Observation of the Galactic Center PeVatron beyond 100 TeV with HAWC
| Autor: | A. Albert, R. Alfaro, C. Alvarez, A. Andrés, J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez, D. Avila Rojas, H. A. Ayala Solares, R. Babu, E. Belmont-Moreno, A. Bernal, K. S. Caballero-Mora, T. Capistrán, A. Carramiñana, S. Casanova, U. Cotti, J. Cotzomi, S. Coutiño de León, E. De la Fuente, C. de León, D. Depaoli, N. Di Lalla, R. Diaz Hernandez, B. L. Dingus, M. A. DuVernois, J. C. Díaz-Vélez, K. Engel, T. Ergin, C. Espinoza, K. L. Fan, K. Fang, N. Fraija, S. Fraija, J. A. García-González, F. Garfias, H. Goksu, M. M. González, J. A. Goodman, S. Groetsch, J. P. Harding, S. Hernández-Cadena, I. Herzog, J. Hinton, D. Huang, F. Hueyotl-Zahuantitla, T. B. Humensky, P. Hüntemeyer, A. Iriarte, S. Kaufmann, D. Kieda, A. Lara, W. H. Lee, J. Lee, H. León Vargas, J. T. Linnemann, A. L. Longinotti, G. Luis-Raya, K. Malone, O. Martinez, J. Martínez-Castro, J. A. Matthews, P. Miranda-Romagnoli, J. A. Montes, J. A. Morales-Soto, E. Moreno, M. Mostafá, M. Najafi, L. Nellen, M. Newbold, M. U. Nisa, R. Noriega-Papaqui, L. Olivera-Nieto, N. Omodei, M. Osorio-Archila, Y. Pérez Araujo, E. G. Pérez-Pérez, C. D. Rho, D. Rosa-González, E. Ruiz-Velasco, H. Salazar, D. Salazar-Gallegos, A. Sandoval, M. Schneider, G. Schwefer, J. Serna-Franco, A. J. Smith, Y. Son, R. W. Springer, O. Tibolla, K. Tollefson, I. Torres, R. Torres-Escobedo, R. Turner, F. Ureña-Mena, E. Varela, X. Wang, Z. Wang, I. J. Watson, E. Willox, H. Wu, S. Yu, S. Yun-Cárcamo, H. Zhou |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2024 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol 973, Iss 1, p L34 (2024) |
| Druh dokumentu: | article |
| ISSN: | 2041-8213 2041-8205 |
| DOI: | 10.3847/2041-8213/ad772e |
| Popis: | We report an observation of ultrahigh-energy (UHE) gamma rays from the Galactic center (GC) region, using 7 yr of data collected by the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. The HAWC data are best described as a point-like source (HAWC J1746-2856) with a power-law spectrum ( ${d}N/{d}E=\phi {\left(E/26\,\mathrm{TeV}\right)}^{\gamma }$ ), where γ = −2.88 ± 0.15 _stat − 0.1 _sys and ϕ = 1.5 × 10 ^−15 (TeV cm ^2 s) ^−1 $\pm {0.3}_{\mathrm{stat}}{\,}_{-{0.13}_{\mathrm{sys}}}^{+{0.08}_{\mathrm{sys}}}$ extending from 6 to 114 TeV. We find no evidence of a spectral cutoff up to 100 TeV using HAWC data. Two known point-like gamma-ray sources are spatially coincident with the HAWC gamma-ray excess: Sgr A* (HESS J1745-290) and the Arc (HESS J1746-285). We subtract the known flux contribution of these point sources from the measured flux of HAWC J1746-2856 to exclude their contamination and show that the excess observed by HAWC remains significant (>5 σ ), with the spectrum extending to >100 TeV. Our result supports that these detected UHE gamma rays can originate via hadronic interaction of PeV cosmic-ray protons with the dense ambient gas and confirms the presence of a proton PeVatron at the GC. |
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