The decay or annihilation of dark matter particles may produce a steady flux of very-high-energy gamma rays detectable above the diffuse background. Nearby clusters of galaxies provide excellent ...targets to search for the signatures of particle dark matter interactions. In particular, the Virgo cluster spans several degrees across the sky and can be efficiently probed with a wide field-of-view instrument. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, due to its wide field of view and sensitivity to gamma rays at an energy scale of 300 GeV--100 TeV is well-suited for this search. Using 2141 days of data, we search for gamma-ray emission from the Virgo cluster, assuming well-motivated dark matter sub-structure models. Our results provide some of the strongest constraints on the decay lifetime of dark matter for masses above 10 TeV.
ApJ 954 (2023) 205 Recently, the region surrounding eHWC J1842-035 has been studied extensively
by gamma-ray observatories due to its extended emission reaching up to a few
hundred TeV and potential ...as a hadronic accelerator. In this work, we use 1,910
days of cumulative data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC)
observatory to carry out a dedicated systematic source search of the eHWC
J1842-035 region. During the search we have found three sources in the region,
namely, HAWC J1844-034, HAWC J1843-032, and HAWC J1846-025. We have identified
HAWC J1844-034 as the extended source that emits photons with energies up to
175 TeV. We compute the spectrum for HAWC J1844-034 and by comparing with the
observational results from other experiments, we have identified HESS
J1843-033, LHAASO J1843-0338, and TASG J1844-038 as very-high-energy gamma-ray
sources with a matching origin. Also, we present and use the multi-wavelength
data to fit the hadronic and leptonic particle spectra. We have identified four
pulsar candidates in the nearby region from which PSR J1844-0346 is found to be
the most likely candidate due to its proximity to HAWC J1844-034 and the
computed energy budget. We have also found SNR G28.6-0.1 as a potential
counterpart source of HAWC J1844-034 for which both leptonic and hadronic
scenarios are feasible.
The Galactic gamma-ray diffuse emission (GDE) is emitted by cosmic rays (CRs), ultra-relativistic protons and electrons, interacting with gas and electromagnetic radiation fields in the interstellar ...medium. Here we present the analysis of TeV diffuse emission from a region of the Galactic Plane over the range in longitude of \(l\in43^\circ,73^\circ\), using data collected with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) detector. Spectral, longitudinal and latitudinal distributions of the TeV diffuse emission are shown. The radiation spectrum is compatible with the spectrum of the emission arising from a CR population with an "index" similar to that of the observed CRs. When comparing with the \texttt{DRAGON} \textit{base model}, the HAWC GDE flux is higher by about a factor of two. Unresolved sources such as pulsar wind nebulae and TeV halos could explain the excess emission. Finally, deviations of the Galactic CR flux from the locally measured CR flux may additionally explain the difference between the predicted and measured diffuse fluxes.
High-energy cosmic rays that hit the Earth can be used to study large-scale atmospheric perturbations. After a first interaction in the upper parts of the atmosphere, cosmic rays produce a shower of ...particles that sample the atmosphere down to the detector level. The HAWC (High-Altitude Water Cherenkov) cosmic-ray observatory in Central Mexico at 4,100 m elevation detects air shower particles continuously with 300 water Cherenkov detectors with an active area of 12,500 m\(^{2}\). On January 15th, 2022, HAWC detected the passage of the pressure wave created by the explosion of the Hunga volcano in the Tonga islands, 9,000 km away, as an anomaly in the measured rate of shower particles. The HAWC measurements are used to characterize the shape of four pressure wave passages, determine the propagation speed of each one, and correlate the variations of the shower particle rates with the barometric pressure changes, extracting a barometric parameter. The profile of the shower particle rate and atmospheric pressure variations for the first transit of the pressure wave at HAWC is compared to the pressure measurements at Tonga island, near the volcanic explosion. This work opens the possibility of using large particle cosmic-ray air shower detectors to trace large atmospheric transient waves.
HAWC is an air-shower detector designed to study TeV gamma and cosmic rays. The observatory is composed of a \(22000 \, m^2\) array of \(300\) water Cherenkov tanks (\(4.5 \, m\) deep x \(7.3 \, m\) ...diameter) with \(4\) photomultipliers (PMT) each. The instrument registers the number of hit PMTs, the timing information and the total charge at the PMTs during the event. From these data, shower observables such as the arrival direction, the core position at ground, the lateral age and the primary energy are estimated. In this work, we study the distribution of the shower age vs the primary energy of a sample of shower data collected by HAWC from June 2015 to June 2019 and employ a shower-age cut based on predictions of QGSJET-II-04 to separate a subsample of events dominated by H and He primaries. Using these data and a dedicated analysis, we reconstruct the cosmic ray spectrum of H+He from \(6\) to \(158\) TeV, which shows the presence of a softening at around \(24\) TeV with a statistical significance of \(4.1\sigma\).
The high-energy Diffuse Gamma-Ray Background (DGRB) is expected to be produced by unresolved isotropically distributed astrophysical objects, potentially including dark matter annihilation or decay ...emissions in galactic or extragalactic structures. The DGRB has only been observed below 1 TeV; above this energy, upper limits have been reported. Observations or stringent limits on the DGRB above this energy could have significant multi-messenger implications, such as constraining the origin of TeV-PeV astrophysical neutrinos detected by IceCube. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory, located in central Mexico at 4100 m above sea level, is sensitive to gamma rays from a few hundred GeV to several hundred TeV and continuously observes a wide field-of-view (2 sr). With its high-energy reach and large area coverage, HAWC is well-suited to notably improve searches for the DGRB at TeV energies. In this work, strict cuts have been applied to the HAWC dataset to better isolate gamma-ray air showers from background hadronic showers. The sensitivity to the DGRB was then verified using 535 days of Crab data and Monte Carlo simulations, leading to new limits above 10 TeV on the DGRB as well as prospective implications for multi-messenger studies.
Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy is still a rather young field of research, with strong historical connections to particle physics. This is why most observations are conducted by experiments with ...proprietary data and analysis software, as it is usual in the particle physics field. However in recent years, this paradigm has been slowly shifting towards the development and use of open-source data formats and tools, driven by upcoming observatories such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). In this context, a community-driven, shared data format (the gamma-astro-data-format or GADF) and analysis tools such as Gammapy and ctools have been developed. So far these efforts have been led by the IACT community, leaving out other types of ground-based gamma-ray instruments.We aim to show that the data from ground particle arrays, such as the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, is also compatible with the GADF and can thus be fully analysed using the related tools, in this case Gammapy. We reproduce several published HAWC results using Gammapy and data products compliant with GADF standard. We also illustrate the capabilities of the shared format and tools by producing a joint fit of the Crab spectrum including data from six different gamma-ray experiments. We find excellent agreement with the reference results, a powerful check of both the published results and the tools involved. The data from particle detector arrays such as the HAWC observatory can be adapted to the GADF and thus analysed with Gammapy. A common data format and shared analysis tools allow multi-instrument joint analysis and effective data sharing. Given the complementary nature of pointing and wide-field instruments, this synergy will be distinctly beneficial for the joint scientific exploitation of future observatories such as the Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory and CTA.
We present the sensitivity of HAWC to Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). HAWC is a very high-energy gamma-ray observatory currently under construction in Mexico at an altitude of 4100 m. It will observe ...atmospheric air showers via the water Cherenkov method. HAWC will consist of 300 large water tanks instrumented with 4 photomultipliers each. HAWC has two data acquisition (DAQ) systems. The main DAQ system reads out coincident signals in the tanks and reconstructs the direction and energy of individual atmospheric showers. The scaler DAQ counts the hits in each photomultiplier tube (PMT) in the detector and searches for a statistical excess over the noise of all PMTs. We show that HAWC has a realistic opportunity to observe the high-energy power law components of GRBs that extend at least up to 30 GeV, as it has been observed by Fermi LAT. The two DAQ systems have an energy threshold that is low enough to observe events similar to GRB 090510 and GRB 090902b with the characteristics observed by Fermi LAT. HAWC will provide information about the high-energy spectra of GRBs which in turn could help to understanding about e-pair attenuation in GRB jets, extragalactic background light absorption, as well as establishing the highest energy to which GRBs accelerate particles.
A measurement with high statistics of the differential energy spectrum of light elements in cosmic rays, in particular, of primary H plus He nuclei, is reported. The spectrum is presented in the ...energy range from \(6\) to \(158\) TeV per nucleus. Data was collected with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory between June 2015 and June 2019. The analysis was based on a Bayesian unfolding procedure, which was applied on a subsample of vertical HAWC data that was enriched to \(82\%\) of events induced by light nuclei. To achieve the mass separation, a cut on the lateral age of air shower data was set guided by predictions of CORSIKA/QGSJET-II-04 simulations. The measured spectrum is consistent with a broken power-law spectrum and shows a kneelike feature at around \(E = 24.0^{+3.6}_{-3.1} \) TeV, with a spectral index \(\gamma = -2.51 \pm 0.02\) before the break and with \(\gamma = -2.83 \pm 0.02\) above it. The feature has a statistical significance of \(4.1 \, \sigma\). Within systematic uncertainties, the significance of the spectral break is \(0.8 \, \sigma\).
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory surveys the very high energy sky in the 300 GeV to \(>100\) TeV energy range. HAWC has detected two blazars above \(11\sigma\), ...Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) and Markarian 501 (Mrk 501). The observations are comprised of data taken in the period between June 2015 and July 2018, resulting in a \(\sim 1038\) days of exposure. In this work we report the time-averaged spectral analysis for both sources above 0.5 TeV. Taking into account the flux attenuation due to the extragalactic background light (EBL), the intrinsic spectrum of Mrk 421 is described by a power law with an exponential energy cut-off with index \(\alpha=2.26\pm(0.12)_{stat}(_{-0.2}^{+0.17})_{sys}\) and energy cut-off \(E_c=5.1\pm(1.6)_{stat}(_{-2.5}^{+1.4})_{sys}\) TeV, while the intrinsic spectrum of Mrk 501 is better described by a simple power law with index \(\alpha=2.61\pm(0.11)_{stat}(_{-0.07}^{+0.01})_{sys}\). The maximum energies at which the Mrk 421 and Mrk 501 signals are detected are 9 and 12 TeV, respectively. This makes these some of the highest energy detections to date for spectra averaged over years-long timescales. Since the observation of gamma radiation from blazars provides information about the physical processes that take place in their relativistic jets, it is important to study the broad-band spectral energy distribution (SED) of these objects. To this purpose, contemporaneous data in the gamma-ray band to X-ray range, and literature data in the radio to UV range, were used to build time-averaged SEDs that were modeled within a synchrotron self-Compton leptonic scenario.
