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 follow up on novae and dwarf novae detected by Fermi-LAT, aiming to find TeV gamma-ray emission that could reveal details about particle acceleration in these explosive events.

Contribution

First-time targeted TeV follow-up observations of specific novae and dwarf novae to search for high-energy gamma-ray components beyond Fermi-LAT detections.

Findings

No TeV gamma-ray emission detected from the observed sources.

MAGIC upper limits constrain particle acceleration parameters.

Results inform models of lepton and hadron acceleration in nova explosions.

Abstract

In the last few years the Fermi-LAT instrument has detected GeV gamma-ray emission from several novae. Such GeV emission can be interpreted in terms of inverse Compton emission from electrons accelerated in the shock or in terms of emission from hadrons accelerated in the same conditions. The latter might reach much higher energies and could produce a second component in the gamma-ray spectrum at TeV energies. We perform follow-up observations of selected novae and dwarf novae in search of the second component in TeV energy gamma rays. 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. We did not detect TeV gamma-ray emission from any of the objects observed. The TeV upper limits from MAGIC observations and the GeV detection by Fermi constrain the acceleration parameters for electrons and hadrons.