiani and A. Marcowith and P. Marinos and G. Martí-Devesa and R. Marx and G. Maurin and M. Meyer and A. Mitchell and R. Moderski and L. Mohrmann and A. Montanari and E. Moulin and J. Muller and T. Murach and K. Nakashima and M. de Naurois and J. Niemiec and A. Priyana Noel and P. OBrien and S. Ohm and L. Olivera-Nieto and E. de Ona Wilhelmi and M. Ostrowski and S. Panny and M. Panter and R. D. Parsons and G. Peron and S. Pita and D. A. Prokhorov and H. Prokoph and G. Pühlhofer and M. Punch and A. Quirrenbach and P. Reichherzer and A. Reimer and O. Reimer and M. Renaud and F. Rieger and G. Rowell and B. Rudak and E. Ruiz-Velasco and V. Sahakian and S. Sailer and H. Salzmann and D. A. Sanchez and A. Santangelo and M. Sasaki and F. Schüssler and U. Schwanke and J. N. S. Shapopi and A. Sinha and H. Sol and A. Specovius and S. Spencer and M. Spir-Jacob and L. Stawarz and R. Steenkamp and S. Steinmassl and C. Steppa and I. Sushch and H. Suzuki and T. Takahashi and T. Tanaka and T. Tavernier and R. Terrier and C. Thorpe-Morgan and M. Tluczykont and M. Tsirou and N. Tsuji and C. van Eldik and M. Vecchi and J. Veh and C. Venter and J. Vink and S. J. Wagner and F. Werner and R. White and A. Wierzcholska and Yu Wun Wong and H. Yassin and M. Zacharias and D. Zargaryan and A. A. Zdziarski and A. Zech and S. J. Zhu and S. Zouari and N. Żywucka and R. Zanin and M. Kerr and S. Johnston and R. M. Shannon and D. A. Smith},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.06181},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
38 pages, 6 figures. This preprint has not undergone peer review or any post-submission improvements or corrections. The Version of Record of this article is published in Nature Astronomy, Nat Astron (2023), and is available online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02052-3