12–23 Jul 2021
Online
Europe/Berlin timezone

Particle Acceleration in the Cygnus Superbubble

15 Jul 2021, 18:00
1h 30m
04

04

Talk GAI | Gamma Ray Indirect Discussion

Speaker

Binita Hona (University of Utah)

Description

The Cygnus Cocoon is the first gamma-ray superbubble powered by a massive stellar association, the OB2 association. It was postulated that the combined effects of the stellar wind of the massive type O stars of the OB2 association can accelerate the cosmic rays to PeV energy in the Cocoon. The conclusive proof of acceleration to PeV energy in the Cocoon will identify the stellar association as a PeV cosmic-ray accelerator. However, the Cocoon has been previously studied only up to 10 TeV. In this contribution, using 1343 days of High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory data, we present the morphological and spectral study of the Cocoon above 1 TeV to beyond 100 TeV. The analysis at higher TeV energies reveals a softer spectrum compared to the GeV gamma-ray observation. This result suggests that either the accelerator’s efficiency decreases significantly around hundreds of TeV, or after being accelerated, the highest-energy protons escape the region. The study above 10 TeV presented here demonstrates how CR accelerators operate in these extreme energies and how particle transport impacts high-energy emission.

Keywords

Very-high-energy gamma-ray

Subcategory Experimental Results
Collaboration HAWC

Primary authors

Presentation materials