The environment of TeV halo progenitors

¹ Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI) Viale Francesco Crispi 7 67100 L’Aquila (AQ), Italy
² INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) Via G. Acitelli 22 67100 Assergi (AQ), Italy
³ IRAP, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, CNES F-31028 Toulouse, France
⁴ INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁵ IFJ-PAN, Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences PL-31342 Krakow, Poland

^★ Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 7 July 2025
Accepted: 30 November 2025

Abstract

Context. TeV haloes are extended sources of very-high-energy gamma rays found around some middle-aged pulsars. The emission spanning several tens of parsecs suggests an efficient confinement of the ultra-relativistic lepton pairs produced by pulsars in their vicinity. The physical mechanism responsible for this suppressed transport has not yet been identified. In some scenarios, pair confinement may be linked to the medium the pulsars are located in.

Aims. We aim at understanding the type of medium pulsars probe over their lifetime.

Methods. We developed a model for the environment probed by moving pulsars, from their birth in core-collapse explosions – where they receive a natal kick – until their entry into the interstellar medium. The model involves: (i) a Monte-Carlo sampling of the properties of the massive-star progenitors of pulsars; (ii) a calculation of the structure of the surrounding medium shaped by these progenitors for the two cases of isolated stars and star clusters; and (iii) a computation of the evolution of supernova remnants in these parent environments. Ultimately, from a distribution of neutron star kick velocities, we assess the medium in which pulsars are located as a function of time. We first derived the statistical properties of a fully synthetic Galactic population and then applied the model to a selection of known pulsars to assess the likely nature of their environment.

Results. We show that pulsars escape into the interstellar medium at around 300 kyr, significantly later than assumed in the literature. Given our assumptions, all known pulsars with a confirmed TeV halo have high probabilities of still being in their parent environment, which suggests that efficient pair confinement is connected to the region influenced by progenitor stars. To test this, we provide the probability that known pulsars still reside in their parent environment for a list of known pulsars.