Speaker: Jordan Eagle (NASA)
Pulsar Wind Nebulae Studies in the Gamma-ray Era with the Fermi-LAT
Pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) are highly magnetized, relativistic particle winds formed by the conversion of rotational energy from energetic pulsars. PWNe make up most of the very high energy (VHE, E > 100GeV) Galactic source population detected by Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). The VHE emission originates from Inverse Compton scattering of local photon fields by relativistic particles in the PWN and is often accompanied by prominent X-ray emission from leptons interacting with the PWN's magnetic fields. Therefore, PWNe may be responsible for producing the bulk of Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) with energy up to ~ 1PeV. While there are an increasing number of PWN discoveries occurring in the VHE band, a small fraction (~ 11) is identified by the Fermi-LAT in the MeV—GeV band. Most PWNe are located along the Galactic plane embedded within the prominent, diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission, making these sources difficult to disentangle from the bright diffuse background. A systematic search is presented for gamma-ray counterparts to known PWNe in the 300MeV - 2TeV energy band using 11.5 years of Fermi-LAT data. The analysis of 58 regions of interest is reported in addition to classifying detected sources as either new or candidate Fermi PWNe based on their morphological and spectral characteristics across the broadband spectrum as available.
