Very high energy gamma rays from the direction of Sagittarius A*

F A Aharonian, A G Akhperjanian, Michael Aye, A R Bazer-Bachi, M Beilicke, W Benbow, D Berge, P Berghaus, K Bernlöhr, O Bolz, C Boisson, C Borgmeier, F Breitling, A M Brown, J Bussons Gordo, P M Chadwick, V R Chitnis, L-M Chounet, R Cornils, L Costamante, B Degrange, A Djannati-Ataı̈, L O'c Drury, T Ergin, P Espigat, F Feinstein, P Fleury, G Fontaine, S Funk, Y Gallant, B Giebels, S Gillessen, P Goret, J Guy, C Hadjichristidis, M Hauser, G Heinzelmann, G Henri, G Hermann, J A Hinton, W Hofmann, M Holleran, D Horns, O C De Jager, I Jung, B Khélifi, Nu Komin, A Konopelko, I J Latham, R Le Gallou, M Lemoine, A Lemière, N Leroy, T Lohse, A Marcowith, C Masterson, T J L McComb, M De Naurois, S J Nolan, A Noutsos, K J Orford, J L Osborne, M Ouchrif, M Panter, G Pelletier, S Pita, M Pohl, G Pühlhofer, M Punch, B C Raubenheimer, M Raue, J Raux, S M Rayner, I Redondo, A Reimer, O Reimer, J Ripken, M Rivoal, L Rob, L Rolland, G Rowell, V Sahakian, L Saugé, S Schlenker, R Schlickeiser, C Schuster, U Schwanke, M Siewert, H Sol, R Steenkamp, C Stegmann, J-P Tavernet, C G Théoret, M Tluczykont, D J Van Der Walt, G Vasileiadis, P Vincent, B Visser, H J Völk, S J Wagner

October 2004

Abstract

We report the detection of a point-like source of very high energy (VHE) $γ$-rays coincident within 1' of Sgr A*, obtained with the HESS array of Cherenkov telescopes. The $γ$-rays exhibit a power-law energy spectrum with a spectral index of -2.2 $±$ 0.09 $±$ 0.15 and a flux above the 165 GeV threshold of (1.82 $±$ 0.22) $times$ 10-7 m-2 s-1. The measured flux and spectrum differ substantially from recent results reported in particular by the CANGAROO collaboration.

Type

Journal article

Publication

A&A

Michael Aye

Research Scientist in Planetary Science

My research interests include remote sensing of surfaces, related machine learning studies and open source software.