Primary particle acceleration above 100 TeV in the shell-type Supernova Remnant RX J1713.7--3946 with deep H.E.S.S. observations

TL;DR

Deep H.E.S.S. observations of supernova remnant RX J1713.7--3946 reveal gamma-ray emission up to nearly 100 TeV, indicating efficient acceleration of particles beyond 100 TeV in the remnant's shell.

Contribution

This study provides the first resolved TeV gamma-ray image of RX J1713.7--3946 with high angular resolution and extended energy coverage, demonstrating stable operation over three years.

Findings

Gamma-ray emission extends up to ~100 TeV.

Particle acceleration exceeds 100 TeV in the remnant shell.

Stable telescope operation over three years.

Abstract

The shell-type supernova remnant RX J1713.7--3946 was observed during three years with the H.E.S.S. Cherenkov telescope system. The first observation campaign in 2003 yielded the first-ever resolved TeV gamma-ray image. Follow-up observations in 2004 and 2005 revealed the very-high-energy gamma-ray morphology with unprecedented precision and enabled spatially resolved spectral studies. Combining the data of three years, we obtain significantly increased statistics and energy coverage of the gamma-ray spectrum as compared to earlier H.E.S.S. results. We present the analysis of the data of different years separately for comparison and demonstrate that the telescope system operates stably over the course of three years. When combining the data sets, a gamma-ray image is obtained with a superb angular resolution of 0.06 degrees. The combined spectrum extends over three orders of magnitude, with significant gamma-ray emission approaching 100 TeV. For realistic scenarios of very-high-energy gamma-ray production, the measured gamma-ray energies imply efficient particle acceleration of primary particles, electrons or protons, to energies exceeding 100 TeV in the shell of RX J1713.7--3946.