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Session 48 - Gamma Rays & X-ray Instrumentation.
Display session, Thursday, January 08
Exhibit Hall,

[48.06] The Spectrum of TeV Gamma Rays from the Crab Nebula

J. P. Finley (Purdue), Whipple Gamma Ray Collaboration

The Crab Nebula has become established as the standard candle for TeV gamma-ray astronomy using the atmospheric Cherenkov technique. No evidence for variability has been seen and the spectrum of gamma rays from the Crab Nebula has been measured in the energy range 500 GeV to 8 TeV at the Whipple Observatory. Two methods of analysis involving independent Monte Carlo simulations and two databases of observation (1988-89 and 1995-96) were used and gave close agreement. Using the complete spectrum of the Crab Nebula, the spectrum of relativistic electrons is deduced and the spectrum of the resulting inverse Compton gamma-ray emission is discussed. The implications of this measurement and its connection to the ambient magnetic field will also be outlined.

If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to pursn3.physics.purdue.edu/astro/gammaray/crabspec.html. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the the Web space for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back button on your browser.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: finley@purpca.physics.purdue.edu

Program listing for Thursday