Search for Gamma-Ray Emission from AE Aquarii with Seven Years of Fermi-LAT Observations
Abstract
AE Aquarii (AE Aqr) is a cataclysmic binary hosting one of the fastest rotating ({P}{spin} = 33.08 s) white dwarfs (WDs) known. Based on seven years of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Pass 8 data, we report on a deep search for gamma-ray emission from AE Aqr. Using X-ray observations from ASCA, XMM-Newton, Chandra, Swift, Suzaku, and NuSTAR, spanning 20 years, we substantially extend and improve the spin ephemeris of AE Aqr. Using this ephemeris, we searched for gamma-ray pulsations at the spin period of the WD. No gamma-ray pulsations were detected above 3σ significance. Neither phase-averaged gamma-ray emission nor gamma-ray variability of AE Aqr is detected by Fermi LAT. We impose the most restrictive upper limit to the gamma-ray flux from AE Aqr to date: 1.3× {10}-12 erg cm-2 s-1 in the 100 MeV-300 GeV energy range, providing constraints on models.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 2016
- DOI:
- 10.3847/0004-637X/832/1/35
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1608.06662
- Bibcode:
- 2016ApJ...832...35L
- Keywords:
-
- gamma rays: stars;
- novae;
- cataclysmic variables;
- X-rays: individual: AE Aquarii;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 16 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in ApJ