2022ApJ...930..148B

HAWC J1826-128 is one of the brightest Galactic TeV γ-ray sources detected by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, with photon energies extending up to nearly ∼100 TeV. This HAWC source spatially coincides with the H.E.S.S. TeV source HESS J1826-130 and the "Eel" pulsar wind nebula (PWN), which is associated with the GeV pulsar PSR J1826-1256. In the X-ray band, Chandra and XMM-Newton revealed that the Eel PWN is composed of both a compact nebula (∼15'') and diffuse X-ray emission (∼6' x 2') extending away from the pulsar. Our NuSTAR observation detected hard X-ray emission from the compact PWN up to ∼20 keV and evidence of the synchrotron burn-off effect. In addition to the spatial coincidence between HESS J1826-130 and the diffuse X-ray PWN, our multiwavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis using X-ray and γ-ray data establishes a leptonic origin of the TeV emission associated with the Eel PWN. Furthermore, our evolutionary PWN SED model suggests (1) a low PWN B-field of ∼1 µG, (2) a significantly younger pulsar age (t ∼ 5.7 kyr) than the characteristic age (τ = 14.4 kyr), and (3) a maximum electron energy of {E}_{\max }=2 PeV. The low B-field, as well as the putative supersonic motion of the pulsar, may account for the asymmetric morphology of the diffuse X-ray emission. Our results suggest that the Eel PWN may be a leptonic PeVatron particle accelerator powered by the ∼6 kyr old pulsar PSR J1826-1256 with a spin-down power of 3.6 x 10³⁶ erg s^–1.