Very-high-energy γ-Ray Emission from Young Massive Star Clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Authors: Aharonian F. , Benkhali F. Ait , Aschersleben J. , Ashkar H. , Backes M. , Martins V. Barbosa , Batzofin R. , Becherini Y. , Berge D. , Bernlöhr K. , Böttcher M. , Bolmont J. , de Bony de Lavergne M. , Borowska J. , Brose R. , Brown A. , Brun F. , Bruno B. , Burger-Scheidlin C. , Casanova S. , Celic J. , Cerruti M. , Chand T. , Chandra S. , Chen A. , Chibueze J. , Chibueze O. , Cotter G. , Cristofari P. , Devin J. , Djannati-Ataï A. , Djuvsland J. , Dmytriiev A. , Egberts K. , Einecke S. , Feijen K. , Filipovic M. , Fontaine G. , Funk S. , Gabici S. , Gallant Y. A. , Glicenstein J. F. , Glombitza J. , Grolleron G. , Haerer L. , Heß B. , Hinton J. A. , Hofmann W. , Holch T. L. , Horns D. , Huang Zhiqiu , Jamrozy M. , Jankowsky F. , Jung-Richardt I. , Kasai E. , Katarzyński K. , Khatoon R. , Khélifi B. , Kluźniak W. , Komin Nu. , Kosack K. , Kostunin D. , Kundu A. , Lang R. G. , Le Stum S. , Lemière A. , Lemoine-Goumard M. , Lenain J.-P. , Leuschner F. , Mackey J. , Marandon V. , Martí-Devesa G. , Marx R. , Mehta A. , Mitchell A. , Moderski R. , Moghadam M. O. , Mohrmann L. , Montanari A. , Moulin E. , de Naurois M. , Niemiec J. , Ohm S. , Olivera-Nieto L. , de Ona Wilhelmi E. , Ostrowski M. , Panny S. , Pensec U. , Peron G. , Pühlhofer G. , Quirrenbach A. , Ravikularaman S. , Regeard M. , Reimer A. , Reimer O. , Ren H. , Renaud M. , Reville B. , Rieger F. , Rowell G. , Rudak B. , Ruiz-Velasco E. , Sabri K. , Sahakian V. , Salzmann H. , Santangelo A. , Sasaki M. , Schäfer J. , Schüssler F. , Schutte H. M. , Sol H. , Spencer S. , Stawarz Ł. , Steinmassl S. , Steppa C. , Streil K. , Sushch I. , Taylor A. M. , Terrier R. , Tsirou M. , Tsuji N. , van Eldik C. , Vecchi M. , Venter C. , Vink J. , Wagner S. J. , White R. , Wierzcholska A. , Zacharias M. , Zdziarski A. A. , Zech A. , Żywucka N. ,   H.E.S.S. Collaboration
Published: July 2024

The Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud is known for its high star formation activity. At its center lies the young massive star cluster R136, providing a significant amount of the energy that makes the nebula shine so brightly at many wavelengths. Recently, young massive star clusters have been suggested to also efficiently produce very high-energy cosmic rays, potentially beyond PeV energies. Here, we report the detection of very-high-energy γ-ray emission from the direction of R136 with the High Energy Stereoscopic System, achieved through a multicomponent, likelihood-based modeling of the data. This supports the hypothesis that R136 is indeed a very powerful cosmic-ray accelerator. Moreover, from the same analysis, we provide an updated measurement of the γ-ray emission from 30 Dor C, the only superbubble detected at TeV energies presently. The γ-ray luminosity above 0.5 TeV of both sources is (2–3) × 1035 erg s−1. This exceeds by more than a factor of 2 the luminosity of HESS J1646−458, which is associated with the most massive young star cluster in the Milky Way, Westerlund 1. Furthermore, the γ-ray emission from each source is extended with a significance of >3σ and a Gaussian width of about 30 pc. For 30 Dor C, a connection between the γ-ray emission and the nonthermal X-ray emission appears likely. Different interpretations of the γ-ray signal from R136 are discussed.