Fermi LAT and WMAP observations of the supernova remnant HB 21

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-4-2013

Abstract

We present the analysis of Fermi Large Area Telescope γ-ray observations of HB 21 (G89.0+4.7). We detect significant γ-ray emission associated with the remnant: the flux >100 MeV is 9.4 ± 0.8 (stat) ± 1.6 (syst) × 10−11 erg cm−2 s−1. HB 21 is well modeled by a uniform disk centered at l = 8875 ± 004, b = +465 ± 006 with a radius of 119 ± 006. The γ-ray spectrum shows clear evidence of curvature, suggesting a cutoff or break in the underlying particle population at an energy of a few GeV. We complement γ-ray observations with the analysis of the WMAP 7 yr data from 23 to 93 GHz, achieving the first detection of HB 21 at these frequencies. In combination with archival radio data, the radio spectrum shows a spectral break, which helps to constrain the relativistic electron spectrum, and, in turn, parameters of simple non-thermal radiation models. In one-zone models multiwavelength data favor the origin of γ rays from nucleon-nucleon collisions. A single population of electrons cannot produce both γ rays through bremsstrahlung and radio emission through synchrotron radiation. A predominantly inverse-Compton origin of the γ-ray emission is disfavored because it requires lower interstellar densities than are inferred for HB 21. In the hadronic-dominated scenarios, accelerated nuclei contribute a total energy of ∼3 × 1049 erg, while, in a two-zone bremsstrahlung-dominated scenario, the total energy in accelerated particles is ∼1 × 1049 erg.

Publication Title

The Astrophysical Journal

Volume

779

Issue

2

First Page

1

Last Page

13

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/179

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS