Discovery of Extended X-Ray emission from the unidentified TeV source HESS J1614-518 using the Suzaku Satellite

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of extended X-ray emission associated with the TeV gamma-ray source HESS J1614-518 using Suzaku, revealing new insights into its nature and challenging existing emission models.

Contribution

The paper presents the first detection of X-ray counterparts to HESS J1614-518, including an extended source at its peak, and discusses implications for emission mechanisms.

Findings

Identified an extended X-ray source (src A) at the TeV peak, likely related to HESS J1614-518.

X-ray flux is significantly lower than TeV flux, with a photon index of 1.7.

Discovered a soft extended X-ray emission near the source.

Abstract

We report the Suzaku results of HESS J1614-518, which is the brightest extended TeV gamma-ray source discovered in the Galactic plane survey conducted using the H.E.S.S. telescope. We discovered three X-ray objects in the field of view of the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS), which were designated as Suzaku J1614-5141 (src A), Suzaku J1614-5152 (src B), and Suzaku J1614-5148 (src C). Src A is an extended source located at the peak position of HESS J1614-518, and therefore it is a plausible counterpart to HESS J1614-518. The X-ray flux in the 2-10 keV band is 5e-13 erg/s/cm^2, which is an order of magnitude smaller than the TeV flux. The photon index is 1.7, which is smaller than the canonical value of synchrotron emissions from high-energy electrons found in some supernova remnants. These findings present a challenge to models in which the origin of the TeV emission is the inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background by accelerated electrons that emit X-rays via synchrotron emission. Src B is located at a relatively dim region in the TeV band image; however, its hydrogen column density is the same as that of src A. Therefore, src B may also be physically related to HESS J1614-518. Src C is a foreground late-type B star. We also discovered a soft extended X-ray emission near HESS J1614-518.