Abstract

TeV halos are extended very-high-energy (VHE; 0.1-100 TeV) gamma-ray emission around middle-aged pulsars. So far, they have only been found around isolated pulsars, but it has been suggested that they may also be powered by millisecond pulsars (MSPs). We searched for VHE gamma-ray emission from MSPs reported by radio and GeV gamma-ray observatories in 2565 days of data from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. We found no significant emission from individual pulsars. By combining the likelihood profiles of all MSPs accessible to HAWC, our analysis suggests that the excess emission around the MSP population is consistent with a background. Our result suggests that MSPs are not as efficient as isolated pulsars in producing TeV halos. This finding has strong implications on the physics interpretation of the Galactic Center GeV excess and high-latitude Galactic diffuse emission.

Department(s)

Physics

Comments

National Science Foundation, Grant DEC-2017/27/B/ST9/02272

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2470-0029; 2470-0010

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 American Physical Society, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

15 Feb 2025

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