Abstract

A new UHE γ-ray air shower array, referred to as SPICA (the SPecial Instrument for Cosmic ray Astrophysics), is being operated at Akeno. The SPICA array utilizes both scintillation detectors and proportional counters for sampling both the electromagnetic and muonic components of cosmic ray showers. Fast timing PMTs with CAMAC/TDC readout are now used, and an off-line shower front ‘curvature’ correction implemented which improves the median angular resolution of SPICA to better than 1° under certain conditions. Inspired by the discovery of an anomalous pulsar period from Her X-1 and the unexpectedly high percentage of muons in the showers that exhibit this periodicity, we are searching for UHE γ-ray emission in the SPICA data from Her X-1.

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