Search for galactic Pevatron candidates in a population of unidentified gamma-ray sources

TL;DR

This study identifies five galactic gamma-ray sources as Pevatron candidates with spectral cutoffs above 20 TeV, using multi-instrument data to improve limits and analyze spectral features, supporting their role as cosmic ray accelerators.

Contribution

The paper provides new lower limits on gamma-ray energy cutoffs for unidentified sources, confirming some as Pevatron candidates and refining spectral break constraints with multi-instrument data.

Findings

Five Pevatron candidates identified with >20 TeV cutoff

Lower limit on MGRO J1908+06 cutoff is 30 TeV, nearly double previous estimates

Spectral breaks between 1-10 TeV are excluded at 90% confidence

Abstract

Lower limits on the energy cutoff for unidentified gamma-ray sources detected in the HESS galactic plane survey are derived. Additional public data from the VERITAS, HESS and Milagro experiments are used for MGRO J1908+06 to confirm the limit derived from the HESS galactic plane survey data and to enable further conclusions on the presence of spectral breaks. Five Pevatron candidates are identified in the HESS galactic plane survey. The cutoff of the gamma-ray spectrum for these sources is larger than 20 TeV at 90% confidence level. The gamma-ray sources MGRO J1908+06 and HESS J1641-463, found to be Pevatron candidates in the analysis of the HESS galactic plane survey catalog, had been discussed as Pevatron candidates before. For MGRO J1908+06, the lower limit on the gamma-ray energy cutoff is 30 TeV at 90% confidence level. This is a factor of almost two larger than previous results. Additionally, a break in the gamma-ray spectrum at energies between 1 TeV and 10 TeV with an index change larger than 0.5 can be excluded at 90% confidence level for MGRO J1908+06. The energy cutoff of accelerated particles is larger than 100 TeV at 90% confidence level in a hadronic scenario for all five Pevatron candidates. A hadronic scenario is plausible for at least three of the Pevatron candidates, based on the presence of nearby molecular clouds and supernova remnants.