The spectrum of TeV gamma rays from the Crab Nebula

The Crab Nebula has become established as the standard candle for TeV gamma-ray astronomy. No evidence for variability has been seen. The spectrum of gamma rays from the Crab Nebula has been measured in the energy range 500 GeV to 8 TeV at the Whipple Observatory. Two methods of analysis involving independent Monte Carlo simulations and two databases of observations (1988-89 and 1995-96) were used and give close agreement. Using the complete spectrum of the Crab Nebula, the spectrum of relativistic electrons is deduced and the spectrum of the resulting inverse Compton gamma-ray emission is in good agreement with the measured spectrum if the ambient magnetic field is ∼25-30 nT. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics