Karlsruhe 2024 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 60: Gamma astronomy 3

T 60.3: Talk

Wednesday, March 6, 2024, 16:30–16:45, Geb. 30.22: kl. HS A

Longterm Variability Study of the Crab Nebula with the MAGIC Telescopes — •Felix Wersig and Jan Lukas Schubert for the MAGIC collaboration — Technische Universität Dortmund, D-44221 Dortmund, Germany

The MAGIC telescopes are two Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes designed for observations of gamma rays in an energy range from about ∼25 GeV to ∼100 TeV.

Like other IACTs, they use the Crab Nebula as standard candle, assuming that the flux is constant for very-high-energy gamma rays. From radio to X-rays, small scale variability has been observed. Further, flares of the Crab Nebula have been observed in the low-energy gamma range.

There are two types of variability that can be tested for: Variations on short timescales such as flares or a longterm increase or decrease of the flux. In this work, tests utilizing maximum likelihood methods are developed that can quantify the variability of the flux and its statistical significance.

These tests are developed based on DL3 data which represents the standard data format in gamma astronomy making use of the open-source gamma-ray analysis package gammapy.

With this the observed variability of the Crab Nebula can be constrained and the assumption that it has a constant flux in the very-high-energy gamma-ray regime can be reevaluated.

Keywords: Crab Nebula; Variability; Galactic