Gamma-Ray Activity in the Crab Nebula: The Exceptional Flare of 2011 April

Buehler, R.; Scargle, Jeffrey D.; Blandford, R. D.; Baldini, Luca; Baring, Matthew G.; Belfiore, A.; Charles, E.; Chiang, J.; D’Ammando, F.; Dermer, C. D.; Funk, S.; Grove, J. E.; Harding, A. K.; Hays, E.; Kerr, M.; Massaro, F.; Mazziotta, M. N.; Romani, Roger W.; Parkinson, P. M. Saz; Tennant, Allyn F.; Weisskopf, Martin C.

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/749/1/26

Cited by 198 publications

(289 citation statements)

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“…The energy of electrons responsible for the highest energy synchrotron emission is in the 100 TeV range, which is close to the PeV energies of electrons responsible for the recently discovered GeV flares of the Crab pulsar / pulsar wind nebula system (Abdo et al 2011a;Buehler et al 2012). This suggests a possibility that, in both sources, the flares could be produced via the same mechanism.…”

Section: Possible Connection Of the Be Star Disk Perturbation Andsupporting

confidence: 66%

Multi-wavelength observations of the binary system PSR B1259−63/LS 2883 around the 2014 periastron passage

Chernyakova

Neronov

Soelen

et al. 2015

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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We report on broad multi-wavelength observations of the 2010-2011 periastron passage of the γ-ray loud binary system PSR B1259−63. High resolution interferometric radio observations establish extended radio emission trailing the position of the pulsar. Observations with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveal GeV γ-ray flaring activity of the system, reaching the spin-down luminosity of the pulsar, around 30 days after periastron. There are no clear signatures of variability at radio, X-ray and TeV energies at the time of the GeV flare. Variability around periastron in the Hα emission line, can be interpreted as the gravitational interaction between the pulsar and the circumstellar disk. The equivalent width of the Hα grows from a few days before periastron until a few days later, and decreases again between 18 and 46 days after periastron. In near infrared we observe the similar decrease of the equivalent width of Brγ line between the 40th and 117th day after the periastron. For the idealized disk, the variability of the Hα line represents the variability of the mass and size of the disk. We discuss possible physical relations between the state of the disk and GeV emission under assumption that GeV flare is directly related to the decrease of the disk size.

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Section: Possible Connection Of the Be Star Disk Perturbation Andsupporting

confidence: 66%

Multi-wavelength observations of the binary system PSR B1259−63/LS 2883 around the 2014 periastron passage

Chernyakova

Neronov

Soelen

et al. 2015

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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“…Buehler et al 2012), the higher flux state in March 2013 was accompanied by a hardening of the spectrum in the HE part of the synchrotron energy range. Generally, this implies either enhanced production of electrons and positrons or changes in the magnetic and electric fields.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Meyer et al 2010), its emission shows substantial variability at high energies (HE; E > 100 MeV) (see e.g. Tavani et al 2011;Abdo et al 2011;Striani et al 2011Striani et al , 2013bBuehler et al 2012), as well as at X-ray energies (Wilson-Hodge et al 2011), albeit with a smaller relative amplitude of flux changes (≈5%) and on longer time scales of a few months. The most recent example is the flare detected with Fermi-LAT (Ojha et al 2013;Mayer et al 2013) and AGILE (Striani et al 2013a;Verrecchia et al 2013) in March 2013, when the peak photon flux of the synchrotron component above 100 MeV was (103.4 ± 0.8) × 10 −7 cm −2 s −1 compared to (6.1 ± 0.1) × 10 −7 cm −2 s −1 in its quiescent state, and variability was measured on time scales of a few hours.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

H.E.S.S. observations of the Crab during its March 2013 GeV gamma-ray flare

Abramowski¹,

Aharonian²,

Benkhali³

et al. 2014

A&A

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Context. On March 4, 2013 the Fermi-LAT and AGILE reported a flare from the direction of the Crab nebula in which the high-energy (HE; E > 100 MeV) flux was six times above its quiescent level. Simultaneous observations in other energy bands give us hints about the emission processes during the flare episode and the physics of pulsar wind nebulae in general. Aims. We search for variability in the emission of the Crab nebula at very-high energies (VHE; E > 100 GeV), using contemporaneous data taken with the H.E.S.S. array of Cherenkov telescopes. Methods. Observational data taken with the H.E.S.S. instrument on five consecutive days during the flare were analysed for the flux and spectral shape of the emission from the Crab nebula. Night-wise light curves are presented with energy thresholds of 1 TeV and 5 TeV.Results. The observations conducted with H.E.S.S. on March 6 to March 10, 2013 show no significant changes in the flux. They limit the variation in the integral flux above 1 TeV to less than 63% and the integral flux above 5 TeV to less than 78% at a 95% confidence level.

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“…During these flares, the pulsed flux was constant so the flares are from the nebula. The largest flare to date was observed by Fermi-LAT in April 2011 [167], when the flux rose for about six days over the quiescent flux level by a factor of 30 at peak. Fast variability of less than one hour was seen, implying a very compact region (< 0.04"), and a new spectral component peaking at 500 MeV and extending to 1 GeV appeared.…”

Section: Flares From the Crab Nebulamentioning

confidence: 99%

Gamma-ray pulsars: A gold mine

Grenier

Harding

2015

Comptes Rendus. Physique

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The most energetic neutron stars, powered by their rotation, are capable of producing pulsed radiation from the radio up to γ rays with nearly TeV energies. These pulsars are part of the universe of energetic and powerful particle accelerators, using their uniquely fast rotation and formidable magnetic fields to accelerate particles to ultra-relativistic speed. The extreme properties of these stars provide an excellent testing ground, beyond Earth experience, for nuclear, gravitational, and quantum-electrodynamical physics. A wealth of γ-ray pulsars has recently been discovered with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. The energetic γ rays enable us to probe the magnetospheres of neutron stars and particle acceleration in this exotic environment. We review the latest developments in this field, beginning with a brief overview of the properties and mysteries of rotation-powered pulsars, and then discussing γ-ray observations and magnetospheric models in more detail. RésuméLes pulsars γ : une mine d'or : Lesétoilesà neutrons les plus puissantes, qui tirent leurénergie de leur rotation, sont capables d'émettre des impulsions lumineuses des ondes radio jusqu'aux rayons γ d'énergies proches du TeV. Ces pulsars font partie des puissants accélérateurs de particules de l'Univers, profitant de leur rotation unique et de leur formidable champ magnétique pour accélérer des particules jusqu'à des vitesses ultra-relativistes. Les propriétés extrêmes de cesétoiles permettent de tester la physique nucléaire, la gravitation et l'électrodynamique quantique dans des conditions inaccessibles sur Terre. Le télescope gamma spatial Fermi vient de révéler un richeéchantillon de pulsars γ. Leur rayonnement γénergétique permet de sonder la magnétosphère desétoilesà neutrons et d'étudier l'accélération de particules dans cet environnement exotique. Nous présentons les derniers développements de ce domaine, en commençant par une rapide revue des propriétés et mystères soulevés par ces pulsars, puis en détaillant plus avant les observations γ et les modèles magnétosphériques.Keywords : pulsar ; neutron star ; magnetosphere ; gamma rays ; acceleration Mots-clés : pulsar ;étoileà neutrons ; magnétosphère ; rayons gamma ; accélération Neutron stars, pulsars, and their puzzlesA neutron star is an extreme object in many regards. It is a compact, rapidly spinning, highly magnetized star, formed from the core of a massive star which runs out of nuclear power and collapses under its own gravity, with 53 radio-loud and γ-loud young pulsars (orange upward triangles), 37 radio-faint and γ-loud young pulsars (red downward triangles), 71 radio-loud and γ-loud millisecond pulsars (green filled circles, circled in black and red when in black-widow and redback systems, respectively), and 2256 other radio pulsars (light blue). Recently discovered millisecond pulsars, with noṖ measurement yet, are plotted as squares atṖ near 10 −21 . Lines of constant spin-down power (brown) and polar magnetic field strength (green) are given for a magnetic dipole i...

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Gamma-Ray Activity in the Crab Nebula: The Exceptional Flare of 2011 April

Cited by 198 publications

References 50 publications

Multi-wavelength observations of the binary system PSR B1259−63/LS 2883 around the 2014 periastron passage

Multi-wavelength observations of the binary system PSR B1259−63/LS 2883 around the 2014 periastron passage

H.E.S.S. observations of the Crab during its March 2013 GeV gamma-ray flare

Gamma-ray pulsars: A gold mine

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