• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevD.105.103013
• Corpus ID: 232478904

Evidence of TeV halos around millisecond pulsars

@article{Hooper2022EvidenceOT,
  title={Evidence of TeV halos around millisecond pulsars},
  author={Dan Hooper and Tim Linden},
  journal={Physical Review D},
  year={2022}
}

• D. Hooper, T. Linden
• Published 31 March 2021
• Physics
• Physical Review D

Using data from the HAWC gamma-ray Telescope, we have studied a sample of 37 millisecond pulsars (MSPs), selected for their spindown power and proximity. From among these MSP, we have identified four which favor the presence of very high-energy gamma-ray emission at a level of (2∆ lnL) ≥ 2.5. Adopting a correlation between the spindown power and gamma-ray luminosity of each pulsar, we performed a stacked likelihood analysis of these 37 MSPs, finding that the data supports the conclusion that these sources emit very high-energy gamma-rays at a level of (2∆ lnL) = 4.24. Among sets of randomly selected sky locations within HAWC’s field-of-view, less than 1% of such realizations yielded such high statistical significance. Our analysis suggests that MSPs produce very high-energy gamma-ray emission with a similar efficiency to that observed from the Geminga TeV-halo, ηMSP = (0.39− 1.08)× ηGeminga. This conclusion poses a significant challenge for pulsar interpretations of the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess, as it suggests that any population of MSPs potentially capable of producing the GeV excess would also produce TeV-scale emission in excess of that observed by HESS from this region. Future observations by CTA will be able to substantially clarify this situation.