TY - JOUR
T1 - The Eel Pulsar Wind Nebula
T2 - A PeVatron-candidate Origin for HAWC J1826−128 and HESS J1826−130
AU - Burgess, Daniel A.
AU - Mori, Kaya
AU - Gelfand, Joseph D.
AU - Hailey, Charles J.
AU - Tokayer, Yarone M.
AU - Woo, Jooyun
AU - An, Hongjun
AU - Malone, Kelly
AU - Reynolds, Stephen P.
AU - Safi-Harb, Samar
AU - Temim, Tea
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Alison Mitchell for providing the H.E.S.S. images and Crystal Brogan and Mallory Roberts for providing the 90 cm VLA image. Support for this work by K.M. was provided by NASA through NuSTAR Cycle 5 Guest Observer Program grant NNH18ZDA001N. S.S.-H. acknowledges support by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through the Discovery Grants and Canada Research Chairs programs, and by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022. The Author(s).
PY - 2022/5/1
Y1 - 2022/5/1
N2 - HAWC J1826−128 is one of the brightest Galactic TeV γ-ray sources detected by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, with photon energies extending up to nearly ∼100 TeV. This HAWC source spatially coincides with the H.E.S.S. TeV source HESS J1826−130 and the “Eel” pulsar wind nebula (PWN), which is associated with the GeV pulsar PSR J1826−1256. In the X-ray band, Chandra and XMM-Newton revealed that the Eel PWN is composed of both a compact nebula (∼15″) and diffuse X-ray emission (∼6′ × 2′) extending away from the pulsar. Our NuSTAR observation detected hard X-ray emission from the compact PWN up to ∼20 keV and evidence of the synchrotron burn-off effect. In addition to the spatial coincidence between HESS J1826−130 and the diffuse X-ray PWN, our multiwavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis using X-ray and γ-ray data establishes a leptonic origin of the TeV emission associated with the Eel PWN. Furthermore, our evolutionary PWN SED model suggests (1) a low PWN B-field of ∼1 μG, (2) a significantly younger pulsar age (t ∼ 5.7 kyr) than the characteristic age (τ = 14.4 kyr), and (3) a maximum electron energy of Emax = 2 PeV. The low B-field, as well as the putative supersonic motion of the pulsar, may account for the asymmetric morphology of the diffuse X-ray emission. Our results suggest that the Eel PWN may be a leptonic PeVatron particle accelerator powered by the ∼6 kyr old pulsar PSR J1826−1256 with a spin-down power of 3.6
AB - HAWC J1826−128 is one of the brightest Galactic TeV γ-ray sources detected by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, with photon energies extending up to nearly ∼100 TeV. This HAWC source spatially coincides with the H.E.S.S. TeV source HESS J1826−130 and the “Eel” pulsar wind nebula (PWN), which is associated with the GeV pulsar PSR J1826−1256. In the X-ray band, Chandra and XMM-Newton revealed that the Eel PWN is composed of both a compact nebula (∼15″) and diffuse X-ray emission (∼6′ × 2′) extending away from the pulsar. Our NuSTAR observation detected hard X-ray emission from the compact PWN up to ∼20 keV and evidence of the synchrotron burn-off effect. In addition to the spatial coincidence between HESS J1826−130 and the diffuse X-ray PWN, our multiwavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis using X-ray and γ-ray data establishes a leptonic origin of the TeV emission associated with the Eel PWN. Furthermore, our evolutionary PWN SED model suggests (1) a low PWN B-field of ∼1 μG, (2) a significantly younger pulsar age (t ∼ 5.7 kyr) than the characteristic age (τ = 14.4 kyr), and (3) a maximum electron energy of Emax = 2 PeV. The low B-field, as well as the putative supersonic motion of the pulsar, may account for the asymmetric morphology of the diffuse X-ray emission. Our results suggest that the Eel PWN may be a leptonic PeVatron particle accelerator powered by the ∼6 kyr old pulsar PSR J1826−1256 with a spin-down power of 3.6
KW - Gamma-ray astronomy (628)
KW - Gamma-ray observatories (632)
KW - Gamma-ray telescopes (634)
KW - High energy astrophysics (739)
KW - Pulsars (1306)
KW - Rotation powered pulsars (1408)
KW - Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: X-ray astronomy (1810)
KW - X-ray telescopes (1825)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131652112&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85131652112&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/ac650a
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ac650a
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85131652112
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 930
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - ac650a
ER -