M. Girma

The Crab Nebula and Pulsar between 500 GeV and 80 TeV: Observations with the HEGRA Stereoscopic Air Cerenkov Telescopes

The Crab supernova remnant has been observed regularly with the stereoscopic system of 5 imaging air Cherenkov telescopes that was part of the High Energy Gamma Ray Astronomy (HEGRA) experiment. In total, close to 400 hours of useful data have been collected from 1997 until 2002. The spectrum extends up to energies of 80 TeV and is well matched by model calculations in the framework of inverse Compton scattering of various seed photons in the nebula including for the first time a recently detected compact emission region at mm-wavelengths. The observed indications for a gradual steepening of the energy spectrum in data is expected in the inverse Compton emission model.The average magnetic field in the emitting volume is determined to be

Is the Giant Radio Galaxy M 87 a TeV Gamma-Ray Emitter?

(161.6\pm0.8mathrm{stat}\pm18_\mathrm{sys}) \mu

An unidentified TeV source in the vicinity of Cygnus OB2

G. The presence of protons in the nebula is not required to explain the observed flux and upper limits on the injected power of protons are calculated being as low as 20 % of the total spin down luminosity for bulk Lorentz factors of the wind in the range of

Variations of the TeV energy spectrum at different flux levels of Mkn 421 observed with the HEGRA system of Cherenkov telescopes

10^4-10^6

TeV gamma rays from the blazar H 1426+428 and the diffuse extragalactic background radiation

.The position and size of the emission region have been studied over a wide range of energies. The position is shifted by 13\arcsec to the west of the pulsar with a systematic uncertainty of 25\arcsec. No significant shift in the position with energy is observed. The size of the emission region is constrained to be less than 2\arcmin at energies between 1 and 10 TeV. Above 30 TeV the size is constrained to be less than 3\arcmin.No indications for pulsed emission has been found and upper limits in differential bins of energy have been calculated reaching typically 1-3 % of the unpulsed component.

Detection of TeV gamma-rays from the BL Lac 1ES 1959+650 in its low states and during a major outburst in 2002

For the first time an excess of photons above an energy threshold of 730 GeV from the giant radio galaxy M 87 has been measured at a significance level above 4 σ. The data have been taken during the years 1998 and 1999 with the HEGRA stereoscopic system of 5 imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The excess of 107.4 ± 26.8 events above 730 GeV corresponds to an integral flux of 3.3% of the Crab flux or Nγ(E > 730 GeV) = (0.96 ± 0.23) × 10 −12 phot cm −2 s −1 . M 87 is located at the center of the Virgo cluster of galaxies at a relatively small redshift of z = 0.00436 and is a promising candidate among the class of giant radio galaxies for the emission of TeV γ-radiation. The detection of TeV γ-rays from M 87 - if confirmed - would establish a new class of extragalactic source in this energy regime since all other AGN detected to date at TeV energies are BL Lac type objects.

Observations of H1426+428 with HEGRA - Observations in 2002 and reanalysis of 1999&2000 data

Deep observation (113 hrs) of the Cygnus region at TeV energies using the HEGRA stereoscopic system of air ˇ Cerenkov telescopes has serendipitously revealed a signal positionally inside the core of the OB association Cygnus OB2, at the edge of the 95% error circle of the EGRET source 3EG J2033+4118, and0:5 north of Cyg X-3. The source centre of gravity is RAJ2000 :2 0 hr 32 m 07 s 9:2 s 2:2 s ,D ecJ2000:+4130 0 30 00 2:0 0 0:4 0. The source is steady, has a post-trial significance of+4.6, indication for extension with radius 5:6 0 at the3 level, and has a dierential power-law flux with hard photon index of 1:9 0:3stat 0:3sys. The integral flux above 1 TeV amounts3% that of the Crab. No counterpart for the TeV source at other wavelengths is presently identified, and its extension would disfavour an exclusive pulsar or AGN origin. If associated with Cygnus OB2, this dense concentration of young, massive stars provides an environment conducive to multi-TeV particle acceleration and likely subsequent interaction with a nearby gas cloud. Alternatively, one could envisage-ray production via a jet-driven termination shock.

Observations of 54 Active Galactic Nuclei with the HEGRA system of Cherenkov telescopes

F. Aharonian, A. Akhperjanian, M. Beilicke, K. Bernlohr, H. Borst, H. Bojahr, O. Bolz, T. Coarasa, J. Contreras, J. Cortina, L. Costamante, S. Denninghoff, V. Fonseca, M. Girma, N. Gotting, G. Heinzelmann, G. Hermann, A. Heusler, W. Hofmann, D. Horns, I. Jung, R. Kankanyan, M. Kestel, J. Kettler, A. Kohnle, A. Konopelko, H. Kornmeyer, D. Kranich, H. Krawczynski, H. Lampeitl, M. Lopez, E. Lorenz, F. Lucarelli, O. Mang, H. Meyer, R. Mirzoyan, M. Milite, A. Moralejo, E. Ona, M. Panter, A. Plyasheshnikov, G. Puhlhofer, G. Rauterberg, R. Reyes, W. Rhode, J. Ripken, G. Rowell, V. Sahakian, M. Samorski, M. Schilling, M. Siems, D. Sobzynska, W. Stamm, M. Tluczykont, H.J. Volk, C. A. Wiedner, W. Wittek and R. A. Remillard

The technical performance of the HEGRA system of imaging air Cherenkov telescopes

The detection of TeV -rays from the blazar H 1426+428 at an integral flux level of (4 2stat 1syst) 10 12 erg cm 2 s 1 above 1 TeV with the HEGRA imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope system is reported. H 1426+428 is located at a redshift of z = 0.129, which makes it the most distant source detected in TeV -rays so far. The TeV radiation is expected to be strongly absorbed by the diuse extragalactic background radiation (DEBRA). The observed energy spectrum of TeV photons is in good agreement with an intrinsic power law spectrum of the source/ E 1:9 corrected for DEBRA absorption. Statistical errors as well as uncertainties about the intrinsic source spectrum, however, do not permit strong statements about the density of the DEBRA infrared photon eld.

TeV

TeV γ-rays from the BL Lac object 1ES 1959+650 have been measured during the years 2000 and 2001 with a significance of 5.2 σ at a value of 5.3% of the Crab flux and in May 2002 during strong outbursts with >23 σ at a flux level of up to 2.2 Crab, making 1ES 1959+650 the TeV Blazar with the third best event statistics. The deep observation of 197.4 h has been performed with the HEGRA stereoscopic system of 5 imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACT system). 1ES 1959+650 is located at a redshift of z = 0.047, providing an intermediate distance between the nearby Blazars Mkn 421 and Mkn 501, and the much more distant object H1426+428. This makes 1ES 1959+650 an important member of the class of TeV Blazars in view of the absorption of TeV photons by the diffuse extragalactic background radiation (DEBRA). The differential energy spectrum of 1ES 1959+650 during the flares can be fitted by a power law with a spectral index of 2.83 ± 0.14stat ± 0.08sys or by a power law with an exponential cut-off at (4.2 +0.8 −0.6 stat ± 0.9sys) TeV and a spectral index of 1.83 ± 0.15stat ± 0.08sys. The low state differential energy spectrum obtained with lower statistics can be described by a pure power law with a spectral index of 3.18 ± 0.17stat ± 0.08sys.