Evidence of TeV gamma-ray radiation in supernova remnant Cygnus X-3

Abstract Since 1994 the telescope SHALON, at SHALON-ALATOO mountain observatory (height 3338m) detected very high energy gamma-rays from galactic objects Crab Nebula, Cygnus X-3, Geminga and Tycho Brahe. Time analysis shows that the contribution of protons of cosmic rays in observed gamma-quanta with energies higher than 0.8 TeV from the point sources of very high energy gamma-quanta does not exceed 10% – 15% (Fig. 6). The fluxes at energies above 0.8 TeV observed from the Crab Nebula are (1.10 ± 0.30) × 10 −12 cm −2 s −1 , from Cygnus X-3 are (4.20 ± 0.70) × 10 −13 cm −2 s −1 , from Geminga are (0.48 ± 0.17) × 10 −12 cm −2 s −1 and from Tycho Brahe are (1.89 ± 0.90) × 10 −13 cm −2 s −1 (Fig. 5, 6, 7). Observed gamma-quanta fluxes from detected galactic and extragalactic sources are approximately equal (this is connected to the fact that the best gamma-telescopes of today are very flexible to the flux intensity). That means that for distances differing by a factor of 10 4 , the radiating power of extragalactic objects is 10 8 higher. Taking into consideration a limited number of sources in our Galaxy in comparison to Methagalaxy, one can propose that cosmic rays of energies higher than 10 12 eV are mainly of an extragalactic origin.