Detection of Gamma-Ray Emission from the Vela Pulsar Wind Nebula with AGILE

Pulsar Wind Nebula Pulsar wind nebulae are the result of the interaction between the wind of relativistic charged particles emitted by pulsars and their surrounding interstellar medium. Using the AGILE satellite, Pellizzoni et al. (p. 663, published online 31 December) detected extended gamma-ray emission between 100 megaelectron volts and 3 gigaelectron volts from the 10,000-year-old Vela pulsar wind nebula. This detection sets constraints on the relativistic particle wind of pulsars, its energetic content, and its interactions with the surrounding medium. It also suggests that pulsar wind nebulae could form a subset of the yet unidentified galactic gamma-ray sources. Pulsar wind nebulae could account for some of the yet unidentified Galactic gamma-ray sources. Pulsars are known to power winds of relativistic particles that can produce bright nebulae by interacting with the surrounding medium. These pulsar wind nebulae are observed by their radio, optical, and x-ray emissions, and in some cases also at TeV (teraelectron volt) energies, but the lack of information in the gamma-ray band precludes drawing a comprehensive multiwavelength picture of their phenomenology and emission mechanisms. Using data from the AGILE satellite, we detected the Vela pulsar wind nebula in the energy range from 100 MeV to 3 GeV. This result constrains the particle population responsible for the GeV emission and establishes a class of gamma-ray emitters that could account for a fraction of the unidentified galactic gamma-ray sources.

M Mastropietro | F Longo | A Antonelli | E Vallazza | M Rapisarda | A Ferrari | M. Trifoglio | P. Giommi | A. Morselli | P. Picozza | Francesco Lazzarotto | M. Feroci | E. Costa | G. Bignami | M. Fiorini | G. Barbiellini | E. Vallazza | P. Cattaneo | A. Possenti | M. Burgay | N. D'Amico | C. Pittori | F. D’Ammando | F. Longo | E. Rossi | A. Rappoldi | M. Rapisarda | S. Mereghetti | P. Lipari | A. Giuliani | M. Tavani | A. Bulgarelli | P. Caraveo | A. Chen | T. Contessi | I. Donnarumma | Y. Evangelista | F. Gianotti | M. Marisaldi | L. Pacciani | A. Pellizzoni | G. Piano | G. Pucella | S. Sabatini | P. Soffitta | E. Striani | A. Trois | S. Vercellone | F. Verrecchia | V. Vittorini | S. Colafrancesco | C. Labanti | F. Fuschino | M. Prest | A. Rubini | L. Salotti | M. Galli | A. Argan | V. Cocco | A. Ferrari | I. Lapshov | M. Mastropietro | F. Perotti | A. Zambra | D. Zanello | P. Santolamazza | G. Di Cocco | P. Esposito | A. Hotan | M. Pilia | J. Palfreyman | E Costa | M Feroci | L Salotti | E. Del Monte | A Pellizzoni | A Trois | M Tavani | M Pilia | A Giuliani | G Pucella | P Esposito | S Sabatini | G Piano | A Argan | G Barbiellini | A Bulgarelli | M Burgay | P Caraveo | P W Cattaneo | A W Chen | V Cocco | T Contessi | F D'Ammando | E Del Monte | G De Paris | G Di Cocco | G Di Persio | I Donnarumma | Y Evangelista | M Fiorini | F Fuschino | M Galli | F Gianotti | A Hotan | C Labanti | I Lapshov | F Lazzarotto | P Lipari | M Marisaldi | S Mereghetti | E Moretti | A Morselli | L Pacciani | J Palfreyman | F Perotti | P Picozza | C Pittori | A Possenti | M Prest | A Rappoldi | E Rossi | A Rubini | P Santolamazza | E Scalise | P Soffitta | E Striani | M Trifoglio | S Vercellone | F Verrecchia | V Vittorini | A Zambra | D Zanello | P Giommi | S Colafrancesco | N D'Amico | G F Bignami | E. Scalise | A. Antonelli | E. Moretti | G. Di Persio | G. De Paris | A. Hotan

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