Observations of the Crab Nebula with MACE (Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment)
Abstract
The Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment (MACE) is a large size (21m) Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) installed at an altitude of 4270m above sea level at Hanle, Ladakh in northern India. Here we report the detection of Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission from Crab Nebula above 80 GeV. We analysed ~15 hours of data collected at low zenith angle between November 2022 and February 2023. The energy spectrum is well described by a log-parabola function with a flux of ~(3.46 +/- 0.26stat) x 10-10 TeV-1 cm-2 s-1, at 400 GeV with spectral index of 2.09 +/- 0.06stat and a curvature parameter of 0.08 +/- 0.07stat. The gamma-rays are detected in an energy range spanning from 80 GeV to ~5 TeV. The energy resolution improves from ~34% at an analysis energy threshold of 80 GeV to ~21% above 1 TeV. The daily light curve and the spectral energy distribution obtained for the Crab Nebula is in agreement with previous measurements, considering statistical and systematic uncertainties.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2404.01649,
title = {Observations of the Crab Nebula with MACE (Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment)},
author = {Borwankar C. and Sharma M. and Hariharan J. and Venugopal K. and Godambe S. and Mankuzhyil N. and Chandra P. and Khurana M. and Pathania A. and Chouhan N. and Dhar V. K. and Thubstan R. and Norlha S. and Keshavananda and Sarkar D. and Dar Z. A. and Kotwal S. V. and Godiyal S. and Kushwaha C. P. and Singh K. K. and Das M. P. and Tolamatti A. and Ghosal B. and Chanchalani K. and Pandey P. and Bhatt N. and Bhattcharyya S. and Sahayanathan S. and Koul M. K. and Dorjey P. and Dorji N. and Chitnis V. R. and Tickoo A. K. and Rannot R. C. and Yadav K. K},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.01649},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics