Very-high-energy $\gamma$-ray emission from young massive star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Creators: name: Aharonian, F.
name: Benkhali, F. Ait
name: Aschersleben, J.
name: Ashkar, H.
name: Backes, M.
name: Barbosa Martins, V.
name: Batzofin, R.
name: Becherini, Y.
name: Berge, D.
name: Bernlöhr, K.
name: Böttcher, M.
name: Bolmont, J.
name: de Bony de Lavergne, M.
name: Borowska, J.
name: Brose, R.
name: Brown, A.
name: Brun, F.
name: Bruno, B.
name: Burger-Scheidlin, C.
name: Casanova, S.
name: Celic, J.
name: Cerruti, M.
name: Chand, T.
name: Chandra, S.
name: Chen, A.
name: Chibueze, J.
name: Chibueze, O.
name: Cotter, G.
name: Cristofari, P.
name: Devin, J.
name: Djannati-Ataï, A.
name: Djuvsland, J.
name: Dmytriiev, A.
name: Egberts, K.
name: Einecke, S.
name: Feijen, K.
name: Filipovic, M.
name: Fontaine, G.
name: Funk, S.
name: Gabici, S.
name: Gallant, Y. A.
name: Glicenstein, J. F.
name: Glombitza, J.
name: Grolleron, G.
name: Haerer, L.
name: Heß, B.
name: Hinton, J. A.
name: Hofmann, W.
name: Holch, T. L.
name: Horns, D.
name: Huang, Zhiqiu
name: Jamrozy, M.
name: Jankowsky, F.
name: Jung-Richardt, I.
name: Kasai, E.
name: Katarzyński, K.
name: Khatoon, R.
name: Khélifi, B.
name: Kluźniak, W.
name: Komin, Nu.
name: Kosack, K.
name: Kostunin, D.
name: Kundu, A.
name: Lang, R. G.
name: Le Stum, S.
name: Lemière, A.
name: Lemoine-Goumard, M.
name: Lenain, J.-P.
name: Leuschner, F.
name: Mackey, J.
name: Marandon, V.
name: Martí-Devesa, G.
name: Marx, R.
name: Mehta, A.
name: Mitchell, A.
name: Moderski, R.
name: Moghadam, M. O.
name: Mohrmann, Lars
name: Montanari, A.
name: Moulin, E.
name: de Naurois, M.
name: Niemiec, J.
name: Ohm, S.
name: Olivera-Nieto, L.
name: de Ona Wilhelmi, E.
name: Ostrowski, M.
name: Panny, S.
name: Pensec, U.
name: Peron, G.
name: Pühlhofer, G.
name: Quirrenbach, A.
name: Ravikularaman, S.
name: Regeard, M.
name: Reimer, A.
name: Reimer, O.
name: Ren, H.
name: Renaud, M.
name: Reville, B.
name: Rieger, F.
name: Rowell, G.
name: Rudak, B.
name: Ruiz-Velasco, E.
name: Sabri, K.
name: Sahakian, V.
name: Salzmann, H.
name: Santangelo, A.
name: Sasaki, M.
name: Schäfer, J.
name: Schüssler, F.
name: Schutte, H. M.
name: Sol, H.
name: Spencer, S.
name: Stawarz, Ł.
name: Steinmassl, S.
name: Steppa, C.
name: Streil, K.
name: Sushch, I.
name: Taylor, A. M.
name: Terrier, R.
name: Tsirou, M.
name: Tsuji, N.
name: van Eldik, C.
name: Vecchi, M.
name: Venter, C.
name: Vink, J.
name: Wagner, S. J.
name: White, R.
name: Wierzcholska, A.
name: Zacharias, M.
name: Zdziarski, A. A.
name: Zech, A.
name: Żywucka, N.
name: H. E. S. S. Collaboration
Publisher: name: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: 520

description: 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) × 10$^{35}$ 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 &gt;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.