Observation of the gamma-ray binary HESS J0632+057 with the H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS telescopes

TL;DR

This study presents extensive multi-year gamma-ray and X-ray observations of the binary system HESS J0632+057, revealing its high variability and correlation between X-ray and gamma-ray emissions, with implications for understanding gamma-ray binaries.

Contribution

First comprehensive multi-wavelength analysis of HESS J0632+057 over 15 years, demonstrating flux variability, orbital modulation, and emission correlations in gamma-ray binaries.

Findings

Detected gamma-ray flux modulation with a 317-day period.

Observed short-term flux decay within 20 days at very high energies.

Confirmed strong correlation between X-ray and gamma-ray emissions.

Abstract

The results of gamma-ray observations of the binary system HESS J0632+057 collected during 450 hours over 15 years, between 2004 and 2019, are presented. Data taken with the atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS at energies above 350 GeV were used together with observations at X-ray energies obtained with Swift-XRT, Chandra, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and Suzaku. Some of these observations were accompanied by measurements of the H{\alpha} emission line. A significant detection of the modulation of the VHE gamma-ray fluxes with a period of 316.7+-4.4 days is reported, consistent with the period of 317.3+-0.7 days obtained with a refined analysis of X-ray data. The analysis of data of four orbital cycles with dense observational coverage reveals short timescale variability, with flux-decay timescales of less than 20 days at very high energies. Flux variations observed over the time scale of several years indicate orbit-to-orbit variability. The analysis confirms the previously reported correlation of X-ray and gamma-ray emission from the system at very high significance, but can not find any correlation of optical H{\alpha} parameters with X-ray or gamma-ray energy fluxes in simultaneous observations. The key finding is that the emission of HESS J0632+057 in the X-ray and gamma-ray energy bands is highly variable on different time scales. The ratio of gamma-ray to X-ray flux shows the equality or even dominance of the gamma-ray energy range. This wealth of new data is interpreted taking into account the insufficient knowledge of the ephemeris of the system, and discussed in the context of results reported on other gamma-ray binary systems.