Nepomuk Otte
UC Santa Cruz
ABSTRACT
In 2005 we observed a 3 sigma excess of pulsed gamma-ray emission
from the Crab pulsar with the MAGIC air Cherenkov telescope. The hint
of pulsed emission was a driving force to develop a new trigger
system, which allowed us to lower the energy threshold of the
telescope from 60 GeV to about 25 GeV. With the new trigger system we
observed the Crab pulsar between October 2007 and February 2008, and
detected the Crab pulsar with a significance of 6.4 standard
deviations.
This is the first time that a pulsar has been detected in gamma rays
above 25 GeV. It is an important achievement because gamma rays of
such energies provide direct information about the non-thermal
processes in the magnetosphere of a pulsar.
From previous non-detections above 100 GeV it is known that the
spectral energy distribution of the Crab pulsar exhibits a steep
turnover above 10 GeV. The point at which the spectrum turns over and
the shape of the turnover provide information about the acceleration
of particles in the magnetosphere. I also discuss the pulse profile,
and compare it to EGRET data at lower energies.