Aims.We searched for very high energy (VHE) γ-ray emission from the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A Methods.The shell-type supernova remnant Cassiopeia A was observed with the 17 m MAGIC telescope ...between July 2006 and January 2007 for a total time of 47 h. Results.The source was detected above an energy of 250 GeV with a significance of 5.2σ and a photon flux above 1 TeV of (7.3 ± $0.7_{\rm stat}$ ± $2.2_{\rm sys})$ $\times$ 10-13 cm-2s-1. The photon spectrum is compatible with a power law dN/dE $\propto$ $E^{-\Gamma}$ with a photon index Γ = 2.3 ± $0.2_{\rm stat}$ ± $0.2_{\rm sys}$. The source is point-like within the angular resolution of the telescope.
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory is a world-wide project for the ground-based study of the sources of the highest energy photons. By adopting telescopes of three different size ...categories it will cover the wide energy range from tens of GeV up to hundreds of TeV, limited only by the source physical properties and the gamma absorption by the extragalactic background light. The full sky coverage will be assured by two arrays, one in each hemisphere. An array of small size telescopes (SSTs), covering the highest energy region (3-100 TeV), the region most flux limited for current imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, is planned to be deployed at the southern CTA site in the first phase of the CTA project. The ASTRI collaboration has developed a prototype of a dual mirror SST equipped with a SiPM-based focal plane (ASTRI SST-2M) and has proposed to install a mini-array of nine of such telescopes at the CTA southern site (the ASTRI mini-array). In order to study the expected performance and the scientific capabilities of different telescope configurations, full Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the shower development in the atmosphere for both gammas and hadronic background have been performed, followed by detailed simulations of the telescopes. In this work the expected performance of the ASTRI mini-array in terms of sensitivity, angular and energy resolution are presented and discussed.
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a world-wide project to build a new generation ground-based gamma-ray instrument operating in the energy range from some tens of GeV to above 100 TeV. To ensure ...full sky coverage CTA will consist of two arrays of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), one in the southern hemisphere and another one in the northern hemisphere. CTA has just completed the design phase and it is entering in the pre-production one that includes the development of telescope precursor mini-arrays. ASTRI is an ongoing project, to develop and install at the southern CTA site one of such mini-arrays composed by nine dual-mirror small size telescopes equipped with an innovative camera based on silicon photomultiplier sensors. The end-to-end telescope prototype, named ASTRI SST-2M, has been recently inaugurated at the Serra La Nave observing station, on Mount Etna, Italy. ASTRI SST-2M expected performance has been carefully studied using a full Monte Carlo simulation of the shower development in the atmosphere and detector response. Simulated data have been analyzed using the traditional Hillas moment analysis to obtain the expected angular and energy resolution. Simulation results, together with the comparison with the available experimental measurements, are shown.
The nature of Dark Matter (DM) is an open issue of modern physics. Cosmological considerations and observational evidences indicate a behaviour beyond the Standard Model for feasible DM particle ...candidates. Non-baryonic DM is compatible with cold and weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) expected to have a mass in the range between ∼10 GeV and ∼100 TeV. Indirect DM searches with imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes may play a crucial role in constraining the nature of the DM particle(s) through the study of their annihilation in very high energy (VHE) gamma rays from promising targets, such as the dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies (dSphs) of the Milky Way. Here, we focus on indirect DM searches in dSphs, presenting the preliminary prospects of this research beyond the TeV mass region achievable with the ASTRI mini-array, proposed to be installed at the Cherenkov Telescope Array southern site.
Long-duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most luminous sources of electromagnetic radiation known in the Universe. They arise from outflows of plasma with velocities near the speed of light that are ...ejected by newly formed neutron stars or black holes (of stellar mass) at cosmological distances
. Prompt flashes of megaelectronvolt-energy γ-rays are followed by a longer-lasting afterglow emission in a wide range of energies (from radio waves to gigaelectronvolt γ-rays), which originates from synchrotron radiation generated by energetic electrons in the accompanying shock waves
. Although emission of γ-rays at even higher (teraelectronvolt) energies by other radiation mechanisms has been theoretically predicted
, it has not been previously detected
. Here we report observations of teraelectronvolt emission from the γ-ray burst GRB 190114C. γ-rays were observed in the energy range 0.2-1 teraelectronvolt from about one minute after the burst (at more than 50 standard deviations in the first 20 minutes), revealing a distinct emission component of the afterglow with power comparable to that of the synchrotron component. The observed similarity in the radiated power and temporal behaviour of the teraelectronvolt and X-ray bands points to processes such as inverse Compton upscattering as the mechanism of the teraelectronvolt emission
. By contrast, processes such as synchrotron emission by ultrahigh-energy protons
are not favoured because of their low radiative efficiency. These results are anticipated to be a step towards a deeper understanding of the physics of GRBs and relativistic shock waves.
A neutrino with energy ∼290 TeV, IceCube-170922A, was detected in coincidence with the BL Lac object TXS 0506+056 during enhanced gamma-ray activity, with chance coincidence being rejected at ∼3 ...level. We monitored the object in the very-high-energy (VHE) band with the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes for ∼41 hr from 1.3 to 40.4 days after the neutrino detection. Day-timescale variability is clearly resolved. We interpret the quasi-simultaneous neutrino and broadband electromagnetic observations with a novel one-zone lepto-hadronic model, based on interactions of electrons and protons co-accelerated in the jet with external photons originating from a slow-moving plasma sheath surrounding the faster jet spine. We can reproduce the multiwavelength spectra of TXS 0506+056 with neutrino rate and energy compatible with IceCube-170922A, and with plausible values for the jet power of . The steep spectrum observed by MAGIC is concordant with internal γγ absorption above ∼100 GeV entailed by photohadronic production of a ∼290 TeV neutrino, corroborating a genuine connection between the multi-messenger signals. In contrast to previous predictions of predominantly hadronic emission from neutrino sources, the gamma-rays can be mostly ascribed to inverse Compton upscattering of external photons by accelerated electrons. The X-ray and VHE bands provide crucial constraints on the emission from both accelerated electrons and protons. We infer that the maximum energy of protons in the jet comoving frame can be in the range ∼1014 - 1018 eV.
ABSTRACT
We present a measurement of the extragalactic background light (EBL) based on a joint likelihood analysis of 32 gamma-ray spectra for 12 blazars in the redshift range z = 0.03–0.944, ...obtained by the MAGIC telescopes and Fermi-LAT. The EBL is the part of the diffuse extragalactic radiation spanning the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared bands. Major contributors to the EBL are the light emitted by stars through the history of the Universe, and the fraction of it that was absorbed by dust in galaxies and re-emitted at longer wavelengths.
The EBL can be studied indirectly through its effect on very high energy photons that are emitted by cosmic sources and absorbed via γγ interactions during their propagation across cosmological distances. We obtain estimates of the EBL density in good agreement with state-of-the-art models of the EBL production and evolution. The 1σ upper bounds, including systematic uncertainties, are between 13 per cent and 23 per cent above the nominal EBL density in the models. No anomaly in the expected transparency of the Universe to gamma-rays is observed in any range of optical depth. We also perform a wavelength-resolved EBL determination, which results in a hint of an excess of EBL in the 0.18–0.62 $\mu\mathrm{ m}$ range relative to the studied models, yet compatible with them within systematics.
The ANTARES Collaboration successfully completed in May 2008 the deployment of an underwater neutrino detector in the Mediterranean Sea, offshore the France coast, at 2475 m b.s.l. The main purpose ...of this experiment is the detection of high energy neutrinos produced in astrophysical sources. Neutrinos being neutral, stable and weakly interacting particles can travel undeflected trough the Universe reaching the Earth even from the inner core of very distant objects. They are therefore very powerful messengers which can provide us invaluable information about processes which are hardly accessible with other messengers like photons. The detection of astrophysical neutrinos is very challenging due to the very small neutrino interaction cross-section and the huge background produced by other cosmic rays. Very large instrumented volumes and a very efficient shielding are therefore needed to detect astrophysical neutrinos. Moreover a very good angular resolution is mandatory to trace detected neutrinos back to their origin. ANTARES with 0.04 km2 muon effective area at Ev > 10 TeV shielded by more than 2000 m of water and an angular resolution of 0.3° at Ev > 10 TeV, perfectly fits these requirements. The ANTARES deployment started in 2006 and many data have been already collected with a partial detector. The detector in its final configuration is described and preliminary results of data analysis, especially about calibration issues, are shown. The completion of the ANTARES detector paved the way towards an even larger submarine neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea like the one planned by the KM3NeT project.
Abstract
Extreme high-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (EHBLs) are blazars that exhibit extremely energetic synchrotron emission. They also feature nonthermal gamma-ray emission whose peak lies in the ...very high-energy (VHE,
E
> 100 GeV) range, and in some sources exceeds 1 TeV: this is the case for hard-TeV EHBLs such as 1ES 0229+200. With the aim of increasing the EHBL population, 10 targets were observed with the MAGIC telescopes from 2010 to 2017, for a total of 265 hr of good-quality data. The data were complemented by coordinated
Swift
observations. The X-ray data analysis confirms that all but two sources are EHBLs. The sources show only a modest variability and a harder-when-brighter behavior, typical for this class of objects. At VHE gamma-rays, three new sources were detected and a hint of a signal was found for another new source. In each case, the intrinsic spectrum is compatible with the hypothesis of a hard-TeV nature of these EHBLs. The broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of all sources are built and modeled in the framework of a single-zone, purely leptonic model. The VHE gamma-ray-detected sources were also interpreted with a spine–layer model and a proton synchrotron model. The three models provide a good description of the SEDs. However, the resulting parameters differ substantially in the three scenarios, in particular the magnetization parameter. This work presents the first mini catalog of VHE gamma-ray and multiwavelength observations of EHBLs.
Context.
Extended and delayed emission around distant TeV sources induced by the effects of propagation of
γ
ray s through the intergalactic medium can be used for the measurement of the ...intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF).
Aims.
We search for delayed GeV emission from the hard-spectrum TeV
γ
-ray emitting blazar 1ES 0229+200, with the goal of detecting or constraining the IGMF-dependent secondary flux generated during the propagation of TeV
γ
rays through the intergalactic medium.
Methods.
We analysed the most recent MAGIC observations over a 5 year time span, and complemented them with historic data of the H.E.S.S. and VERITAS telescopes, along with a 12-year-long exposure of the
Fermi
/LAT telescope. We used them to trace source evolution in the GeV–TeV band over a decade and a half. We used Monte Carlo simulations to predict the delayed secondary
γ
-ray flux, modulated by the source variability, as revealed by TeV-band observations. We then compared these predictions for various assumed IGMF strengths to all available measurements of the
γ
-ray flux evolution.
Results.
We find that the source flux in the energy range above 200 GeV experiences variations around its average on the 14-year time span of observations. No evidence for the flux variability is found in the 1 − 100 GeV energy range accessible to
Fermi
/LAT. The non-detection of variability due to delayed emission from electromagnetic cascade developing in the intergalactic medium imposes a lower bound of
B
> 1.8 × 10
−17
G for the long-correlation-length IGMF and
B
> 10
−14
G for an IGMF of cosmological origin. Though weaker than the one previously derived from the analysis of
Fermi
/LAT data, this bound is more robust, being based on a conservative intrinsic source spectrum estimate and accounting for the details of source variability in the TeV energy band. We discuss implications of this bound for cosmological magnetic fields that might explain the baryon asymmetry of the Universe.
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