MAGIC observations of very high energy gamma-rays from HESS J1813-178

© The American Astronomical Society. We would like to thank the IAC for the excellent working conditions at the Observatory de los Muchachos in La Palma. The support of the German BMBF and MPG, the Italian INFN, and the Spanish CICYT is gratefully acknowledged. This work was also supported by ETH research grant TH 34/04 3 and the Polish MNiI grant 1P03D01028.
Recently, the HESS collaboration has reported the detection of gamma-ray emission above a few hundred GeV from eight new sources located close to the Galactic plane. The source HESS J1813-178 has sparked particular interest, as subsequent radio observations imply an association with supernova remnant G12.82-0.02. Triggered by the detection in very high energy gamma-rays, a positionally coincident source has also been found in INTEGRAL and ASCA data. In this Letter we present MAGIC observations of HESS J1813-178, resulting in the detection of a differential gamma-ray flux consistent with a hard-slope power law, described as dN(gamma)/(dA dt dE) = (3.3 +/- 0.5) x 10(-12)(E/TeV)(-2.1 +/- 0.2) cm(-2) s(-1) TeV-1. We briefly discuss the observational technique used and the procedure implemented for the data analysis, and we put this detection in the perspective of multifrequency observations.
German BMBF
German MPG
Italian INFN
Spanish CICYT
ETH
Polish MNiI
Depto. de Estructura de la Materia, Física Térmica y Electrónica
Fac. de Ciencias Físicas
TRUE
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