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. 2008 Nov 21;322(5905):1221-4.
doi: 10.1126/science.1164718. Epub 2008 Oct 16.

Observation of pulsed gamma-rays above 25 GeV from the Crab pulsar with MAGIC

MAGIC Collaboration; E Aliu, H Anderhub, L A Antonelli, P Antoranz, M Backes, C Baixeras, J A Barrio, H Bartko, D Bastieri, J K Becker, W Bednarek, K Berger, E Bernardini, C Bigongiari, A Biland, R K Bock, G Bonnoli, P Bordas, V Bosch-Ramon, T Bretz, I Britvitch, M Camara, E Carmona, A Chilingarian, S Commichau, J L Contreras, J Cortina, M T Costado, S Covino, V Curtef, F Dazzi, A De Angelis, E De Cea Del Pozo, R de Los Reyes, B De Lotto, M De Maria, F De Sabata, C Delgado Mendez, A Dominguez, D Dorner, M Doro, D Elsässer, M Errando, M Fagiolini, D Ferenc, E Fernandez, R Firpo, M V Fonseca, L Font, N Galante, R J Garcia Lopez, M Garczarczyk, M Gaug, F Goebel, D Hadasch, M Hayashida, A Herrero, D Höhne, J Hose, C C Hsu, S Huber, T Jogler, D Kranich, A La Barbera, A Laille, E Leonardo, E Lindfors, S Lombardi, F Longo, M Lopez, E Lorenz, P Majumdar, G Maneva, N Mankuzhiyil, K Mannheim, L Maraschi, M Mariotti, M Martinez, D Mazin, M Meucci, M Meyer, J M Miranda, R Mirzoyan, M Moles, A Moralejo, D Nieto, K Nilsson, J Ninkovic, N Otte, I Oya, R Paoletti, J M Paredes, M Pasanen, D Pascoli, F Pauss, R G Pegna, M A Perez-Torres, M Persic, L Peruzzo, A Piccioli, F Prada, E Prandini, N Puchades, A Raymers, W Rhode, M Ribó, J Rico, M Rissi, A Robert, S Rügamer, A Saggion, T Y Saito, M Salvati, M Sanchez-Conde, P Sartori, K Satalecka, V Scalzotto, V Scapin, T Schweizer, M Shayduk, K Shinozaki, S N Shore, N Sidro, A Sierpowska-Bartosik, A Sillanpää, D Sobczynska, F Spanier, A Stamerra, L S Stark, L Takalo, F Tavecchio, P Temnikov, D Tescaro, M Teshima, M Tluczykont, D F Torres, N Turini, H Vankov, A Venturini, V Vitale, R M Wagner, W Wittek, V Zabalza, F Zandanel, R Zanin, J Zapatero, O C de Jager, E de Ona Wilhelmi
Free article

Observation of pulsed gamma-rays above 25 GeV from the Crab pulsar with MAGIC

MAGIC Collaboration et al. Science. .
Free article

Abstract

One fundamental question about pulsars concerns the mechanism of their pulsed electromagnetic emission. Measuring the high-end region of a pulsar's spectrum would shed light on this question. By developing a new electronic trigger, we lowered the threshold of the Major Atmospheric gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescope to 25 giga-electron volts. In this configuration, we detected pulsed gamma-rays from the Crab pulsar that were greater than 25 giga-electron volts, revealing a relatively high cutoff energy in the phase-averaged spectrum. This indicates that the emission occurs far out in the magnetosphere, hence excluding the polar-cap scenario as a possible explanation of our measurement. The high cutoff energy also challenges the slot-gap scenario.

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