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The HAWC Collaboration has observed gamma rays at energies above 56 TeV froma collection of nine sources. It has been suggested that this emission could behadronic in nature, requiring that these systems accelerate cosmic-ray protonsor nuclei up to PeV-scale energies. In this paper, we instead show that thespectra of these objects favor a leptonic (inverse Compton) origin for theiremission. More specifically, the gamma-ray emission from these objects can bestraightforwardly accommodated within a model in which $\sim \mathcal{O}(10\%)$of the host pulsar's spindown power is transferred into the acceleration ofelectrons and positrons with a power-law spectrum that extends to severalhundred TeV or higher. The spectral break that is observed among these sourcesis naturally explained within the context of this simple model, and occurs atthe energy where the timescale for energy losses matches the age of the pulsar.In contrast, this spectral feature cannot be straightforwardly accommodated inhadronic scenarios. Furthermore, hadronic models predict that these sourcesshould produce more emission at GeV-scale energies than is observed. In lightof these considerations, we conclude that HAWC's highest energy sources shouldbe interpreted as TeV halos or pulsar wind nebulae, which produce theiremission through inverse Compton scattering, and are powered by the rotationalkinetic energy of their host pulsar.

The Highest Energy HAWC Sources are Likely Leptonic and Powered by Pulsars