Spatially Resolving the Very High Energy emission from MGRO J2019+37 with VERITAS

Abstract

We present very high energy (VHE) imaging of MGRO J2019+37 obtained with the VERITAS observatory. The bright extended ($\sim2^{\circ}$) unidentified Milagro source is located towards the rich star formation region Cygnus-X. MGRO J2019+37 is resolved into two VERITAS sources. The faint point-like source VER J2016+371 overlaps CTB 87, a filled-center remnant (SNR) with no evidence of a supernova remnant shell at the present time. Its spectrum is well fit in the $0.65 - 10$ TeV energy range by a power-law model with photon index $2.3\pm0.4$. VER J2019+368 is a bright extended ($\sim1^{\circ}$) source, that likely accounts for the bulk of the Milagro emission and is notably coincident with PSR J2021+3651 and the star formation region Sh 2-104. Its spectrum in the range $1-30$ TeV is well fit with a power-law model of photon index $1.75\pm0.3$, among the hardest values measured in the VHE band, comparable to that observed near Vela-X. We explore the unusual spectrum and morphology in the radio and X-ray bands to constrain possible emission mechanisms for this source.