Very high energy gamma-ray follow-up observations of novae and dwarf novae with the MAGIC telescopes

TL;DR

This study used MAGIC telescopes to observe novae and dwarf novae for TeV gamma-ray emission, aiming to detect high-energy components and understand particle acceleration during nova explosions.

Contribution

First follow-up observations of selected novae and dwarf novae at TeV energies to search for high-energy gamma-ray components.

Findings

No significant TeV gamma-ray emission detected.

Provides constraints on hadronic acceleration in nova explosions.

Supports the inverse Compton interpretation of GeV emission.

Abstract

In the last few years the Fermi -LAT instrument has detected GeV gamma-ray emission from a few novae. Such GeV emission can be interpreted in terms of an inverse Compton process of electrons accelerated in a shock. It is expected that hadrons can be accelerated in the same conditions, but reaching much higher energies. They can produce a second component in the gamma-ray spectrum at TeV energies. We performed follow-up observations of selected novae and dwarf novae in a search of the second component in the gamma-ray spectrum. This can shed light on the acceleration process of leptons and hadrons in nova explosions. We have performed observations with the MAGIC telescopes of 3 sources, a symbiotic nova YY Her, a dwarf nova ASASSN-13ax and a classical nova V339 Del shortly after their outbursts.