Very Hight Energy Observationa of Shell-Type Supernova Remnants with SHALON Mirror Cherenkov Telescopes

TL;DR

This paper reports on very high energy gamma-ray observations of shell-type supernova remnants using the SHALON Cherenkov telescopes, confirming hadronic gamma-ray production mechanisms and contributing to understanding cosmic ray origins.

Contribution

It presents new observational data of SNRs at very high energies, confirming theoretical predictions about hadronic gamma-ray generation in these remnants.

Findings

Detection of VHE gamma-rays from multiple SNRs.

Confirmation of hadronic origin of gamma-rays in Tycho's SNR, Cas A, and IC 443.

Spectral energy distributions consistent with theoretical models.

Abstract

The investigation of VHE gamma-ray sources by any methods, including mirror Cherenkov telescopes, touches on the problem of the cosmic ray origin and, accordingly, the role of the Galaxy in their generation. The SHALON observations have yielded the results on Galactic shell-type supernova remnants (SNR) on different evolution stages. Among them are: SNRs Tycho's SNR, Cas A, IC 443, $\gamma$Cygni SNR and classical nova GK Per (Nova 1901). For each of SNRs the observation results are presented with spectral energy distribution by SHALON in comparison with other experiment data and images by SHALON. The collected experimental data have confirmed the prediction of the theory about the hadronic generation mechanism of very high energy 800 GeV - 100 TeV $\gamma$-rays in Tycho's SNR, Cas A and IC443.