MAGIC observations of Dragonfly Nebula at TeV Energies using the Very Large Zenith Angle Technique

TL;DR

This paper reports on MAGIC telescope observations of the Dragonfly Nebula at TeV energies using the Very Large Zenith Angle technique, providing insights into the gamma-ray emission from this bright source in the Cygnus region.

Contribution

First application of the Very Large Zenith Angle observational technique with MAGIC to study the Dragonfly Nebula at TeV energies, enhancing effective collection area and sensitivity.

Findings

Detection of gamma-ray flux from the source at TeV energies.

Effective collection area of about one square kilometer achieved.

Approximately 45 hours of observational data analyzed.

Abstract

One of the brightest regions of diffuse gamma-ray emission in the northern sky is the Cygnus star-forming region, where one can assume the most energetic processes are taking place. The Dragonfly Nebula (MGRO J2019+37) is one of the brightest sources in the Cygnus region. First discovered by MILAGRO, it was later resolved into two sources by VERITAS: the faint point-like source VER J2016+371 and the bright extended source VER J2019+368. The latter accounts for the bulk of the MGRO J2019+37 emission, with the spectrum among the hardest in the TeV range. We report the results of a dedicated MAGIC observational campaign of VER J2019+368. The data obtained with the Very Large Zenith Angle observational technique provides an effective collection area of about one square kilometer. We used $\sim$45 hours of data collected under Very Large Zenith Angles for exploring the flux of the source at TeV energies.