Search for Gamma-ray Line emission from Dark Matter annihilation in the Galactic Centre with the MAGIC telescopes

We present the first search for dark matter (DM) spectral lines in the Galactic centre (GC) region with the MAGIC telescopes. The MAGIC telescopes, located on the Canary island of La Palma (Spain), are sensitive to gamma rays in the energy range from 50 GeV to 50 TeV. MAGIC has performed indirect DM searches in various astrophysical targets, such as dwarf spheroidal galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Observations at high zenith angles significantly increase the telescopes’ collection area and sensitivity for gamma rays in the TeV regime. We present the results obtained with more than 200 hours of high-zenith angle observations of the GC region with MAGIC, which allow us to probe promising heavy SUSY models, and to obtain competitive limits to the DM annihilation cross-section at high DM particle mass, compared to existing constraints. We will discuss how we exploit the data from a complex sky region to search for a line-like DM signature

Recent MAGIC results on Galactic binaries

X-ray and gamma-ray binaries are systems consisting of a compact object and normally a non-degenerate companion star. Most of these sources have been shown to emit radiation in a broad frequency range, from radio up to X-rays and sometimes gamma rays. We report on recent results in very high-energy gamma rays above 100 GeV obtained by the MAGIC Collaboration for the Galactic X-ray binaries MAXI J1820+070 and 1A 0535+262, and the gamma-ray binary HESS J0632+057. Multiwavelength data at lower energies are also provided for a better contextualisation of the sources

Very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from GRB 201216C detected by MAGIC

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. Many aspects of GRB physics are still under debate, such as the origin of their gamma-ray emission above the GeV energy range. In 2019, MAGIC detected TeV gamma rays from the long GRB 190114C, whose emission can be well explained by synchrotron-self Compton emission by relativistic electrons. However, it is still unclear whether such a process is common in GRBs, given the reduced number of GRBs detected until now at the very high energies (VHE). GRB 201216C is a long GRB and is the second one detected by MAGIC in this energy range. After receiving the alert provided by Swift-BAT, MAGIC automatically slewed to the GRB position, starting observations 56 seconds after the GRB onset. In the offline analyses of the collected data, we confirmed the detection of gamma-ray emission with a significance above 5 sigma. Following measurements from optical facilities, the redshift of this GRB was estimated to be z = 1.1. This makes GRB 201216C the most distant object ever detected by ground-based gamma-ray telescopes. In this contribution we will show the analysis results of the MAGIC data, also in comparison with past detected GRBs in the same energy range. Finally, accounting for available multi-wavelength observations, we will comment on the possible origin of the VHE emission detected by MAGIC

Protons Spectrum from MAGIC Telescopes data

Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) are designed to detect cosmic gamma rays. As a by-product, IACTs detect Cherenkov flashes generated by millions of hadronic air showers every night. We present the proton energy spectrum from several hundred GeV to several hundred TeV, retrieved from the hadron induced showers detected by the MAGIC telescopes. The protons are discriminated from He and other heavy nuclei by means of using machine learning classification. The energy estimation is based on a specially developed deep neural network regressor. In the last decade, Deep Learning methods gained much interest in the scientific community for their ability to extract complex relations in data and process large datasets in a short time. The proton energy spectrum obtained in this work is compared to the spectra obtained by dedicated cosmic ray experiments

Follow-up observations of GW170817 with the MAGIC telescopes

The discovery of the electromagnetic counterpart AT2017gfo and the GRB 170817A, associated to the binary neutron star merger GW170817, was one of the major advances in the study of gamma- ray bursts (GRBs) and the hallmark of the multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. Another breakthrough in GRB physics is represented by the discovery of the highly energetic, teraelectronvolt (TeV) component in the GRB 190114C, possibly an universal component in all GRBs. This conclusion is also suggested by the hint of TeV emission in the short GRB 160821B and a few more events reported in the literature. The missing observational piece is the joint detection of TeV emission and gravitational waves from a short GRB and its progenitor. MAGIC observed the counterpart AT2017gfo as soon as the visibility conditions allowed it, namely from January to June 2018. These observations correspond to the maximum flux level observed in the radio and X-ray bands. The upper limits derived from TeV observations are compared with the modelling of the late non-thermal emission using the multi-frequency SED

Extreme blazars under the eyes of MAGIC

Extreme high-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (EHBLs) are the most energetic persistent sources in the universe. This contribution reports on long-term observing campaigns of tens of EHBLs that have been organized by the MAGIC collaboration to enlarge their population at VHE and understand the origin of their extreme properties. EHBLs are characterized by a spectral energy distribution (SED) featuring a synchrotron peak energy above 1 keV. Several EHBLs display a hard spectral index at very high energies (VHE; E > 100 GeV), suggesting a gamma-ray SED component peaking significantly above 1 TeV. Such extreme properties are challenging current standard emission and acceleration mechanisms. Recent studies have also unveiled intriguing disparities in the temporal characteristics of EHBLs. Some sources seem to display a persistent EHBL behaviour, while others belong to the EHBL family only temporarily. Here, we present recent results of the first hard-TeV EHBL catalog. The MAGIC observations are accompanied by an extensive multiwavelength coverage to obtain an optimal determination of the SED. This allow us to investigate leptonic and hadronic scenarios for the emission. We also present the recent detection of the EHBL RX J0812.0+0237 in the VHE band by MAGIC. Finally, we discuss a broad multiwavelength campaign on the BL Lac type object 1ES 2344+514, which showed intermittent EHBL characteristics in August 2016

Unveiling the complex correlation patterns in Mrk 421

The blazar Mrk 421 (redshift z = 0.031) is one of the brightest and closest BL Lac type objects, making it an ideal target to probe blazar physics. We report on an extensive multi-wavelength observing campaign in 2017, during which the intra-band correlation patterns show some disparity and complex behaviours. Observations from several instruments are used to achieve an optimal temporal coverage from radio to TeV energies. In particular, four multi-hour NuSTAR observations organised simultaneously with MAGIC allow to obtain a precise measurement of the falling segments of the two spectral components. A detailed investigation of the very-high-energy (VHE; > 100 GeV) versus X-ray flux correlation is performed, by binning the data into several sub-energy bands. A positively correlated variability is observed, but the correlation characteristics change substantially across the various bands probed. Furthermore, during the simultaneous MAGIC and NuSTAR observations a clear change of the Compton dominance is detected without a simultaneous change in the synchrotron regime, indicating "orphan gamma-ray activity". We also investigate an intriguing bright flare at VHE without a substantial flux increase in the X-rays. Within a leptonic scenario, this behaviour is best explained by the appearance of a second population of highly-energetic electrons spanning a narrow range of energies. Finally, our multi-wavelength correlation study also reveals an anti-correlation between the UV/optical and X-ray bands at a significance level above 3σ

Multiwavelength variability and correlation studies of Mrk421 during historically low X-ray and γ-ray activity in 2015–2016

In this work, we report multi-band flux variability and correlations of the nearby (z=0.031) blazar Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) using multi-wavelength (MWL) data from November 2014 to June 2016. In this period, Mrk 421 exhibited historically low activity in X-rays and very-high-energy gamma rays (VHE; E>0.1 TeV) and an additional spectral component was observed by Swift-BAT. The highest flux variability occurs in X-rays and VHE which, despite the low activity, show a significant positive correlation with no time lag. The hardness ratios in the X-rays and VHE γ-rays show the "harder-when-brighter" trend observed in many blazars. Interestingly, the trend flattens at the highest fluxes, which suggests different processes dominating the brightest states. Enlarging our data set with data from the years 2007 to 2014, we measured a positive correlation between the optical and GeV emission centered at zero time lag, and a positive correlation between the optical/GeV and the radio emission over a range of about 60 days centered at a time lag of 43+9/-6 days. This observation is consistent with the radio-bright zone being located about 0.2 parsec downstream from the optical/GeV emission regions. In most of the energy bands, the flux distribution follows the Lognormal, rather than the Normal function, indicating that the variability may be dominated by a multiplicative process

Resolving the origin of very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from the PeVatron candidate SNR G106.3+2.7 using MAGIC telescopes

The supernova remnant (SNR) G106.3+2.7 associated with a 100 TeV gamma-ray source reported by HAWC, Tibet ASγ, and LHAASO Collaborations is one of the promising PeVatron candidates. Because the SNR contains an energetic pulsar wind nebula (PWN) dubbed Boomerang powered by the pulsar PSR J2229+6114, it is unclear whether the gamma-ray emission originates from the SNR or PWN complex and whether it is caused by hadronic or leptonic processes. We observed gamma rays above 200 GeV in the vicinity of the SNR G106.3+2.7 using the MAGIC telescopes for total ∼ 120 hours between May 2017 and August 2019 with an angular resolution of 0.07– 0.10 degrees, achieving an unprecedented exposure for this object at these energies. An extended gamma-ray emission spatially correlated with the radio continuum emission at the head and tail of SNR G106.3+2.7 was detected using the MAGIC telescopes. We found a significant gamma-ray emission above 5.65 TeV only from the SNR tail region, while no significant emission in the same band is found at the SNR head region containing the Boomerang PWN. Therefore, the gamma rays above 10 TeV detected with the air shower experiments are, likely, mainly emitted from the SNR tail region. In this presentation, we discuss the morphology of the gamma-ray emission from this complex region and attempt self-consistent multi-wavelength modeling of the energy spectrum