The galactic plane in gamma-rays above 10 TeV as seen with H.E.S.S.

The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is an array of five imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes located in the Khomas Highland of Namibia. H.E.S.S. operates in a wide energy range from several tens of GeV to several tens of TeV, reaching the best sensitivity around 1 TeV or at lower energies. However, there are many important topics – such as the search for Galactic PeVatrons, the study of gamma-ray production scenarios for sources (hadronic vs. leptonic), EBL absorption studies – which require good sensitivity at energies above 10 TeV. This work aims at improving the sensitivity of H.E.S.S. and increasing the gamma-ray statistics at high energies. The study investigates an enlargement of the H.E.S.S. effective field of view using events with larger offset angles in the analysis. The greatest challenges in the analysis of large-offset events are a degradation of the reconstruction accuracy and a rise of the background rate as the offset angle increases. The more sophisticated direction reconstruction method (DISP) and improvements to the standard background rejection technique, which by themselves are effective ways to increase the gamma-ray statistics and improve the sensitivity of the analysis, are implemented to overcome the above-mentioned issues. As a result, the angular resolution at the preselection level is improved by 5 - 10% for events at 0.5◦ offset angle and by 20 - 30% for events at 2◦ offset angle. The background rate at large offset angles is decreased nearly to a level typical for offset angles below 2.5◦. Thereby, sensitivity improvements of 10 - 20% are achieved for the proposed analysis compared to the standard analysis at small offset angles. Developed analysis also allows for the usage of events at large offset angles up to approximately 4◦, which was not possible before. This analysis method is applied to the analysis of the Galactic plane data above 10 TeV. As a result, 40 sources out of the 78 presented in the H.E.S.S. Galactic plane survey (HGPS) are detected above 10 TeV. Among them are representatives of all source classes that are present in the HGPS catalogue; namely, binary systems, supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae and composite objects. The potential of the improved analysis method is demonstrated by investigating the more than 10 TeV emission for two objects: the region associated with the shell-type SNR HESS J1731−347 and the PWN candidate associated with PSR J0855−4644 that is coincident with Vela Junior (HESS J0852−463).H.E.S.S. ist eine System von fünf abbildenden atmosphärischen Cherenkov Teleskopen im Khomas-Hochland von Namibia. H.E.S.S. arbeitet in einem weiten Energiebereich von einigen zehn GeV bis zu einigen zehn TeV und erreicht die beste Sensitivität um 1TeV oder bei niedrigeren Energien. Es gibt jedoch viele wichtige Themen – wie die Suche nach galaktischen PeVatrons, die Untersuchung von Gammastrahlen-Produktionsszenarien für Quellen (hadronische vs. leptonische), EBL-Absorptionsstudien – die eine gute Sensitivität bei Energien oberhalb von 10TeV erfordern. Diese Arbeit zielt darauf ab die Sensitivität von H.E.S.S. zu verbessern und die Gammastrahlenstatistik bei Energien über 10TeV zu erhöhen. Untersucht diese Studie das effektive Gesichtsfeld von H.E.S.S. durch die Verwendung von Ereignissen mit größeren Versatzwinkeln in der Analyse (insbesondere bis zu 4° anstelle von 2.5°) zu vergrößern. Die größten Herausforderungen bei der Analyse von Ereignissen mit großem Versatzwinkeln sind eine Verschlechterung der Rekonstruktionsgenauigkeit und ein Anstieg der Hintergrundrate mit zunehmendem Versatzwinkeln. Die ausgefeiltere Richtungsrekonstruktionsmethode (DISP) und Verbesserungen der Standard-Hintergrundunterdrückungstechnik (die selbst auch wirksame Methode zur Erhöhung der Gammastrahlenstatistik und zur Verbesserung der Sensitivität der Analyse sind) sind zur Überwindung der oben genannten Probleme eingesetzt. Infolgedessen wird die Winkelauflösung auf der Vorselektionsebene um 5 - 10% für 0.5° und um 20 - 30% für 2° Versatzwinkeln verbessert. Die Hintergrundrate bei großen Versatzwinkeln wird fast auf ein Niveau gesenkt, das bei Versatzwinkeln unter 2.5° typisch ist. Letztendlich erreicht die hierentwickelte Analysis eine ein um 10 - 20% verbesserte Sensitivität bei kleinen Versatzwinkeln und erlaubt die Verwendung von Ereignissen bei großen Versatzwinkeln bis zu etwa 4°, was vorher nicht möglich war. Diese Analysemethode wird bei der Analyse der Daten der Galaktischen Ebene oberhalb von 10TeV angewandt. Als Ergebnis werden 40 der 78 Quellen, die in der H.E.S.S. Durchmusterung der Galaktischen Ebene (HGPS) vorgestellt wurden, oberhalb von 10TeV detektiert und charakterisiert. Darunter befinden sich Vertreter aller Quellklassen, die im HGPS-Katalog etabliert sind. Das Potenzial der verbesserten Analysemethode wird auch durch die Untersuchung der Emission oberhalb von 10TeV für zwei Objekte demonstriert: die Region, die mit dem Schalenüberrest SNR HESS J1731-347 assoziiert ist, und der PWN-Kandidat, der mit PSR J0855-4644 assoziiert ist und mit HESS J0852-463 zusammenfällt

Analysis optimisation for more than 10 TeV gamma-ray astronomy with IACTs

The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is one of the currently operating Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. H.E.S.S. operates in the broad energy range from a few tens of GeV to more than 50 TeV reaching its best sensitivity around 1 TeV. In this contribution, we present an analysis technique, which is optimised for the detection at the highest energies accessible to H.E.S.S. and aimed to improve the sensitivity above 10 TeV. It includes the employment of improved event direction reconstruction and gamma-hadron separation. For the first time, also extensive air showers with event offsets up to 4.5 deg from the camera centre are considered in the analysis, thereby increasing the effective Field-of-View of H.E.S.S. from 5 deg to 9 deg. Key performance parameters of the new high-energy analysis are presented and its applicability demonstrated for representative hard-spectrum sources in the Milky Way

First limits on the very-high energy gamma-ray afterglow emission of fast radio bursts. H.E.S.S. observations of FRB 150418

Aims. Following the detection of the fast radio burst FRB150418 by the SUPERB project at the Parkes radio telescope, we aim to search for very-high energy gamma-ray afterglow emission.Methods. Follow-up observations in the very-high energy gamma-ray domain were obtained with the H.E.S.S. imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope system within 14.5 h of the radio burst.Results. The obtained 1.4 h of gamma-ray observations are presented and discussed. At the 99% C.L. we obtained an integral upper limit on the gamma-ray flux of Φγ(E > 350 GeV) < 1.33 × 10$^{-8}$ m$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. Differential flux upper limits as function of the photon energy were derived and used to constrain the intrinsic high-energy afterglow emission of FRB 150418.Conclusions. No hints for high-energy afterglow emission of FRB 150418 were found. Taking absorption on the extragalactic background light into account and assuming a distance of z = 0.492 based on radio and optical counterpart studies and consistent with the FRB dispersion, we constrain the gamma-ray luminosity at 1 TeV to L < 5.1 × 10$^{47}$ erg/s at 99% C.L

A search for very high energy flares from the microquasars GRS 1915+105, Circinus X-1, and V4641 Sgr using contemporaneous H.E.S.S. and RXTE observations

Context. Microquasars are potential γ-$\gamma$ray emitters. Indications of transient episodes of $\gamma$-ray emission were recently reported in at least two systems: Cyg X-1 and Cyg X-3. The identification of additional $\gamma$-ray-emitting microquasars is required to better understand how $\gamma$-ray emission can be produced in these systems.Aim. Theoretical models have predicted very high-energy (VHE) $\gamma$-ray emission from microquasars during periods of transient outburst. Observations reported herein were undertaken with the objective of observing a broadband flaring event in the $\gamma$-ray and X-ray bands.Methods. Contemporaneous observations of three microquasars, GRS 1915+105, Circinus X-1, and V4641 Sgr, were obtained using the High Energy Spectroscopic System (H.E.S.S.) telescope array and the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite. X-ray analyses for each microquasar were performed and VHE $\gamma$-ray upper limits from contemporaneous H.E.S.S. observations were derived.Results. No significant $\gamma$-ray signal has been detected in any of the three systems. The integral $\gamma$-ray photon flux at the observational epochs is constrained to be $I$(>560 GeV) 560 GeV ) 240 GeV) < 4.5 × $10^{−12} cm^{−2} s^{−1}$ for GRS 1915+105, Circinus X-1, and V4641 Sgr, respectively.Conclusions. The $\gamma$-ray upper limits obtained using H.E.S.S. are examined in the context of previous Cherenkov telescope observations of microquasars. The effect of intrinsic absorption is modelled for each target and found to have negligible impact on the flux of escaping $\gamma$-rays. When combined with the X-ray behaviour observed using RXTE, the derived results indicate that if detectable VHE $\gamma$-ray emission from microquasars is commonplace, then it is likely to be highly transient

H.E.S.S. observations following multi-messenger alerts in real-time

International audienceThe H.E.S.S. Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope system is, due to its fast reaction time and its comparably low energy threshold, very well suited to perform follow-up observations of detections at other wavelengths or other messengers like high-energy neutrinos and gravitational waves. These advantages are utilized optimally via a fully automatized system reacting to alerts from various partner observatories covering various wavelengths and astrophysical messengers.In this contribution we'll provide an overview and present recent results from H.E.S.S. programs to follow up on multi-wavelength and multi-messenger alerts. To illustrate the capabilities of the system we present several real-time ToO observations searching for high-energy gamma-ray emission in coincidence with high-energy neutrinos detected by the IceCube and ANTARES neutrino telescopes and outline our program to search for gravitational wave counterparts

The supernova remnant W49B as seen with H.E.S.S. and Fermi-LAT

The supernova remnant (SNR) W49B originated from a core-collapse supernova that occurred between one and four thousand years ago, and subsequently evolved into a mixed-morphology remnant, which is interacting with molecular clouds (MC). Gamma-ray observations of SNR-MC associations are a powerful tool to constrain the origin of Galactic cosmic rays, as they can probe the acceleration of hadrons through their interaction with the surrounding medium and subsequent emission of non-thermal photons. We report the detection of a γ-ray source coincident with W49B at very high energies (VHE; E > 100 GeV) with the H.E.S.S. Cherenkov telescopes together with a study of the source with five years of Fermi-LAT high-energy γ-ray (0.06–300 GeV) data. The smoothly connected, combined source spectrum, measured from 60 MeV to multi-TeV energies, shows two significant spectral breaks at 304 ± 20 MeV and 8.4−2.5+2.2 GeV; the latter is constrained by the joint fit from the two instruments. The detected spectral features are similar to those observed in several other SNR-MC associations and are found to be indicative of γ-ray emission produced through neutral-pion decay