Search for Point-Like TeV Sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud

TL;DR

This study used extensive H.E.S.S. observations to search for point-like TeV gamma-ray sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud, confirming known sources and setting upper limits on others, thereby constraining the gamma-ray source population.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive search for point-like TeV sources in the LMC using 280 hours of H.E.S.S. data, including updated results and upper limits.

Findings

Detected four known gamma-ray sources in the LMC.

No new significant TeV sources were found.

Upper limits exclude similar luminosity sources in most of the LMC.

Abstract

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is an irregular satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, which has been observed extensively in Very-High-Energy (VHE) gamma rays with the H.E.S.S. telescopes since 2004 and reaches now a total observation time of 280 h. The exposure of the LMC is rather inhomogeneous, the region around the Tarantula Nebula having an exposure of up to 220 h while the exposure in the outer parts of the LMC is as low as 5h. A search for point-like sources was performed on this data set. This search resulted in the detection of the four already known sources (N 157B, N 132D, 30 Dor C and LMC P3) but no further significant emission was revealed. Based on catalogues of pulsars, supernova remnants and high-mass X-ray binaries upper limits on the gamma-ray flux of these objects were derived. In this talk updated results on the known gamma-ray sources as well as upper limits on the non-detected objects will be presented. It will be shown that for a large part of the LMC the existence of VHE gamma-ray sources with a similar luminosity as the already known sources can be excluded.