arXiv · 2610.29127
Investigating a TeV-Halo Candidate around PSR J1928+1746 with HAWC
Abstract
We present an updated High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) analysis of the crowded Galactic-plane area near PSR J1928+1746, which was previously linked to the extended source 3HWC J1928+178. With 2904 days of HAWC data, improved event reconstruction, and a multicomponent likelihood model that includes six TeV source components and Galactic diffuse emission, we describe the region using six components and find a distinct, moderately extended source close to PSR J1928+1746. This source, HAWC J1928+1750, is detected from about 2 TeV to above 100 TeV and is well-described by a log-parabola spectrum with normalization $K = 5.0 \times 10^{-15}$ TeV$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ at 12 TeV, index $α= 2.09$, curvature $β= 0.35$, and Gaussian extension $σ= 0.19^\circ$. Interpreting the emission using diffusion-halo templates under the assumption $B = 8 μ\mathrm{G}$ yields the diffusion coefficient D(100 TeV) = $2.1 \times 10^{27}$ cm$^2$ s$^{-1}$, which is about 500 times smaller than typical interstellar diffusion values at similar energies. This suggests that particle transport around PSR J1928+1746 is strongly suppressed under the TeV-halo interpretation. The TeV spectrum is consistent with leptonic inverse-Compton emission originating from pulsar-injected electrons and positrons, which requires less than approximately 1% of the pulsar's characteristic spin-down energy. However, a hadronic contribution from the surrounding environment cannot be excluded.
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The HAWC Collaboration, R. Alfaro, C. Alvarez, A. Andrés, E. Anita-Rangel, M. Araya, J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez, D. Avila Rojas, H. A. Ayala Solares, R. Babu, P. Bangale, A. Bernal, K. S. Caballero-Mora, T. Capistrán, A. Carramiñana, F. Carreón, S. Casanova, U. Cotti, J. Cotzomi, E. De la Fuente, P. Desiati, N. Di Lalla, R. Diaz Hernandez, M. A. DuVernois, J. C. Díaz-Vélez, K. Engel, T. Ergin, C. Espinoza, N. Fraija, S. Fraija, J. A. García-González, F. Garfias, N. Ghosh, S. Giri, M. M. González, J. A. González, J. A. Goodman, S. Groetsch, J. Gyeong, J. P. Harding, I. Herzog, D. Huang, F. Hueyotl-Zahuantitla, P. Hüntemeyer, A. Iriarte, S. Kaufmann, D. Kieda, R. Lake, K. Leavitt, H. León Vargas, A. L. Longinotti, G. Luis-Raya, K. Malone, O. Martinez, J. Martínez-Castro, H. Martínez-Huerta, J. A. Matthews, P. Miranda-Romagnoli, P. E. Mirón-Enriquez, J. A. Morales-Soto, E. Moreno, M. Mostafá, M. Najafi, L. Nellen, M. U. Nisa, R. Noriega-Papaqui, M. Osorio-Archila, N. Omodei, E. Ponce, Y. Pérez Araujo, E. G. Pérez-Pérez, S. Recchia, C. D. Rho, D. Rosa-González, M. Roth, A. Sandoval, M. Schneider, J. Serna-Franco, M. Shin, A. J. Smith, Y. Son, R. W. Springer, O. Tibolla, K. Tollefson, I. Torres, R. Torres-Escobedo, E. Varela, L. Villaseñor, X. Wang, Z. Wang, I. J. Watson, H. Wu, S. Yu, S. Yun-Cárcamo, X. Zhang, H. Zhou, C. de León. 2026-10-21. Investigating a TeV-Halo Candidate around PSR J1928+1746 with HAWC. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29127
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