Looking for the Northern Fermi Bubble with HAWC

ORAL

Abstract

The Fermi Bubbles were discovered in the GeV gamma-ray data from the Fermi Telescope in 2010. They extend up to 55$^o$ above and below the Galactic Center forming two large and homogeneous regions of spectrally hard gamma-ray emission. Understanding the mechanisms which produce the observed hard spectrum will help understand the origin of the Fermi Bubbles. Both hadronic and leptonic models can describe the spectrum of the bubbles, though the leptonic model can explain similar structures observed in microwave data from the WMAP and Planck satellites. Recent publications show that the spectrum of the Fermi Bubbles is well described by a power law with an exponential cutoff between 100MeV to 500GeV. Observing the Fermi Bubbles at higher gamma-ray energies will help constrain their spectrum. A steeper cutoff will favor a leptonic model. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory, located 4100m above sea level in Mexico, is designed to measure high-energy gamma rays between 100GeV to 100TeV. With a large field of view and good sensitivity to spatially extended sources, HAWC is the ground-based observatory best suited to detect extended regions like the Fermi Bubbles. We present a search for emission from the Fermi Bubble visible to HAWC.

Authors

  • Hugo Ayala

    Michigan Technological University

  • Hao Zhou

    Michigan Technological Univ, Michigan Tech, Michigan Technological University

  • Petra Huentemeyer

    Michigan Technological University