Detection of extended TeV emission around the Geminga pulsar with H.E.S.S.

Highly extended gamma-ray emission around the Geminga pulsar was discovered by Milagro and verified by HAWC. Despite many observations with Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), detection of gamma-ray emission on angular scales exceeding the IACT field-of-view has proven challenging. Recent developments in analysis techniques have enabled the detection of significant emission around Geminga in archival data with H.E.S.S.. In 2019, further data on the Geminga region were obtained with an adapted observation strategy. Following the announcement of the detection of significant TeV emission around Geminga in archival data, in this contribution we present the detection in an independent dataset. New analysis results will be presented, and emphasis given to the technical challenges involved in observations of highly extended gamma-ray emission with IACTs

Astronomy outreach in Namibia : H.E.S.S. and beyond

Astronomy plays a major role in the scientific landscape of Namibia. Because of its excellent sky conditions, Namibia is home to ground-based observatories like the High Energy Spectroscopic System (H.E.S.S.), in operation since 2002. Located near the Gamsberg mountain, H.E.S.S. performs groundbreaking science by detecting very-high-energy gamma rays from astronomical objects. The fascinating stories behind many of them are featured regularly in the "Source of the Month", a blog-like format intended for the general public with more than 170 features to date. In addition to other online communication via social media, H.E.S.S. outreach activities have been covered locally, e.g. through 'open days' and guided tours on the site itself. An overview of the H.E.S.S. outreach activities are presented in this contribution, along with discussions relating to the current landscape of astronomy outreach and education in Namibia. There has also been significant activity in the country in recent months, whereby astronomy is being used to further sustainable development via human capacity-building. Finally, as we take into account the future prospects of radio astronomy in the country, momentum for a wider range of astrophysics research is clearly building — this presents a great opportunity for the astronomy community to come together to capitalise on this movement and support astronomy outreach, with the overarching aim to advance sustainable development in Namibia

Detection of new Extreme BL Lac objects with H.E.S.S. and Swift XRT

Extreme high synchrotron peaked blazars (EHBLs) are amongst the most powerful accelerators found in nature. Usually the synchrotron peak frequency of an EHBL is above 10$^{17}$ Hz, i.e., lies in the range of medium to hard X-rays making them ideal sources to study particle acceleration and radiative processes. EHBL objects are commonly observed at energies beyond several TeV, making them powerful probes of gamma-ray absorption in the intergalactic medium. During the last decade, several attempts have been made to increase the number of EHBL detected at TeV energies and probe their spectral characteristics. Here we report new detections of EHBLs in the TeV energy regime, each at a redshift of less than 0.2, by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.). Also, we report on X-ray observations of these EHBLs candidates with Swift-XRT. In conjunction with the very high energy observations, this allows us to probe the radiation mechanisms and the underlying particle acceleration processes

Revisiting the PeVatron candidate MGRO J1908+06 with an updated H.E.S.S. analysis

Detecting and studying galactic gamma-ray sources emitting very-high energy photons sheds light on the acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays presumably created in these sources. Currently, there are few sources emitting photons with energies exceeding 100 TeV. In this work we revisit the unidentified source MGRO J1908+06, initially detected by Milagro, using an updated H.E.S.S. dataset and analysis pipeline. The vicinity of the source contains a supernova remnant and pulsars as well as molecular clouds. This makes the identification of the primary source(s) of galactic cosmic rays as well as the nature of the gamma-ray emission challenging, especially in light of the recent HAWC and LHAASO detection of the high energy tail of its spectrum. Exploiting the better angular resolution as compared to particle detectors, we investigate the morphology of the source as well as its spectral properties

Evidence of 100 TeV γ-ray emission from HESS J1702-420 : a new PeVatron candidate

The identification of active PeVatrons, hadronic particle accelerators reaching the knee of the cosmic-ray spectrum (at the energy of few PeV), is crucial to understand the origin of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. In this context, we report on new H.E.S.S. observations of the PeVatron candidate HESS J1702-420, which bring evidence for the presence of γ-rays up to 100 TeV. This is the first time in the history of H.E.S.S. that photons with such high energy are observed. Remarkably, the new deep observations allowed the discovery of a new γ-ray source component, called HESS J1702-420A, that was previously hidden under the bulk emission traditionally associated with HESS J1702-420. This new object has a power-law spectral slope < 2 and a γ-ray spectrum that, extending with no sign of curvature up to 100 TeV, makes it an excellent candidate site for the presence of PeV-energy cosmic rays. This discovery brings new information to the ongoing debate on the nature of the unidentified source HESSJ1702-420, and on the origin of Galactic cosmic rays

Search for dark matter annihilation signals from unidentified Fermi-LAT objects with H.E.S.S.

Cosmological N-body simulations show that Milky-Way-sized galaxies harbor a population of unmerged dark matter subhalos. These subhalos could shine in gamma rays and be eventually detected in gamma-ray surveys as unidentified sources. We search for very-high-energy (VHE, E $\geq$ 100~GeV) gamma-ray emission using H.E.S.S. observations carried out from a thorough selection of unidentified Fermi-LAT Objects (UFOs) as dark matter subhalo candidates. Provided that the dark matter mass is higher than a few hundred GeV, the emission of the UFOs can be well described by dark matter annihilation models. No significant VHE gamma-ray emission is detected in any UFO dataset nor in their combination. We, therefore, derive constraints on the product of the velocity-weighted annihilation cross-section \left by the J-factor on dark matter models describing the UFO emissions. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are derived on \left J in W$^{+}$W$^{-}$ and τ$^{+}$τ$^{-}$ annihilation channels for the TeV dark matter particles. Focusing on thermal WIMPs, strong constraints on the J-factors are obtained from H.E.S.S. observations. Adopting model-dependent predictions from cosmological N-body simulations on the J-factor distribution function for Milky Way (MW)-sized galaxies, only $\lesssim$ 0.3 ~TeV mass dark matter models marginally allow to explain observed UFO emission

Science verification of the new FlashCam-based camera in the 28 m telescope of H.E.S.S.

In October 2019 the central 28 m telescope of the H.E.S.S. experiment has been upgraded with a new camera. The camera is based on the FlashCam design which has been developed in view of a possible future implementation in the medium-sized telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). We report here on the results of the science verification program that has been performed after commissioning of the new camera, to show that the camera and software pipelines are working up to expectations

Search for TeV emission from the Fermi Bubbles at low Galactic latitudes with H.E.S.S. inner Galaxy survey observations

The Fermi Bubbles were discovered about a decade ago in the Fermi-LAT data as a double-lobe structure extending up to 55° in Galactic latitudes above and below the Galactic Center. At the moment their origin is still unknown. The H.E.S.S. collaboration is currently performing the first ever survey in TeV gamma rays of the Milky Way inner region: the Inner Galaxy Survey. This survey is intended to achieve the best sensitivity to faint and diffuse emissions in a region of several degrees around the Galactic Centre. It provides an unprecedented sensitivity to dark matter signals, new diffuse emissions, and TeV outflows from the Galactic Centre. Understanding the properties of the Fermi Bubbles at low Galactic latitudes will provide key insights into their origin. We search for TeV emission at the base of the Fermi Bubbles using low-latitude spatial templates. The first results obtained with the 2014-2020 H.E.S.S. observations will be reported

H.E.S.S. follow-up of BBH merger events

We present here, follow-up observations of four Binary black hole BBH events performed with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in the Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-ray domain during the second and third LIGO/Virgo observation runs. Detailed analyses of the obtained data did not show significant VHE emission. We derive integral upper limit maps considering a generic E$^{-2}$ source spectrum in the most sensitive H.E.S.S energy interval ranging from 1 to 10 TeV. We also consider Extragalactic Background Light absorption effects and derive integral upper limits over the full accessible energy range. We finally derive upper limits of the VHE luminosity for each event and compare them with the expected VHE emission from GRBs. These comparisons allow us to assess the H.E.S.S. gravitational wave follow-up strategies. For the fourth GW observing run O4, we do not expect to fundamentally alter our observing strategy, and will continue to prioritize sky coverage like for the previous runs

Search for enhanced TeV gamma ray emission from Giant Molecular Clouds using H.E.S.S.

Cosmic Ray (CR) interactions with the dense gas inside Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) produce neutral pions, which in turn decay into gamma rays. Thus, the gamma ray emission from GMCs is a direct tracer of the cosmic ray density and the matter density inside the clouds. Detection of enhanced TeV emission from GMCs, i.e., an emission significantly larger than what is expected from the average Galactic cosmic rays illuminating the cloud, can imply a variation in the local cosmic ray density, due to, for example, the presence of a recent accelerator in proximity to the cloud. Such gamma-ray observations can be crucial in probing the cosmic ray distribution across our Galaxy, but are complicated to perform with present generation Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). These studies require differentiating between the strong cosmic-ray induced background, the large scale diffuse emission, and the emission from the clouds, which is difficult to the small field of view of present generation IACTs. In this contribution, we use H.E.S.S. data collected over 16 years to search for TeV emission from GMCs in the inner molecular galacto-centric ring of our Galaxy. We implement a 3D FoV likelihood technique, and simultaneously model the hadronic background, the galactic diffuse emission and the emission expected from known VHE sources to probe for excess TeV gamma ray emission from GMCs