Identifying the X-ray Counterpart of the HESS source J1848-018

HESS J1848018 is an unidentified TeV gammaray source located in the Galacticplane near the massive star formation region W43. It has been suggested that thelatter may power the TeV emission, although the detailed physical mechanism isyet unknown. We have identified an Xray source from archival ASCA and Swiftdata that coincides with HESS J1848018. We propose 48ks of XMM observations tocharacterize the nature of this Xray source. If it is a new pulsar wind nebulaor a supernova remnant, then it could easily explain the TeV emission, as seenin many other Galactic TeV sources. On the other hand, if the Xray source isnot a physically reasonable counterpart, this would provide some support to theassociation between the star formation region and the TeV source. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]