The inner 300 parsecs of the Milky Way seen by H.E.S.S.: a Pevatron in the Galactic Centre

Abstract

Abstract. The Galactic Centre region has been observed by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) array of ground-based Cherenkov telescopes since 2004 leading to the detection of the very-high-energy γ-ray source HESS J1745-290 spatially coincident with the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. Diffuse TeV gamma-ray emission has been detected along the Galactic plane, most likely due to hadronic cosmic-ray interactions with the dense gas of the Central Molecular Zone. The rich 2004-2013 dataset permits detailed spectral and morphological studies of the diffuse emission in the inner 300 pc of the Galactic Centre region. The new results provide an important statement regarding the location and origin of the accelerator of PeV protons. The H.E.S.S. observations of the Pevatron are discussed in the context of the origin of Galactic cosmic rays.

Hunting for heavy winos in the Galactic Center

“…However, the GC is a complicated region of the sky that produces photons at all wavelengths -it contains regions of bright very-high-energy (VHE, E 100 GeV) gammaray emission from conventional astrophysical processes, see e.g. [3,4]. Furthermore, IACTs have a substantial irreducible background due to the misidentification of CRs as gamma rays.…”