Periastron Observations of TeV Gamma-Ray Emission from a Binary System with a 50-year Period
Abstract
We report on observations of the pulsar / Be star binary system PSR J2032+4127 / MT91 213 in the energy range between 100 GeV and 20 TeV with the VERITAS and MAGIC imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays. The binary orbit has a period of approximately 50 years, with the most recent periastron occurring on 2017 November 13. Our observations span from 18 months prior to periastron to one month after. A new, point-like, gamma-ray source is detected, coincident with the location of PSR J2032+4127 / MT91 213. The gamma-ray light curve and spectrum are well-characterized over the periastron passage. The flux is variable over at least an order of magnitude, peaking at periastron, thus providing a firm association of the TeV source with the pulsar / Be star system. Observations prior to periastron show a cutoff in the spectrum at an energy around 0.5 TeV. This result adds a new member to the small population of known TeV binaries, and it identifies only the second source of this class in which the nature and properties of the compact object are firmly established. We compare the gamma-ray results with the light curve measured with the X-ray Telescope (XRT) on board the Neil Gehrels \textit{Swift} Observatory and with the predictions of recent theoretical models of the system. We conclude that significant revision of the models is required to explain the details of the emission we have observed, and we discuss the relationship between the binary system and the overlapping steady extended source, TeV J2032+4130.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1810.05271,
title = {Periastron Observations of TeV Gamma-Ray Emission from a Binary System with a 50-year Period},
author = {The VERITAS Collaboration and A. U. Abeysekara and W. Benbow and R. Bird and A. Brill and R. Brose and J. H. Buckley and A. J. Chromey and M. K. Daniel and A. Falcone and J. P. Finley and L. Fortson and A. Furniss and A. Gent and G. H. Gillanders and D. Hanna and T. Hassan and O. Hervet and J. Holder and G. Hughes and T. B. Humensky and P. Kaaret and P. Kar and M. Kertzman and D. Kieda and M. Krause and F. Krennrich and S. Kumar and M. J. Lang and T. T. Y. Lin and G. Maier and P. Moriarty and R. Mukherjee and S. O'Brien and R. A. Ong and A. N. Otte and N. Park and A. Petrashyk and M. Pohl and E. Pueschel and J. Quinn and K. Ragan and G. T. Richards and E. Roache and I. Sadeh and M. Santander and S. Schlenstedt and G. H. Sembroski and I. Sushch and J. Tyler and V. V. Vassiliev and S. P. Wakely and A. Weinstein and R. M. Wells and P. Wilcox and A. Wilhelm and D. A. Williams and T. J Williamson and B. Zitzer and MAGIC Collaboration and : and V. A. Acciari and S. Ansoldi and L. A. Antonelli and A. Arbet Engels and D. Baack and A. Babić and B. Banerjee and U. Barres de Almeida and J. A. Barrio and J. Becerra González and W. Bednarek and E. Bernardini and A. Berti and J. Besenrieder and W. Bhattacharyya and C. Bigongiari and A. Biland and O. Blanch and G. Bonnoli and G. Busetto and R. Carosi and G. Ceribella and S. Cikota and S. M. Colak and P. Colin and E. Colombo and J. L. Contreras and J. Cortina and S. Covino and V. D'Elia and P. Da Vela and F. Dazzi and A. De Angelis and B. De Lotto and M. Delfino and J. Delgado and F. Di Pierro and E. Do Souto Espiñera and A. Domínguez and D. Dominis Prester and D. Dorner and M. Doro and S. Einecke and D. Elsaesser and V. Fallah Ramazani and A. Fattorini and A. Fernández-Barral and G. Ferrara and D. Fidalgo and L. Foffano and M. V. Fonseca and L. Font and C. Fruck and D. Galindo and S. Gallozzi and R. J. García López and M. Garczarczyk and S. Gasparyan and M. Gaug and P. Giammaria and N. Godinović and D. Guberman and D. Hadasch and A. Hahn and T. Hassan and J. Herrera and J. Hoang and D. Hrupec and S. Inoue and K. Ishio and Y. Iwamura and H. Kubo and J. Kushida and D. Kuveždić and A. Lamastra and D. Lelas and F. Leone and E. Lindfors and S. Lombardi and F. Longo and M. López and A. López-Oramas and B. Machado de Oliveira Fraga and C. Maggio and P. Majumdar and M. Makariev and M. Mallamaci and G. Maneva and M. Manganaro and K. Mannheim and L. Maraschi and M. Mariotti and M. Martínez and S. Masuda and D. Mazin and M. Minev and J. M. Miranda and R. Mirzoyan and E. Molina and A. Moralejo and V. Moreno and E. Moretti and P. Munar-Adrover and V. Neustroev and A. Niedzwiecki and M. Nievas Rosillo and C. Nigro and K. Nilsson and D. Ninci and K. Nishijima and K. Noda and L. Nogués and M. Nöthe and S. Paiano and J. Palacio and D. Paneque and R. Paoletti and J. M. Paredes and G. Pedaletti and P. Peñil and M. Peresano and M. Persic and P. G. Prada Moroni and E. Prandini and I. Puljak and J. R. Garcia and W. Rhode and M. Ribó and J. Rico and C. Righi and A. Rugliancich and L. Saha and N. Sahakyan and T. Saito and K. Satalecka and T. Schweizer and J. Sitarek and I. Šnidarić and D. Sobczynska and A. Somero and A. Stamerra and M. Strzys and T. Surić and F. Tavecchio and P. Temnikov and T. Terzić and M. Teshima and N. Torres-Albà and S. Tsujimoto and J. van Scherpenberg and G. Vanzo and M. Vazquez Acosta and I. Vovk and M. Will and D. Zarić},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.05271},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
12 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJL