VERITAS Studies of the Supernova Remnants Cas A and IC 443

2008/01/01 by T. B. Humensky, Thomas Brian Humensky, Felix A. Aharonian +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Cassiopeia A #Context (archaeology) #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Gamma ray #Hadron #Molecular cloud #Near-Earth supernova #Neutrino Physics Research #Nuclear physics #Physics #Supernova #Supernova remnant #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.3076680

Submitted to Proceedings of "4th Heidelberg International Symposium on High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy 2008"

openalex publication_date 2008/01/01 · arxiv created 2008/10/05 · arxiv updated 2019/08/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

VERITAS observed the supernova remnants Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and IC 443 during 2007, resulting in strong TeV detections of both sources. Cas A is a young remnant, and bright in both the radio and nonthermal X‐rays, both tracers of cosmic‐ray electrons. IC 443 is a middle‐aged composite remnant interacting with a molecular cloud; the molecular cloud provides an enhanced density of target material for hadronic cosmic rays to produce TeV gamma rays via pion decay. The TeV morphology—point‐like for Cas A and extended for IC 443—will be discussed in the context of existing multiwavelength data on the remnants.

Citations

• The VERITAS standard data analysis
• Molecular Beam Dumps as Tracers of Hadronic Cosmic Ray Sources: the Case of SNR IC443
• Primary particle acceleration above 100 TeV in the shell-type supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946 with deep HESS observations
• γ-ray emission from PWNe interacting with molecular clouds