Detection of VHE γ-rays from HESS J0632+057 during the 2011 February X-ray outburst with the MAGIC Telescopes
astro-ph.HE
/ Authors
The MAGIC Collaboration, J. Aleksić, E. A. Alvarez, L. A. Antonelli, P. Antoranz, M. Asensio, M. Backes, U. Barres de Almeida, J. A. Barrio, D. Bastieri
and 151 more authors
J. Becerra González, W. Bednarek, K. Berger, E. Bernardini, A. Biland, O. Blanch, R. K. Bock, A. Boller, G. Bonnoli, D. Borla Tridon, V. Bosch-Ramon, T. Bretz, A. Cañellas, E. Carmona, A. Carosi, P. Colin, E. Colombo, J. L. Contreras, J. Cortina, L. Cossio, S. Covino, P. Da Vela, F. Dazzi, A. De Angelis
/ Abstract
The very high energy (VHE) γ-ray source HESS J0632+057 has recently been confirmed to be a γ-ray binary. The optical counterpart is the Be star MWC 148, and a compact object of unknown nature orbits it every ~321 d with a high eccentricity of ~0.8. We monitored HESS J0632+057 with the stereoscopic MAGIC telescopes from 2010 October to 2011 March and detected significant VHE γ-ray emission during 2011 February, when the system exhibited an X-ray outburst. We find no γ-ray signal in the other observation periods when the system did not show increased X-ray flux. Thus HESS J0632+057 exhibits γ-ray variability on timescales of the order of one to two months possibly linked to the X-ray outburst that takes place about 100 days after the periastron passage. Furthermore our measurements provide for the first time the γ-ray spectrum down to about 140 GeV and indicate no turnover of the spectrum at low energies. We compare the properties of HESS J0632+057 with the similar γ-ray binary LS I +61 303, and discuss on the possible origin of the multi-wavelength emission of the source