H.E.S.S. upper limit on the very high energy gamma-ray emission from the globular cluster 47 Tucanae

HESS collaboration, F. Aharonian

Published 2009-04-02Version 1

Observations of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae (NGC 104), which contains at least 23 millisecond pulsars, were performed with the H.E.S.S. telescope system. The observations lead to an upper limit of F(E>800 GeV) < 6.7e-13 / cm^2 s on the integral gamma-ray photon flux from 47 Tucanae. Considering millisecond pulsars as the unique potential source of gamma-rays in the globular cluster, constraints based on emission models are derived: on the magnetic field in the average pulsar nebula and on the conversion efficiency of spin-down power to gamma-ray photons or to relativistic leptons.