VERY HIGH ENERGY GAMMA RAYS FROM PSR 1706-44

摘要

We have obtained evidence of gamma-ray emission above 1 TeV from PSR 1706 — 44, using a ground-based telescope of the atmospheric Cerenkov imaging type located near Woomera, South Australia. This object, a γ-ray source discovered by the COS B satellite (2CG 342 — 02), was identified with the radio pulsar through the discovery of a 102 ms pulsed signal with the EGRET instrument of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. The flux of the present observation above a threshold of 1 TeV is ～1 x 10~(-11) photons cm~(-2) s~(-1), which is two orders of magnitude smaller than the extrapolation from GeV energies. The analysis is not restricted to a search for emission modulated with the 102 ms period, and the reported flux is for all γ-rays from PSR 1706 — 44, pulsed and unpulsed. The energy output in the TeV region corresponds to about 10~(-3) of the spin-down energy-loss rate of the neutron star.