Centaurus A at Hard X-rays and Soft Gamma-rays

Centaurus A, at a distance of less than 4 Mpc, is the nearest radio-loud AGN. Its emission is detected from radio to very-high energy gamma-rays. Despite the fact that Cen A is one of the best studied extragalactic objects the origin of its hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray emission (100 keV < E < 50 MeV) is still uncertain. Observations with high spatial resolution in the adjacent soft X-ray and hard gamma-ray regimes suggest that several distinct components such as a Seyfert-like nucleus, relativistic jets, and even luminous X-ray binaries within Cen A may contribute to the total emission in the MeV regime that has been detected with low spatial resolution. As the Spectral Energy Distribution of Cen A has its second maximum around 1 MeV, this energy range plays an important role in modeling the emission of (this) AGN. As there will be no satellite mission in the near future that will cover this energies with higher spatial resolution and better sensitivity, an overview of all existing hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray measurements of Cen A is presented here defining the present knowledge on Centaurus A in the MeV energy range.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, article for conference proceedings "The Many Faces of Centaurus A"; accepted for publication in PAS

Hadronic-Origin TeV gamma-Rays and Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays from Centaurus A

Centaurus A (Cen A) is the nearest radio-loud AGN and is detected from radio to very high energy gamma-rays. Its nuclear spectral energy distribution (SED) shows a double-peak feature, which is well explained by the leptonic synchrotron + synchrotron self-Compton model. This model however cannot account for the observed high energy photons in the TeV range, which display a distinct component. Here we show that ~ TeV photons can be well interpreted as the neutral pion decay products from p-gamma interactions of Fermi accelerated high energy protons in the jet with the seed photons around the second SED peak at ~170 keV. Extrapolating the inferred proton spectrum to high energies, we find that this same model is consistent with the detection of 2 ultra-high-energy cosmic ray events detected by Pierre Auger Observatory from the direction of Cen A. We also estimate the GeV neutrino flux from the same process, and find that it is too faint to be detected by current high-energy neutrino detectors.Comment: Phys. Rev. D in press, This article supersedes arXiv:1007.045

New optical polarization measurements of the Crab pulsar

The Crab nebula and its pulsar have been observed for about 3 hours with the high-speed photo-polarimeter OPTIMA in January 2002 at the Calar Alto 3.5m telescope. The Crab pulsar intensity and polarization are determined at all phases of rotation with higher statistical accuracy than ever. Therefore, we were able to separate the so-called 'off-pulse' phase emission (with an intensity of about 1.2% compared to the main peak, assumed to be present at all phases) from the pulsed emission and show the 'net' polarization of the pulsed structures. Recent theoretical results indicate that the measured optical polarization of the Crab pulsar is similar to expectations from a two-pole caustic emission model or a striped pulsar wind model.Comment: AIP Conference Proceedings "Astrophysical Sources of High Energy Particles and Radiation", eds. T. Bulik et al. (NY:AIP), Volume 801, 2005, pp. 306-31

The Spectral Variability of Cygnus X-1 at MeV Energies

In previous work, we have used data from the first three years of the CGRO mission to assemble a broad-band $\gamma$-ray spectrum of the galactic black hole candidate Cygnus X-1. Contemporaneous data from the COMPTEL, OSSE and BATSE experiments on CGRO were selected on the basis of the hard X-ray flux (45--140 keV) as measured by BATSE. This provided a spectrum of Cygnus X-1 in its canonical low X-ray state (as measured at energies below 10 keV), covering the energy range from 50 keV to 5 MeV. Here we report on a comparison of this spectrum to a COMPTEL-OSSE spectrum collected during a high X-ray state of Cygnus X-1 (May, 1996). These data provide evidence for significant spectral variability at energies above 1 MeV. In particular, whereas the hard X-ray flux {\it decreases} during the high X-ray state, the flux at energies above 1 MeV {\it increases}, resulting in a significantly harder high energy spectrum. This behavior is consistent with the general picture of galactic black hole candidates having two distinct spectral forms at soft $\gamma$-ray energies. These data extend this picture, for the first time, to energies above 1 MeV.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to be published in AIP Conf. Proc., "The Fifth Compton Symposium

COMPTEL upper limits for Seyfert galaxies

The gamma‐ray emission of Seyfert galaxies has fallen far short of pre‐GRO expectations. No single object of this class has been detected by either COMPTEL or EGRET, and OSSE has detected only a fraction of the Seyferts expected. To derive a more stringent upper limit to the emission from these objects in the energy ranges 0.75 to 1 and 1 to 3 MeV, we have summed a large number of COMPTEL observations acquired during Phase 1 of the GRO mission. From a total of 47 observations of 23 individual X‐ray selected Seyfert galaxies, we derive preliminary upper limits of 8×10−8 photons/(cm2 s keV) in the 0.75‐1 MeV band and 1×10−8 photons/(cm2 s keV) in the 1‐3 MeV band

COMPTEL observations of the quasar PKS 0528+134 during the first 3.5 years of the CGRO mission

The COMPTEL observations of the blazar-type quasar PKS 0528+134 in the energy range 0.75 MeV to 30 MeV carried out between April 1991 and September 1994 have been analyzed. During the first two years PKS 0528+134 was most significantly detected at energies above 3 MeV. During the last year there is only evidence for the quasar at energies below 3 MeV indicating a spectral change. The time-averaged COMPTEL energy spectrum between 0.75 MeV and 30 MeV is well represented by a power-law shape. Spectra collected from different observational periods reveal different power-law shapes: a hard state during flaring observations reported by EGRET, and a soft state otherwise. The combined simultaneous EGRET and COMPTEL spectra indicate these two spectral states as well. During low intensisty gamma-ray phases no spectral break is obvious from the combined COMPTEL and EGRET measurements. For the gamma-ray flaring phases however, the combined COMPTEL and EGRET data require a spectral bending at MeV-energies. By fitting broken power-law functions the best-fit values for the break in photon index range between 0.6 and 1.7, and for the break energy between ~5 MeV and ~20 MeV. Because the flux values measured by COMPTEL below 3 MeV in both states are roughly equal, the observations would be consistent with an additional spectral component showing up during gamma-ray flaring phases of PKS 0528+134. Such a component could be introduced by e.g. a high-energy electron-positron population with a low-energy cutoff in their bulk Lorentz factor distribution. The multiwavelength spectrum of PKS 0528+134 for gamma-ray flaring phases shows that the major energy release across the entire electro-magnetic spectrum is measured at MeV-energies.Comment: 10 pages, 8 postscript figures, latex, to appear in: A&A 328, 33 (1997