Detection of extended γ -ray emission around the Geminga pulsar with H.E.S.S.

Geminga is an enigmatic radio-quiet γ-ray pulsar located at a mere 250 pc distance from Earth. Extended very-high-energy γ-ray emission around the pulsar was discovered by Milagro and later confirmed by HAWC, which are both water Cherenkov detector-based experiments. However, evidence for the Geminga pulsar wind nebula in gamma rays has long evaded detection by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) despite targeted observations. The detection of γ-ray emission on angular scales ≳2° poses a considerable challenge for the background estimation in IACT data analysis. With recent developments in understanding the complementary background estimation techniques of water Cherenkov and atmospheric Cherenkov instruments, the H.E.S.S. IACT array can now confirm the detection of highly extended γ-ray emission around the Geminga pulsar with a radius of at least 3° in the energy range 0.5-40 TeV. We find no indications for statistically significant asymmetries or energy-dependent morphology. A flux normalisation of (2.8 ± 0.7)×10-12 cm-2 s-1 TeV-1 at 1 TeV is obtained within a 1° radius region around the pulsar. To investigate the particle transport within the halo of energetic leptons around the pulsar, we fitted an electron diffusion model to the data. The normalisation of the diffusion coefficient obtained of D0 = 7.6-1.2+1.5×1027 cm2 s-1, at an electron energy of 100 TeV, is compatible with values previously reported for the pulsar halo around Geminga, which is considerably below the Galactic average

Search for the evaporation of primordial black holes with H.E.S.S.

Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) are hypothetical black holes predicted to have been formed from density fluctuations in the early Universe. PBHs with an initial mass around 1014-1015 g are expected to end their evaporation at present times in a burst of particles and very-high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. Those gamma rays may be detectable by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), an array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. This paper reports on the search for evaporation bursts of VHE gamma rays with H.E.S.S., ranging from 10 to 120 seconds, as expected from the final stage of PBH evaporation and using a total of 4816 hours of observations. The most constraining upper limit on the burst rate of local PBHs is 2000 pc-3 yr-1 for a burst interval of 120 seconds, at the 95% confidence level. The implication of these measurements for PBH dark matter are also discussed

A MeerKAT, e-MERLIN, HESS, and Swift search for persistent and transient emission associated with three localized FRBs

We report on a search for persistent radio emission from the one-off fast radio burst (FRB) 20190714A, as well as from two repeating FRBs, 20190711A and 20171019A, using the MeerKAT radio telescope. For FRB 20171019A, we also conducted simultaneous observations with the High-Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in very high-energy gamma rays and searched for signals in the ultraviolet, optical, and X-ray bands. For this FRB, we obtain a UV flux upper limit of 1.39 × 10-16 erg, cm-2, s-1Å-1, X-ray limit of ~6.6 × 10-14~erg, cm-2, s-1 and a limit on the very high energy gamma-ray flux Φ (E> 120, GeV) < 1.7× 10-12, erg, cm-2, s-1. We obtain a radio upper limit of ∼15 μJy beam-1 for persistent emission at the locations of both FRBs 20190711A and 20171019A with MeerKAT. However, we detected an almost unresolved (ratio of integrated flux to peak flux is ∼1.7 beam) radio emission, where the synthesized beam size was ∼8 arcsec size with a peak brightness of ∼ 53, μJy beam-1 at MeerKAT and ∼ 86, μ Jy beam-1 at e-MERLIN, possibly associated with FRB 20190714A at z = 0.2365. This represents the first detection of persistent continuum radio emission potentially associated with a (as-yet) non-repeating FRB. If the association is confirmed, one of the strongest remaining distinction between repeaters and non-repeaters would no longer be applicable. A parallel search for repeat bursts from these FRBs revealed no new detections down to a fluence of 0.08 Jy ms for a 1 ms duration burst

Time-resolved hadronic particle acceleration in the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi

Recurrent novae are repeating thermonuclear explosions in the outer layers of white dwarfs, due to the accretion of fresh material from a binary companion. The shock generated when ejected material slams into the companion star's wind can accelerate particles. We report very-high-energy (VHE; [Formula: see text]) gamma rays from the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi, up to 1 month after its 2021 outburst, observed using the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.). The temporal profile of VHE emission is similar to that of lower-energy giga-electron volt emission, indicating a common origin, with a 2-day delay in peak flux. These observations constrain models of time-dependent particle energization, favoring a hadronic emission scenario over the leptonic alternative. Shocks in dense winds provide favorable environments for efficient acceleration of cosmic rays to very high energies

Observation of the Gamma-Ray Binary HESS J0632+057 with the HESS, MAGIC, and VERITAS Telescopes

The results of gamma-ray observations of the binary system HESS J0632 + 057 collected during 450 hr over 15 yr, between 2004 and 2019, are presented. Data taken with the atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS at energies above 350 GeV were used together with observations at X-ray energies obtained with Swift-XRT, Chandra, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and Suzaku. Some of these observations were accompanied by measurements of the Hα emission line. A significant detection of the modulation of the very high-energy gamma-ray fluxes with a period of 316.7 4.4 days is reported, consistent with the period of 317.3 0.7 days obtained with a refined analysis of X-ray data. The analysis of data from four orbital cycles with dense observational coverage reveals short-timescale variability, with flux-decay timescales of less than 20 days at very high energies. Flux variations observed over a timescale of several years indicate orbit-to-orbit variability. The analysis confirms the previously reported correlation of X-ray and gamma-ray emission from the system at very high significance, but cannot find any correlation of optical Hα parameters with fluxes at X-ray or gamma-ray energies in simultaneous observations. The key finding is that the emission of HESS J0632 + 057 in the X-ray and gamma-ray energy bands is highly variable on different timescales. The ratio of gamma-ray to X-ray flux shows the equality or even dominance of the gamma-ray energy range. This wealth of new data is interpreted taking into account the insufficient knowledge of the ephemeris of the system, and discussed in the context of results reported on other gamma-ray binary systems