Deep observations of Cas A with MAGIC indicate it is no PeVatron

TL;DR

Deep MAGIC observations of Cas A reveal a gamma-ray spectral cutoff at 3.5 TeV, indicating it is not currently accelerating cosmic rays to PeV energies, challenging the idea of Cas A as a PeVatron.

Contribution

This study provides the first evidence of a spectral cutoff in Cas A at TeV energies, using extensive multi-year MAGIC observations, and tests its potential as a PeVatron.

Findings

Spectral cutoff at ~3.5 TeV in Cas A's gamma-ray spectrum.

Cas A is not a PeVatron at its current age.

First detection of a cutoff in the VHE gamma-ray regime for Cas A.

Abstract

It is widely believed that Galactic Cosmic Rays (CR) are accelerated in Supernova Remnants (SNRs) through the process of diffusive shock acceleration. In this scenario, particles should be accelerated up to energies around 1 PeV (the so-called knee) and emit gamma rays. To test this hypothesis precise measurements of the gamma-ray spectra of young SNRs at TeV energies are needed. Among the already known SNRs, Cassiopea A (Cas A) appears as one of the best candidates for such studies, because it is relatively young (about 300 years) and it has been largely studied in radio and X-ray bands, which constrains essential parameters for testing emission models. Here we present the results of a multi-year campaign of Cas A observations with the MAGIC Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes between December 2014 and October 2016, for a total of 158 hours of good-quality data. We obtained a spectrum of the source from $\sim$100GeV to $\sim$10TeV and fit it assuming it follows a power-law distribution, with and without exponential cut-off. We found, for the first time in the Very High Energy regime (VHE, $\gtrsim$50GeV), observational evidence for the present of a cut-off in Cas A: an exponential cut-off at about 3.5 TeV is preferred with 4.6 $\sigma$ significance over a pure power-law scenario. Assuming that TeV gamma rays are produced by hadronic processes and that there is no significant cosmic ray diffusion, this indicates that Cas A is not a PeVatron (PeV accelerator) at its present age.