Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 722, Issue 2, Pages 1303-1311Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/722/2/1303
Keywords
acceleration of particles; ISM: individual objects (W49B); radiation mechanisms: non-thermal
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Funding
- K. A. Wallenberg Foundation
- International Doctorate on Astroparticle Physics (IDAPP) program
- Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy
- Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales in France
- ICREA Funding Source: Custom
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We present an analysis of the gamma-ray data obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in the direction of SNR W49B (G43.3-0.2). A bright unresolved gamma-ray source detected at a significance of 38 sigma is found to coincide with SNR W49B. The energy spectrum in the 0.2-200 GeV range gradually steepens toward high energies. The luminosity is estimated to be 1.5 x 10(36) (D/8 kpc)(2) erg s(-1) in this energy range. There is no indication that the gamma-ray emission comes from a pulsar. Assuming that the supernova remnant (SNR) shell is the site of gamma-ray production, the observed spectrum can be explained either by the decay of neutral pi mesons produced through the proton-proton collisions or by electron bremsstrahlung. The calculated energy density of relativistic particles responsible for the LAT flux is estimated to be remarkably large, U-e,U-p > 10(4) eV cm(-3), for either gamma-ray production mechanism.
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