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Abstract

In recent years, Cherenkov telescopes like H.E.S.S. have identified PulsarWind Nebulae (PWNe) at energies between 100 GeV and 100 TeV as one of the main source populations emitting gamma-rays at these energies. PWNe consist of electrons and positrons emitted by pulsars which radiatively cool down by undergoing synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton scattering. In the case of inverse Compton scattering, the resulting photons show energies up to hundreds of TeV and are therefore making PWNe visible in the mentioned energy range. The first part of this work is dedicated to a model describing the spectral and spatial distribution of the gamma-ray emission from PWNe. Its application to the PWN created by the Geminga pulsar shows an agreement with measured flux values obtained by the Milagro and EGRET experiments. The modelled spatial extension coincides with Milagro observations. The aim of the second part is to verify previously derived analytical results concerning the spectral evolution of electrons due to inverse Compton scattering with a Monte-Carlo simulation using the exact Klein-Nishina cross section. Analytically expected spectral shapes have been qualitatively reproduced for both a burst-like and a stationary injection scenario assumingmono-energetic or blackbody distributed target photons.