The spectral shapes of Galactic gamma-ray source

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Lipari, Paolo, Vernetto, Silvia
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Lipari, Paolo
Vernetto, Silvia
author_facet Lipari, Paolo
Vernetto, Silvia
contents Recent observations by ground-based gamma-ray telescopes have led to the publication of catalogs listing sources observed in the TeV and PeV energy ranges. Photons of such high energy are strongly absorbed during propagation over extragalactic distances, and the catalogs are dominated by Galactic sources. Of particular interest are the observations of the LHAASO telescope, which cover a very broad energy range (from 1 to 10$^3$ TeV) and show that the spectra of all Galactic gamma-ray sources are curved, with significantly different slopes below and above $E \sim 30$ TeV. The cumulative spectrum obtained by summing the contributions of Galactic individual sources has a spectral shape that gradually softens with energy, with a slope that increases from a value of order 2.2 at $E \simeq 1$ TeV, to 2.5 at 30 TeV, and $\simeq 3.4$ at 100 TeV. It is remarkable that the smooth variation in the shape of the cumulative spectrum is obtained from the sum of contributions that have a wide range of shapes. Understanding the origin of the spectral shapes of the Galactic gamma-ray sources is a crucial challenge for high energy astrophysics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_08733
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The spectral shapes of Galactic gamma-ray source
Lipari, Paolo
Vernetto, Silvia
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Recent observations by ground-based gamma-ray telescopes have led to the publication of catalogs listing sources observed in the TeV and PeV energy ranges. Photons of such high energy are strongly absorbed during propagation over extragalactic distances, and the catalogs are dominated by Galactic sources. Of particular interest are the observations of the LHAASO telescope, which cover a very broad energy range (from 1 to 10$^3$ TeV) and show that the spectra of all Galactic gamma-ray sources are curved, with significantly different slopes below and above $E \sim 30$ TeV. The cumulative spectrum obtained by summing the contributions of Galactic individual sources has a spectral shape that gradually softens with energy, with a slope that increases from a value of order 2.2 at $E \simeq 1$ TeV, to 2.5 at 30 TeV, and $\simeq 3.4$ at 100 TeV. It is remarkable that the smooth variation in the shape of the cumulative spectrum is obtained from the sum of contributions that have a wide range of shapes. Understanding the origin of the spectral shapes of the Galactic gamma-ray sources is a crucial challenge for high energy astrophysics.
title The spectral shapes of Galactic gamma-ray source
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.08733