Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Search for Gamma-Ray Emission from Galactic Novae with Pass 8

A. Franckowiak
S. Buson, P. Jean, C. C. Cheung, on behalf of the Fermi-LAT Collaboration

Abstract:

Recently Galactic novae have been identified as a new class of GeV gamma-ray emitters, with 6 significantly detected so far with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT). Based on optical observations we have compiled a catalog of ~70 Galactic novae, which peak (in optical) during the operations of the Fermi mission. Based on the properties of known gamma-ray novae we developed an analysis procedure that we apply to all novae in the catalog to search for detections or set flux upper limits using the Fermi-LAT Pass 8 data set. This is the first time a large sample of Galactic novae has been uniformly studied.