H.E.S.S. observations of the supernova remnant RX J0852.0-4622

TL;DR

This paper reports H.E.S.S. observations of the supernova remnant RX J0852.0-4622, analyzing its gamma-ray morphology and spectrum from 300 GeV to 20 TeV to explore the origin of its high-energy emission.

Contribution

It provides detailed gamma-ray morphological and spectral analysis of RX J0852.0-4622, discussing possible emission mechanisms based on multi-wavelength data.

Findings

The remnant exhibits a thin shell morphology in gamma-rays similar to radio and X-ray observations.

Spectral analysis covers energies from 300 GeV to 20 TeV, revealing the emission characteristics.

Discussion on whether inverse Compton scattering or pion decay dominates the gamma-ray production.

Abstract

The shell-type supernova remnant RX J0852.0-4622 was detected in 2004 and re-observed between December 2004 and May 2005 with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), an array of four Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes located in Namibia and dedicated to the observations of gamma-rays above 100 GeV. The angular resolution of <0.1 degree and the large field of view of H.E.S.S. (5 degrees diameter) are well adapted to studying the morphology of the object in very high energy gamma-rays, which exhibits a remarkably thin shell very similar to the features observed in the radio range and in X-rays. The spectral analysis of the source from 300 GeV to 20 TeV will be presented. Finally, the possible origins of the very high energy gamma-ray emission (Inverse Compton scattering by electrons or the decay of neutral pions produced by proton interactions) will be discussed, on the basis of morphological and spectral features obtained at different wavelengths.