Cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra have been measured with the balloon-borne Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass experiment flown for 42 days in Antarctica in the 2004-2005 austral summer season. ...High-energy cosmic-ray data were collected at an average altitude of ~38.5 km with an average atmospheric overburden of ~3.9 g cm--2. Individual elements are clearly separated with a charge resolution of ~0.15 e (in charge units) and ~0.2 e for protons and helium nuclei, respectively. The measured spectra at the top of the atmosphere are represented by power laws with a spectral index of --2.66 ? 0.02 for protons from 2.5 TeV to 250 TeV and --2.58 ? 0.02 for helium nuclei from 630 GeV nucleon--1 to 63 TeV nucleon--1. They are harder than previous measurements at a few tens of GeV nucleon--1. The helium flux is higher than that expected from the extrapolation of the power law fitted to the lower-energy data. The relative abundance of protons to helium nuclei is 9.1 ? 0.5 for the range from 2.5 TeV nucleon--1 to 63 TeV nucleon--1. This ratio is considerably smaller than the previous measurements at a few tens of GeV nucleon--1.
We present new measurements of the energy spectra of cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei from the second flight of the balloon-borne experiment Cosmic-Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM). The instrument included ...different particle detectors to provide redundant charge identification and measure the energy of CRs up to several hundred TeV. The measured individual energy spectra of C, O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe are presented up to ~1014 eV. The spectral shape looks nearly the same for these primary elements and it can be fitted to an E -2.66 +/- 0.04 power law in energy. Moreover, a new measurement of the absolute intensity of nitrogen in the 100-800 GeV/n energy range with smaller errors than previous observations, clearly indicates a hardening of the spectrum at high energy. The relative abundance of N/O at the top of the atmosphere is measured to be 0.080 +/- 0.025 (stat.)+/-0.025 (sys.) at ~800 GeV/n, in good agreement with a recent result from the first CREAM flight.
We present measurements of the relative abundances of cosmic-ray nuclei in the energy range of 500-3980 GeV/nucleon from the second flight of the Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass balloon-borne ...experiment. Particle energy was determined using a sampling tungsten/scintillating-fiber calorimeter, while particle charge was identified precisely with a dual-layer silicon charge detector installed for this flight. The resulting element ratios C/O, N/O, Ne/O, Mg/O, Si/O, and Fe/O at the top of atmosphere are 0.919 {+-} 0.123{sup stat} {+-} 0.030{sup syst}, 0.076 {+-} 0.019{sup stat} {+-} 0.013{sup syst}, 0.115 {+-} 0.031{sup stat} {+-} 0.004{sup syst}, 0.153 {+-} 0.039{sup stat} {+-} 0.005{sup syst}, 0.180 {+-} 0.045{sup stat} {+-} 0.006{sup syst}, and 0.139 {+-} 0.043{sup stat} {+-} 0.005{sup syst}, respectively, which agree with measurements at lower energies. The source abundance of N/O is found to be 0.054 {+-} 0.013{sup stat} {+-} 0.009{sup syst+0.010esc} {sub -0.017}. The cosmic-ray source abundances are compared to local Galactic (LG) abundances as a function of first ionization potential and as a function of condensation temperature. At high energies the trend that the cosmic-ray source abundances at large ionization potential or low condensation temperature are suppressed compared to their LG abundances continues. Therefore, the injection mechanism must be the same at TeV/nucleon energies as at the lower energies measured by HEAO-3, CRN, and TRACER. Furthermore, the cosmic-ray source abundances are compared to a mixture of 80% solar system abundances and 20% massive stellar outflow (MSO) as a function of atomic mass. The good agreement with TIGER measurements at lower energies confirms the existence of a substantial fraction of MSO material required in the {approx}TeV per nucleon region.
The Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) is an ultra-high energy (>1017eV) cosmic neutrino detector in phased construction near the south pole. ARA searches for radio Cherenkov emission from particle cascades ...induced by neutrino interactions in the ice using radio frequency antennas (∼150-800MHz) deployed at a design depth of 200m in the Antarctic ice. A prototype ARA Testbed station was deployed at ∼30m depth in the 2010–2011 season and the first three full ARA stations were deployed in the 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 seasons. We present the first neutrino search with ARA using data taken in 2011 and 2012 with the ARA Testbed and the resulting constraints on the neutrino flux from 1017-1021eV.
The first flight of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment recorded 16 radio signals that were emitted by cosmic-ray induced air showers. The dominant contribution to the ...radiation comes from the deflection of positrons and electrons in the geomagnetic field, which is beamed in the direction of motion of the air shower. For 14 of these events, this radiation is reflected from the ice and subsequently detected by the ANITA experiment at a flight altitude of ∼36 km. In this paper, we estimate the energy of the 14 individual events and find that the mean energy of the cosmic-ray sample is 2.9 × 1018 eV, which is significantly lower than the previous estimate. By simulating the ANITA flight, we calculate its exposure for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. We estimate for the first time the cosmic-ray flux derived only from radio observations and find agreement with measurements performed at other observatories. In addition, we find that the ANITA data set is consistent with Monte Carlo simulations for the total number of observed events and with the properties of those events.
Abstract
Many gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been observed from radio wavelengths, and a few at very high energies (VHEs, >100 GeV). The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory is ...well suited to study transient phenomena at VHEs owing to its large field of view and duty cycle. These features allow for searches of VHE emission and can probe different model assumptions of duration and spectra. In this paper, we use data collected by HAWC between 2014 December and 2020 May to search for emission in the energy range from 80 to 800 GeV coming from a sample of 47 short GRBs that triggered the Fermi, Swift, and Konus satellites during this period. This analysis is optimized to search for delayed and extended VHE emission within the first 20 s of each burst. We find no evidence of VHE emission, either simultaneous or delayed, with respect to the prompt emission. Upper limits (90% confidence level) derived on the GRB fluence are used to constrain the synchrotron self-Compton forward-shock model. Constraints for the interstellar density as low as 10
−2
cm
−3
are obtained when assuming
z
= 0.3 for bursts with the highest keV fluences such as GRB 170206A and GRB 181222841. Such a low density makes observing VHE emission mainly from the fast-cooling regime challenging.
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