A possible association of the new VHE γ-ray source HESS J1825-137 with the pulsar wind nebula G18.0-0.7

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2005

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We report on a possible association of the recently discovered very high-energy γ-ray source HESS J1825-137 with the pulsar wind nebula (commonly referred to as G 18.0-0.7) of the 2.1 × 10 4 year old Vela-like pulsar PSR B1823-13. HESS J1825-137 was detected with a significance of 8.1σ in the Galactic Plane survey conducted with the HESS instrument in 2004. The centroid position of HESS J1825-137 is offset by 11′ south of the pulsar position. XMM-Newton observations have revealed X-ray synchrotron emission of an asymmetric pulsar wind nebula extending to the south of the pulsar. We argue that the observed morphology and TeV spectral index suggest that HESS J1825-137 and G 18.0-0.7 may be associated: the lifetime of TeV emitting electrons is expected to be longer compared to the XMM-Newton X-ray emitting electrons, resulting in electrons from earlier epochs (when the spin-down power was larger) contributing to the present TeV flux. These electrons are expected to be synchrotron cooled, which explains the observed photon index of ∼2.4, and the longer lifetime of TeV emitting electrons naturally explains why the TeV nebula is larger than the X-ray size. Finally, supernova remnant expansion into an inhomogeneous medium is expected to create reverse shocks interacting at different times with the pulsar wind nebula, resulting in the offset X-ray and TeV γ-ray morphology. © ESO 2005.

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