Ancient Pulsar Wind Nebulae as a natural explanation for unidentified gamma-ray sources

TL;DR

This paper proposes that ancient Pulsar Wind Nebulae can explain many unidentified very high energy gamma-ray sources in our galaxy, impacting our understanding of cosmic rays and starburst galaxies.

Contribution

It introduces a time-dependent model of PWNe applied to unidentified VHE gamma-ray sources, offering a new interpretation framework for these sources.

Findings

Model successfully explains several unidentified VHE sources.

Implications for cosmic ray origins and starburst galaxy observations.

Supports the significance of ancient PWNe in gamma-ray astronomy.

Abstract

A large part of the Galactic sources emitting very high energy (VHE; > 10^{11} eV) gamma-rays are currently still unidentified. The evolution of Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe) plays a crucial role in interpreting these sources. The time-dependent modeling of PWNe has been tested on a sample of well-known young and intermediate age PWNe; and it is currently applied to the full-sample of unidentified VHE Galactic sources. The consequences of this interpretation go far beyond the interpretation of "dark sources" (i.e. VHE gamma-ray sources without lower energies, radio or X-ray, counterparts): e.g. there could be strong implication in the origin of cosmic rays and (when considering a leptonic origin of the gamma-ray signal) they can be important for reinterpreting the detection of starburst galaxies in the TeV gamma-ray band. Moreover, the number of Galactic VHE sources is currently increasing with further observation by Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) and by the advent of more sensitive water Cherenkov telescopes such as HAWC (High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory); therefore the physical interpretation of unidentified sources becomes more and more crucial.