2021ApJ...908...22X

A likely detection of γ-ray emission from the region of Kepler's Supernova Remnant (SNR) is reported by analyzing ∼12 yr of Pass 8 data of the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Its photon flux is (4.85 ± 0.60) x 10^–10 ph cm^–2 s^–1 with ∼4σ significance in 0.2-500 GeV. Moreover, our results show that there is no significant variability in the light curve of ∼12 yr, and its position can well overlap with the observation result of Chandra in hard X-ray band with a good spatial resolution of 0.''5, so the source is likely to be the GeV γ-ray counterpart of Kepler's SNR. The spectral energy distribution of γ-rays from Kepler's SNR favors a hadronic origin in GeV band. Through analyzing multi-band data from radio to γ-ray and surveying the distribution from the surrounding CO molecules cloud, we found that if this γ-ray emission is from Kepler's SNR, then it may originate from interactions between the relativistic protons escaping from the shock of Kepler's SNR and surrounding CO gas molecules. However, more observation data are necessary to firmly confirm the association between the γ-ray source and Kepler's SNR in the future.