First Emulsion γ-Ray Telescope Imaging of the Vela Pulsar by the GRAINE 2018 Balloon-borne Experiment

Abstract

We are developing the Gamma-Ray Astro-Imager with Nuclear Emulsion project, designed for 10 MeV–100 GeV cosmic γ -ray observations with a high angular resolution (5′/0.°08 at 1–2 GeV) and a polarization-sensitive large-aperture (∼10 m ^2 ) emulsion telescope for repeated long-duration balloon flights. In 2018, a balloon-borne experiment was carried out in Australia with a 0.38 m ^2 sensitive area and a flight duration of 17.4 hr, including 6.7 hr of Vela observations. Significant improvements compared with the 2015 balloon-borne experiment were achieved by a factor of 5, including both an increase in effective area × time and a reduction in the background contribution. We aimed to demonstrate the telescope’s overall performance based on detection and imaging of a known γ -ray source, the Vela pulsar. A robust detection of the Vela pulsar was achieved with a 68% containment radius of 0.°42, at a significance of 6 σ , at energies above 80 MeV. The resulting angular profile is consistent with that of a pointlike source. We achieved the current best imaging performance of the Vela pulsar using an emulsion γ -ray telescope with the highest angular resolution of any γ -ray telescope to date.

Keywords

• Gamma-ray astronomy
• Cosmic rays
• High altitude balloons