DISCOVERY OF A

RADIATION COMPONENT
FROM THE VELA PULSAR
REACHING 20
TERAELECTRONVOLTS
2
 OUTLINE
 Motivation
 Introduction
 Pulsar Magnetosphere
 Emission Mechanism
 High Energy Emission Models
 Results
 Summary

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 MOTIVATION
 Why High Energy Emission? Most of the energy from pulsars are lost in High energy emissions, Pulsar
winds and only a tiny fraction in radio emissions.

 To constrain the region of higher energy emission from magnetosphere using the SED and pulse profile
of the vela pulsar.

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 INTRODUCTION
 Observations were made using High Energy Stereoscopic System’s (H.E.S.S) Cherenkov telescopes.

 Vela is a young pulsar with a spin period of 89.3 ms.

 Vela pulsar is the second pulsar to be detected at TeV range after crab.

 VHE gamma rays helps us determine the origin of pulsed emission from the magnetosphere.

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 VACUUM
MAGNETOSPHERE
 Pulsar is considered to be a conducting sphere which is rotating in a magnetic field. So, the change in
magnetic flux induces an electric field
E+ =0

 For the condition of vacuum around the pulsar to hold, it need to satisfy the condition = 0 .

 But 0, and the charges in the surface experience a force much greater than gravitational force. So, the magnetosphere
in filled with plasmas.

Cerutti, B., Beloborodov, A.M. ,Space Sci Rev 207, 111–136 (2017) 6
 Pulsar Magnetosphere

 Charge distribution in the magnetosphere is given by

 Magnetosphere co-rotates with the same angular velocity as

the pulsar.

 Field lines close at the light cyclinder where the velocity

reaches the speed of light.

 Inside the plasma , so inside these regions the charge particle

can’t accelerate, and they drift with a constant velocity.

 Along the direction, and .This direction is called the null

line.

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A. Philippov et al, Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys., 60:495–558 (2022)
 Emission Mechanism
Common Emission Mechanism for HE radiation:

 Inverse Compton scattering

 Synchrotron Radiation
 Curvature Radiation

Curvature Radiation:

Charged particle are constrained to move along curved magnetic field.

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 OUTER-GAP
MODEL
 Outer gap forms between the null line and the edge of light
cyclinder.

 In the outer gap , so the charged particles are acclerated in these

regions.

Mechanism taking place in the OG region:

• Accelerated charges produce rays by synchrotron or curvature

radiation.

• rays collide with x-rays or optical photons from the surface and
produce electron– positron pair. These pairs gets accelerated
and produce rays again.

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Credits: https://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/ground/GlastScience/year2005/AnatolySpitkovsky/AnatolySpitkovsky_jan20_05.pdf
STRIPED WIND MODEL

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RESULTS

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 PULSE PROFILE
 Signal is detected at P2 above 5 TeV with a
significance of 5.8

 significant feature present in the multi-TeV

range lies at a peak position , that is statistically
compatible with that of the P2 pulse observed in
the HE range

 Pulse P2 occurs at the same position for TeV and

GeV range, it suggests that the emission of HE
and VHE could be from the same population of
electrons.

H.E.S.S collabaration et al, Nature Astron (2023) 12

 SED
 SED around pulse P2 is shown for TeV and GeV
range.

Power law function

, 260 GeV < E < 28.5 TeV

 Spectrum with a very hard photon index.

= 1.4 ± 0.3stat ± 0.1syst and normalization
=1.74 ± 0.52stat ± 0.35syst × 10−15 erg−1cm−2 s−1

 Luminosity L20TeV ≃ 2 × 1030 erg s−1

H.E.S.S collabaration et al, Nature Astron (2023) 13

 CR / IC

Peak Energy of GeV for different combination of which

fit the GeV part of the SED.

Where

Energy Distribution of IC

Need to find the (Lorrentz factor) which best

Red Band describes the HE peak for describes both the HE and VHE part of the spectrum.
different combination of

H.E.S.S collabaration et al, Nature Astron (2023) (Supplementary paper) 14

 CR / IC
Case Ia (Near the LC):

(For )

Fits the HE part of the spectrum but not the VHE

H.E.S.S collabaration et al, Nature Astron (2023) 15

 CR / IC
Case Ib (Outside the LC):

(For )

IC scattering with NIR photon

Case Ic (Outside the LC):

(For )

IC scattering with O-NIR photon

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 SR / IC
Lorrentz factor for synchrotron radiation

CASE iia:

spectral SR model fits the HE data but not the VHE data

H.E.S.S collabaration et al, Nature Astron (2023) 17

 SR / IC

CASE iib(1-2RLC):

 Plasmas are accelerated in the current sheets, and it radiates energy

through synchrotron radiation.

 Cooled particles are further accelerated in the current sheet, and it

gets IC scattered by the O-NIR photons

H.E.S.S collabaration et al, Nature Astron (2023) 18

 SR / IC

CASE iic(1-2RLC):

, Γw ≃ 10

 The bulk movement of the striped wind, with Lorentz factor Γw,
can affect the physical picture due to the Doppler boosting of
radiations

 SR and IC take place in the wind co-moving frame

H.E.S.S collabaration et al, Nature Astron (2023) 19

 SUMMARY

 Pulse profile and the SED of vela pulsar was discussed

 Various emission mechanism to describe the SED

 Future TeV observations of other pulsars will help us constrain the VHE emission region.

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