We report the results of TeV gamma-ray observations of the shell type SNR
RXJ1713.7-3946 (G347.3-0.5). The discovery of strong non-thermal X-ray emission
from the northwest part of the remnant strongly suggests the existence of
electrons with energies up to 100 TeV in the remnant, making the SNR a good
candidate TeV gamma-ray source. We observed RXJ1713.7-3946 from May to August
1998 with the CANGAROO 3.8m atmospheric imaging Cerenkov telescope and obtained
evidence for TeV gamma-ray emission from the NW rim of the remnant with the
significance of 5.6 sigma. The observed TeV gamma-ray flux from the NW rim
region was estimated to be (5.3 +/- 0.9[statistical] +/- 1.6[systematic]) *
10^{-12} photons cm^{-2} s^{-1} at energies >= 1.8 +/- 0.9 TeV. The data
indicate that the emitting region is much broader than the point spread
function of our telescope. The extent of the emission is consistent with that
of hard X-rays observed by ASCA. This TeV gamma-ray emission can be attributed
to the Inverse Compton scattering of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
by shock accelerated ultra-relativistic electrons. Under this assumption, a
rather low magnetic field of 11 micro gauss is deduced for the remnant from our
observation.Comment: Accepted for publication by Astronomy and Astrophysics (5 pages, 2
figures
