We present the result of a search of the Milagro sky map for spatial correlations with sources from a subset of the recent Fermi Bright Source List (BSL). The BSL consists of the 205 most significant ...sources detected above 100 MeV by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We select sources based on their categorization in the BSL, taking all confirmed or possible Galactic sources in the field of view of Milagro. Of the 34 Fermi sources selected, 14 are observed by Milagro at a significance of 3 standard deviations or more. We conduct this search with a new analysis which employs newly optimized gamma-hadron separation and utilizes the full eight-year Milagro data set. Milagro is sensitive to gamma rays with energy from 1 to 100 TeV with a peak sensitivity from 10 to 50 TeV depending on the source spectrum and declination. These results extend the observation of these sources far above the Fermi energy band. With the new analysis and additional data, multi-TeV emission is definitively observed associated with the Fermi pulsar, J2229.0+6114, in the Boomerang pulsar wind nebula (PWN). Furthermore, an extended region of multi-TeV emission is associated with the Fermi pulsar, J0634.0+1745, the Geminga pulsar.
(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae and/or non-USASCII text omitted) The Cygnus region is a very bright and complex portion of the TeV sky, host to unidentified sources and a diffuse excess with respect ...to conventional cosmic-ray propagation models. Two of the brightest TeV sources, MGRO J2019+37 and MGRO J2031+41, are analyzed using Milagro data with a new technique, and their emission is tested under two different spectral assumptions: a power law and a power law with an exponential cutoff. The new analysis technique is based on an energy estimator that uses the fraction of photomultiplier tubes in the observatory that detect the extensive air shower. The photon spectrum is measured in the range 1-100 TeV using the last three years of Milagro data (2005-2008), with the detector in its final configuration. An F-test indicates that MGRO J2019+37 is better fit by a power law with an exponential cutoff than by a simple power law. The best-fitting parameters for the power law with exponential cutoff model are a normalization at 10 TeV of ... x 10 super(-10) s super(-1) m super(-2) TeV super(-1), a spectral index of ... and a cutoff energy of ... TeV. MGRO J2031+41 shows no evidence of a cutoff. The best-fitting parameters for a power law are a normalization of ... x 10 super(-10) s super(-1) m super(-2) TeV super(-1) and a spectral index of ... The overall flux is subject to a ~30% systematic uncertainty. The systematic uncertainty on the power-law indices is ~0.1. Both uncertainties have been verified with cosmic-ray data. A comparison with previous results from TeV J2032+4130, MGRO J2031+41, and MGRO J2019+37 is also presented.
The 7 year data set of the Milagro TeV observatory contains 2.2 x 10(11) events of which most are due to hadronic cosmic rays. These data are searched for evidence of intermediate scale structure. ...Excess emission on angular scales of approximately 10 degrees has been found in two localized regions of unknown origin with greater than 12sigma significance. Both regions are inconsistent with pure gamma-ray emission with high confidence. One of the regions has a different energy spectrum than the isotropic cosmic-ray flux at a level of 4.6sigma, and it is consistent with hard spectrum protons with an exponential cutoff, with the most significant excess at approximately 10 TeV. Potential causes of these excesses are explored, but no compelling explanations are found.
An indirect measurement of the antiproton flux in cosmic rays is possible as the particles undergo deflection by the geomagnetic field. This effect can be measured by studying the deficit in the ...flux, or shadow, created by the Moon as it absorbs cosmic rays that are headed toward the Earth. The shadow is displaced from the actual position of the Moon due to geomagnetic deflection, which is a function of the energy and charge of the cosmic rays. The displacement provides a natural tool for momentum/charge discrimination that can be used to study the composition of cosmic rays. Using 33 months of data comprising more than 80 billion cosmic rays measured by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov observatory, we have analyzed the Moon shadow to search for TeV antiprotons in cosmic rays. Here, we present our first upper limits on the p¯/p fraction, which in the absence of any direct measurements provide the tightest available constraints of ~1 % on the antiproton fraction for energies between 1 and 10 TeV.
Gamma-ray emission from a narrow band at the galactic equator has previously been detected up to 30 GeV. We report evidence for a TeV gamma-ray signal from a region of the galactic plane by Milagro, ...a large-field-of-view water Cherenkov detector for extensive air showers. An excess with a significance of 4.5 standard deviations has been observed from the region of galactic longitude l E (40 degrees, 100 degrees) and latitude /b/ < 5 degrees. Under the assumption of a simple power law spectrum, with no cutoff in the EGRET-Milagro energy range, the measured integral flux is phi gamma(>3.5 TeV) = (6.4 +/- 1.4 +/- 2.1) x 10(-11) cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1). This flux is consistent with an extrapolation of the EGRET spectrum between 1 and 30 GeV in this galactic region.
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is an array of large water Cherenkov detectors sensitive to gamma rays and hadronic cosmic rays in the energy band between 100GeV and 100 TeV. The ...observatory will be used to measure high-energy protons and cosmic rays via detection of the energetic secondary particles reaching the ground when one of these particles interacts in the atmosphere above the detector. HAWC is under construction at a site 4100 meters above sea level on the northern slope of the volcano Sierra Negra, which is located in central Mexico at 19°N latitude. It is scheduled for completion in 2014. In this paper we estimate the sensitivity of the HAWC instrument to point-like and extended sources of gamma rays. The source fluxes are modeled using both unbroken power laws and power laws with exponential cutoffs. HAWC, in one year, is sensitive to point sources with integral power-law spectra as low as 5×10-13cm-2sec-1 above 2 TeV (approximately 50 mCrab) over 5 sr of the sky. This is a conservative estimate based on simple event parameters and is expected to improve as the data analysis techniques are refined. We discuss known TeV sources and the scientific contributions that HAWC can make to our understanding of particle acceleration in these sources.
The Crab Nebula was detected with the Milagro experiment at a statistical significance of 17 standard deviations over the lifetime of the experiment. The experiment was sensitive to approximately 100 ...GeV-100 TeV gamma-ray air showers by observing the particle footprint reaching the ground. The fraction of detectors recording signals from photons at the ground is a suitable proxy for the energy of the primary particle and has been used to measure the photon energy spectrum of the Crab Nebula between ~1 and ~100 TeV. The TeV emission is believed to be caused by inverse-Compton upscattering of ambient photons by an energetic electron population. The location of a TeV steepening or cutoff in the energy spectrum reveals important details about the underlying electron population. We describe the experiment and the technique for distinguishing gamma-ray events from the much more-abundant hadronic events. We describe the calculation of the significance of the excess from the Crab and how the energy spectrum is fitted. The differential photon energy spectrum, including the statistical errors from the fit, obtained using a simple power-law hypothesis for data between 2005 September and 2008 March is (6.5 + or - 0.4) x 10 super(-14)(E/10 TeV) super(-3.1+ or -0.1)(cm super(2) s TeV) super(-1) between ~1 TeV and ~100 TeV. Allowing for a possible exponential cutoff, the photon energy spectrum is fitted as (2.5 super(+0.7) sub(-0.4)) x 10 super(-12)(E/3 TeV) super(-2.5 + or -0.4) exp (-E/32 super(+39) sub(-18) TeV) (cm super(2) s TeV) super(-1). The results are subject to an ~30% systematic uncertainty in the overall flux and an ~0.1 systematic uncertainty in the power-law indices quoted. Uncertainty in the overall energy scale has been absorbed into these errors. Fixing the spectral index to values that have been measured below 1 TeV by IACT experiments (2.4-2.6), the fit to the Milagro data suggests that Crab exhibits a spectral steepening or cutoff between about 20-40 TeV.
The Crab Nebula is the brightest TeV gamma-ray source in the sky and has been used for the past 25 years as a reference source in TeV astronomy, for calibration and verification of new TeV ...instruments. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory (HAWC), completed in early 2015, has been used to observe the Crab Nebula at high significance across nearly the full spectrum of energies to which HAWC is sensitive. HAWC is unique for its wide field of view, nearly 2 sr at any instant, and its high-energy reach, up to 100 TeV. HAWC's sensitivity improves with the gamma-ray energy. Above ∼1 TeV the sensitivity is driven by the best background rejection and angular resolution ever achieved for a wide-field ground array. We present a time-integrated analysis of the Crab using 507 live days of HAWC data from 2014 November to 2016 June. The spectrum of the Crab is fit to a function of the form . The data is well fitted with values of = 2.63 0.03, β = 0.15 0.03, and when E0 is fixed at 7 TeV and the fit applies between 1 and 37 TeV. Study of the systematic errors in this HAWC measurement is discussed and estimated to be 50% in the photon flux between 1 and 37 TeV. Confirmation of the Crab flux serves to establish the HAWC instrument's sensitivity for surveys of the sky. The HAWC all-sky survey will be the deepest survey of the northern sky ever conducted in the multi-TeV band.
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