TeV Gamma-Ray Emission from Vela X: Leptonic or Hadronic?
Abstract
We study nonthermal photon emission properties from Vela X in both a leptonic and a hadronic-leptonic model. In the leptonic model, it is difficult to reproduce the observed photon spectrum from X-ray to TeV bands using reasonable model parameters; the model results can compare with either the observed data at the TeV band (the total energy of electrons required to match the observations is W e ≈ 6.1 × 1045 erg) or those at the X-ray band (W e ≈ 1.3 × 1045 erg). In the hadronic-leptonic model, however, the observed photon spectrum can be reproduced in the hadronic-leptonic model and TeV photons are mainly from π0 decay in proton-proton interaction. The energy required for iron nuclei released in the pulsar wind is W Fe ≈ 2.1 × 1048 erg and the energy of iron nuclei transferred to positrons is W_e^+≈ 8.4× 10^{45} erg in this case.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- July 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-637X/699/2/L153
- Bibcode:
- 2009ApJ...699L.153Z
- Keywords:
-
- gamma rays: theory;
- ISM: individual: Vela nebula;
- radiation mechanisms: non-thermal