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HAWC J2227+610: a potential PeVatron candidate for the CTA in the northern hemisphere

Verna, Gaia ; Cassol, Franca ; Costantini, Heide ; Abdalla, H. ; Carlile, C. LU ; Dravins, D. LU orcid and Zmija, A. (2022) 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference In Proceedings of Science 395.
Abstract
Recent observations of the gamma-ray source HAWC J2227+610 by Tibet AS+MD and LHAASO confirm the special interest of this source as a galactic PeVatron candidate in the northern hemisphere. HAWC J2227+610 emits Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-rays up to 500 TeV, from a region coincident with molecular clouds and significantly displaced from the nearby pulsar J2229+6114. Even if this morphology favours an hadronic origin, both leptonic or hadronic models can describe the current VHE gamma-ray emission. The morphology of the source is not well constrained by the present measurements and a better characterisation would greatly help the understanding of the underlying particle acceleration mechanisms. The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be... (More)
Recent observations of the gamma-ray source HAWC J2227+610 by Tibet AS+MD and LHAASO confirm the special interest of this source as a galactic PeVatron candidate in the northern hemisphere. HAWC J2227+610 emits Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-rays up to 500 TeV, from a region coincident with molecular clouds and significantly displaced from the nearby pulsar J2229+6114. Even if this morphology favours an hadronic origin, both leptonic or hadronic models can describe the current VHE gamma-ray emission. The morphology of the source is not well constrained by the present measurements and a better characterisation would greatly help the understanding of the underlying particle acceleration mechanisms. The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the future most sensitive Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope and, thanks to its unprecedented angular resolution, could contribute to better constrain the nature of this source. The present work investigates the potentiality of CTA to study the morphology and the spectrum of HAWC J2227+610. For this aim, the source is simulated assuming the hadronic model proposed by the Tibet AS+MD collaboration, recently fitted on multi-wavelength data, and two spatial templates associated to the source nearby molecular clouds. Different CTA layouts and observation times are considered. A 3D map based analysis shows that CTA is able to significantly detect the extension of the source and to attribute higher detection significance to the simulated molecular cloud template compared to the alternative one. CTA data does not allow to disentangle the hadronic and the leptonic emission models. However, it permits to correctly reproduce the simulated parent proton spectrum characterized by a ∼ 500 TeV cutoff. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons. (Less)
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author
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author collaboration
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Clouds, Cosmic rays, Cosmology, Gamma rays, Pulsars, Telescopes, Tellurium compounds, 'current, Cherenkov telescope arrays, Gamma ray sources, Gamma-ray emission, Hadronic models, Hadronics, High energy gamma rays, Molecular clouds, Northern Hemispheres, Very high energies, Morphology
host publication
37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2021) - GAI - Gamma Ray Indirect
series title
Proceedings of Science
volume
395
article number
904
conference name
37th International Cosmic Ray Conference
conference location
Berlin, Germany
conference dates
2021-07-12 - 2021-07-23
external identifiers
  • scopus:85145018821
ISSN
1824-8039
DOI
10.22323/1.395.0904
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f692bf11-49c0-447c-9f07-feed24815dc9
date added to LUP
2023-01-16 13:31:13
date last changed
2023-01-16 13:31:13
@inproceedings{f692bf11-49c0-447c-9f07-feed24815dc9,
  abstract     = {{Recent observations of the gamma-ray source HAWC J2227+610 by Tibet AS+MD and LHAASO confirm the special interest of this source as a galactic PeVatron candidate in the northern hemisphere. HAWC J2227+610 emits Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-rays up to 500 TeV, from a region coincident with molecular clouds and significantly displaced from the nearby pulsar J2229+6114. Even if this morphology favours an hadronic origin, both leptonic or hadronic models can describe the current VHE gamma-ray emission. The morphology of the source is not well constrained by the present measurements and a better characterisation would greatly help the understanding of the underlying particle acceleration mechanisms. The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the future most sensitive Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope and, thanks to its unprecedented angular resolution, could contribute to better constrain the nature of this source. The present work investigates the potentiality of CTA to study the morphology and the spectrum of HAWC J2227+610. For this aim, the source is simulated assuming the hadronic model proposed by the Tibet AS+MD collaboration, recently fitted on multi-wavelength data, and two spatial templates associated to the source nearby molecular clouds. Different CTA layouts and observation times are considered. A 3D map based analysis shows that CTA is able to significantly detect the extension of the source and to attribute higher detection significance to the simulated molecular cloud template compared to the alternative one. CTA data does not allow to disentangle the hadronic and the leptonic emission models. However, it permits to correctly reproduce the simulated parent proton spectrum characterized by a ∼ 500 TeV cutoff. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons.}},
  author       = {{Verna, Gaia and Cassol, Franca and Costantini, Heide and Abdalla, H. and Carlile, C. and Dravins, D. and Zmija, A.}},
  booktitle    = {{37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2021) - GAI - Gamma Ray Indirect}},
  issn         = {{1824-8039}},
  keywords     = {{Clouds; Cosmic rays; Cosmology; Gamma rays; Pulsars; Telescopes; Tellurium compounds; 'current; Cherenkov telescope arrays; Gamma ray sources; Gamma-ray emission; Hadronic models; Hadronics; High energy gamma rays; Molecular clouds; Northern Hemispheres; Very high energies; Morphology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  series       = {{Proceedings of Science}},
  title        = {{HAWC J2227+610: a potential PeVatron candidate for the CTA in the northern hemisphere}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.22323/1.395.0904}},
  doi          = {{10.22323/1.395.0904}},
  volume       = {{395}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}