PROBING THE RADIO TO X-RAY CONNECTION OF THE VELA X PULSAR WIND NEBULA WITH FERMI LAT AND HESS

被引:45
作者
de Jager, O. C. [1 ]
Slane, P. O. [2 ]
LaMassa, S. [3 ]
机构
[1] North West Univ, Unit Space Phys, ZA-2520 Potchefstroom, South Africa
[2] Harvard Smithsonian Ctr Astrophys, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
[3] Johns Hopkins Univ, Baltimore, MD 21218 USA
来源
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS | 2008年 / 689卷 / 02期
关键词
gamma rays: theory; ISM: jets and outflows; pulsars: individual (Vela X); radiation mechanisms: nonthermal; supernova remnants;
D O I
10.1086/595959
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
Morphologically, it appears as if the Vela X pulsar wind nebula (PWN) consists of two emission regions: whereas X-ray (similar to 1 keV) and very high energy (VHE) H. E. S. S. g-ray observations appear to define a cocoon-type shape south of the pulsar, radio observations reveal an extended area of size 2 degrees x 3 degrees (including the cocoon area), also south of the Vela pulsar. Since no wide field of view (FoV) observations of the synchrotron emission between radio and X-rays are available, we do not know how the lepton (e(+/-)) spectra of these two components connect or how the morphology changes with energy. Currently, we find that two distinct lepton spectra describe the respective radio and X-ray/VHE gamma-ray spectra, with a field strength of 5 mu G self-consistently describing a radiation spectral break (or energy maximum) in the multi-TeV domain as observed by H. E. S. S. (if interpreted as IC radiation), while predicting the total hard X-ray flux above 20 keV (measured by the wide FoV INTEGRAL instrument) within a factor of 2. If this same field strength is also representative of the radio structure (including filaments), the implied IC component corresponding to the highest radio frequencies should reveal a relatively bright high-energy gamma-ray structure, and Fermi LAT should be able to resolve it. A higher field strength in the filaments would, however, imply fewer leptons in Vela X and hence a fainter Fermi LAT signal.
引用
收藏
页码:L125 / L128
页数:4
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