English

Fermi LAT and WMAP observations of the supernova remnant HB 21

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2015-06-17 v1

Abstract

We present the analysis of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) γ\gamma-ray observations of HB~21 (G89.0+4.7). We detect significant γ\gamma-ray emission associated with the remnant: the flux >100 MeV is 9.4±0.8(stat)±1.6(syst)×10119.4\pm0.8(stat)\pm1.6(syst)\times10^{-11} erg cm2^{-2} s1^{-1}. HB 21 is well modeled by a uniform disk centered at l=88deg.75±0deg.04l= 88{\deg}.75\pm 0{\deg}.04, b=+4deg.65±0deg.06b = +4{\deg}.65 \pm 0{\deg}.06 with a radius of 1deg.19±0deg.061{\deg}.19 \pm 0{\deg}.06. The γ\gamma-ray spectrum shows clear evidence of curvature, suggesting a cutoff or break in the underlying particle population at an energy of a few GeV. We complement γ\gamma-ray observations with the analysis of the WMAP 7-year data from 23 to 93 GHz, achieving the first detection of HB 21 at these frequencies. In combination with archival radio data, the radio spectrum shows a spectral break which helps to constrain the relativistic electron spectrum, hence parameters of simple non-thermal radiation models. In one-zone models multiwavelength data favor the origin of γ\gamma rays from nucleon-nucleon collisions. A single population of electrons cannot produce both γ\gamma rays through bremsstrahlung and radio emission through synchrotron radiation. A predominantly inverse-Compton origin of the γ\gamma-ray emission is disfavored because it requires lower interstellar densities than are inferred for HB 21. In the hadronic-dominated scenarios accelerated nuclei contribute a total energy of 3×1049\sim 3 \times10^{49} ergs, while in a two-zone bremsstrahlung-dominated scenario the total energy in accelerated particles is 1×1049\sim1\times10^{49} ergs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1311.0393,
  title  = {Fermi LAT and WMAP observations of the supernova remnant HB 21},
  author = {G. Pivato and J. Hewitt and L. Tibaldo and F. Acero and J. Ballet and T. J. Brandt and F. de Palma and F. Giordano and G. H. Janssen and G. Johannesson and D. A. Smith},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1311.0393},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

45 pages, 7 figures