Issue |
A&A
Volume 565, May 2014
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | L12 | |
Number of page(s) | 5 | |
Section | Letters | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201423664 | |
Published online | 29 May 2014 |
Detection of bridge emission above 50 GeV from the Crab pulsar with the MAGIC telescopes⋆
1
IFAE, Campus UAB,
08193
Bellaterra,
Spain
2
Università di Udine, and INFN Trieste, 33100
Udine,
Italy
3
INAF National Institute for Astrophysics,
00136
Rome,
Italy
4
Università di Siena, and INFN Pisa, 53100
Siena,
Italy
5
Croatian MAGIC Consortium, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, University
of Rijeka and University of Split, 10000
Zagreb,
Croatia
6
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, 80805
München,
Germany
7
Universidad Complutense, 28040
Madrid,
Spain
8
Inst. de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
9
University of Łódź, 90236
Lodz,
Poland
10
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY),
15738
Zeuthen,
Germany
11
ETH Zurich, 8093
Zurich,
Switzerland
12
Universität Würzburg, 97074
Würzburg,
Germany
13
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y
Tecnológicas, 28040
Madrid,
Spain
14
Technische Universität Dortmund, 44221
Dortmund,
Germany
15
Università di Padova and INFN, 35131
Padova,
Italy
16
Università dell’Insubria and INFN Milano Bicocca, Como,
22100
Como,
Italy
17
Unitat de Física de les Radiacions, Departament de Física, and
CERES-IEEC, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193
Bellaterra,
Spain
18
Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (IEEC-CSIC),
08193
Bellaterra,
Spain
19
Japanese MAGIC Consortium, Division of Physics and Astronomy,
Kyoto University, 606-8501
Kyoto,
Japan
20
Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA),
PO Box 23-141,
10617
Taipei,
Taiwan
21
Finnish MAGIC Consortium, Tuorla Observatory, University of Turku
and Department of Physics, University of Oulu, 900147
Oulu,
Finland
22
Inst. for Nucl. Research and Nucl. Energy,
1784
Sofia,
Bulgaria
23
Universitat de Barcelona, ICC, IEEC-UB, 08028
Barcelona,
Spain
24
Università di Pisa, and INFN Pisa, 56126
Pisa,
Italy
25
ICREA and Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (IEEC-CSIC),
08193
Bellaterra,
Spain
26
Now at: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
and Department of Physics and Department of Astronomy, University of
Maryland, College
Park, MD
20742,
USA
27
Now at: École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL),
1015
Lausanne,
Switzerland
28
Now at: Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA),
Turku,
Finland
29 Also at INAF-Trieste, Italy
30
Now at: Stockholm University, Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics,
106 91
Stockholm,
Sweden
Received:
18
February
2014
Accepted:
24
April
2014
Context. The Crab pulsar is the only astronomical pulsed source detected at very high energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) gamma rays. The emission mechanism of VHE pulsation is not yet fully understood, although several theoretical models have been proposed.
Aims. In order to test new models, we measured the light curve and the spectra of the Crab pulsar with high precision by means of deep observations.
Methods. We analyzed 135 h of selected MAGIC data taken between 2009 and 2013 in stereoscopic mode. In order to discuss the spectral shape in connection with lower energies, 5.5 years of Fermi-LAT data were also analyzed.
Results. The known two pulses per period were detected with a significance of 8.0σ and 12.6σ. In addition, significant emission was found between the two pulses with 6.2σ.
Conclusions. We discovered the bridge emission above 50 GeV between the two main pulses. This emission can not be explained with the existing theories. These data can be used for testing new theoretical models.
Key words: gamma rays: stars / pulsars: individual: Crab pulsar / stars: neutron
The lightcurve data of Fig. 1 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/565/L12
© ESO, 2014
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