PeV Gamma Rays Research Articles

A novel charge reconstruction algorithm applied to the HERD prototype silicon charge detector

The High Energy Cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility is a space astronomy and particle astrophysics experiment planned to be installed on the China Space Station. HERD can detect high-energy cosmic rays ranging from GeV to PeV and high-energy gamma rays. The silicon charge detector (SCD) is one of the subdetectors of HERD, measuring the charge and trajectory of incident ions. An ion beam test of the SCD prototype was conducted at CERN in 2022. A novel charge reconstruction algorithm based on the capacitive coupling was developed to study the charge resolution of the SCD prototype, and compared with the classical reconstruction algorithm.

High-energy Neutrinos from Gamma-Ray-faint Accretion-powered Hypernebulae

Hypernebulae are inflated by accretion-powered winds accompanying hyper-Eddington mass transfer from an evolved post-main-sequence star onto a black hole or neutron star companion. The ions accelerated at the termination shock—where the collimated fast disk winds and/or jet collide with the slower, wide-angled wind-fed shell—can generate high-energy neutrinos via hadronic proton–proton reactions, and photohadronic (p γ) interactions with the disk thermal and Comptonized nonthermal background photons. It has been suggested that some fast radio bursts (FRBs) may be powered by such short-lived jetted hyper-accreting engines. Although neutrino emission associated with the millisecond duration bursts themselves is challenging to detect, the persistent radio counterparts of some FRB sources—if associated with hypernebulae—could contribute to the high-energy neutrino diffuse background flux. If the hypernebula birth rate follows that of stellar-merger transients and common envelope events, we find that their volume-integrated neutrino emission—depending on the population-averaged mass-transfer rates—could explain up to ∼25% of the high-energy diffuse neutrino flux observed by the IceCube Observatory and the Baikal Gigaton Volume Detector Telescope. The time-averaged neutrino spectrum from hypernebula—depending on the population parameters—can also reproduce the observed diffuse neutrino spectrum. The neutrino emission could in some cases furthermore extend to >100 PeV, detectable by future ultra-high-energy neutrino observatories. The large optical depth through the nebula to Breit–Wheeler (γ γ) interaction attenuates the escape of GeV–PeV gamma rays coproduced with the neutrinos, rendering these gamma-ray-faint neutrino sources, consistent with the Fermi observations of the isotropic gamma-ray background.

New approaches for gamma-hadron separation at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory located at the geographic South Pole is composed of two detectors. One is the in-ice optical array, which measures high-energy muons from air showers and charged particles produced by the interaction of high-energy neutrinos in the ice. The other is an array of ice-Cherenkov tanks at the surface, called IceTop, which is used both as veto for the in-ice neutrino measurements and for detecting cosmic-ray air showers. In the next decade, the IceCube-Gen2 extension will increase the surface coverage including surface radio antennas and scintillator panels on the footprint of an extended optical array in the ice. The combination of the current surface and in-ice detectors can be exploited for the study of cosmic rays and the search for PeV gamma rays. The in-ice detector measures the high-energy muonic component of air showers, whereas the signal in IceTop is dominated by the electromagnetic component. The relative size of the muonic and electromagnetic components is different for gamma-and hadron-induced air showers. Thus, the gamma-hadron separation of cosmic rays is attempted using machine learning techniques including deep learning. Here, different approaches are presented. Finally, the prospects for the detection of PeV photons with IceCube-Gen2 will be discussed.

Prospect of Detecting TeV Halos with LHAASO: In the Framework of the Anisotropic Diffusion Model

The particle diffusion coefficients of TeV pulsar halos observed so far are inferred to be significantly smaller than the typical value of the interstellar medium (ISM). The anisotropic diffusion model ascribes the slow diffusion to the cross-field diffusion, assuming sub-Alfvénic turbulence in the ISM around the pulsar if the viewing angle between the observer’s line-of-sight (LOS) to the pulsar and the local mean field direction is small. In general, the TeV halo’s morphology under this model highly depends on the viewing angle, and an elongated, asymmetric morphology is predicted if the LOS is not approximately aligned with the local mean field direction. While the specific requirement of a small viewing angle is supposedly established only for a small fraction of TeV halos, TeV halos with apparent asymmetric morphology have not been detected. In this paper, we will study the expectation of TeV halos measured by the TeV–PeV gamma-ray detector LHAASO in the framework of anisotropic diffusion model, with a particular focus on the influence of the viewing angle on the detectability. We show that a TeV halo is more detectable with a smaller viewing angle, and this selection effect may explain why the morphologies of all three detected TeV halos so far are consistent with being spherical. We also demonstrate that LHAASO is capable of detecting asymmetric TeV halos after several years of operation with reasonable source parameters. This can serve as a critical test of the anisotropic diffusion model.

Neutrino observations of LHAASO sources: Present constraints and future prospects

ABSTRACT The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) observed a dozen gamma-ray sources with significant emission above 100 TeV that may be strong candidates for PeVatrons. Neutrino observations are crucial for diagnosing whether the gamma-ray radiative process is hadronic or leptonic. We use the Bayesian method to analyse the 10-yr (2008–2018) IceCube data, and hence constrain the hadronic gamma-ray emission in the LHAASO sources. The present neutrino data show that the hadronic gamma-ray flux from the Crab Nebula is lower than the observed gamma-ray flux at the 90 per cent confidence level and contributes less than 86 per cent, which disfavours the hadronic origin of gamma-rays below tens of TeV. For the other LHAASO sources, the present neutrino observations cannot put useful constraints on the gamma-ray radiative process. We consider the uncertainty of the source extension: the upper limits on the hadronic gamma-ray flux tend to increase with the extension; and some sources, namely LHAASO J2032+4102, LHAASO J1929+1745, and LHAASO J1908+0621, show a relatively high statistical significance of neutrino signals if the extension is ≲ 0.°6. Finally, we estimate the future observational results of LHAASO sources by proposed neutrino telescopes. If the LHAASO-observed PeV gamma-rays are of hadronic origin, the Crab Nebula may be detected at >100 TeV at the 3σ confidence level within 20 years by a neutrino detector with an effective area 30 times that of IceCube.

Testing Lorentz invariance of electrons with LHAASO observations of PeV gamma-rays from the Crab Nebula

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) recently reported the detection of gamma-ray emissions with energies up to 1.1PeV from the Crab Nebula. Using the absence of vacuum Cherenkov effect by inverse-Compton electrons, we improve previous bounds to linear-order Lorentz invariance violation (LV) in the dispersion relations of electrons by 104 times. We show that the LV effect on electrons is severely constrained, compatible with certain type of LV as expected by some models of quantum gravity (QG), such as the string/D-brane inspired space-time foam. We argue that such models are supported by the Crab Nebula constraints from the LHAASO observations, as well as various LV phenomenologies for photons to date.

Ultra-high-energy Gamma-Ray Radiation from the Crab Pulsar Wind Nebula

Abstract It has been long debated whether the high-energy gamma-ray radiation from the Crab Nebula stems from leptonic or hadronic processes. In this work, we investigate the multiband nonthermal radiation from the Crab pulsar wind nebula with the leptonic and leptonic–hadronic hybrid models, respectively. Then we use the Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling technology and method of sampling trace to study the stability and reasonability of the model parameters according to the recently observed results and obtain the best-fitting values of parameters. Finally, we calculate different radiative components generated by the electrons and protons in the Crab Nebula. The modeling results indicate that the pure leptonic origin model with the one-zone only can partly agree with some segments of the data from various experiments (including the PeV gamma-ray emission reported by the LHAASO and the other radiation ranging from the radio to very-high-energy gamma-ray wave band), and the contribution of hadronic interaction is hardly constrained. However, we find that the hadronic process may also contribute, especially in the energy range exceeding the PeV. In addition, it can be inferred that the higher energy signals from the Crab Nebula could be observed in the future.

Search for PeV Gamma-Ray Emission from the Southern Hemisphere with 5 Yr of Data from the IceCube Observatory

Abstract The measurement of diffuse PeV gamma-ray emission from the Galactic plane would provide information about the energy spectrum and propagation of Galactic cosmic rays, and the detection of a pointlike source of PeV gamma-rays would be strong evidence for a Galactic source capable of accelerating cosmic rays up to at least a few PeV. This paper presents several unbinned maximum-likelihood searches for PeV gamma-rays in the Southern Hemisphere using 5 yr of data from the IceTop air shower surface detector and the in-ice array of the IceCube Observatory. The combination of both detectors takes advantage of the low muon content and deep shower maximum of gamma-ray air showers and provides excellent sensitivity to gamma-rays between ∼0.6 and 100 PeV. Our measurements of pointlike and diffuse Galactic emission of PeV gamma-rays are consistent with the background, so we constrain the angle-integrated diffuse gamma-ray flux from the Galactic plane at 2 PeV to 2.61 × 10−19 cm−2 s−1 TeV−1 at 90% confidence, assuming an E −3 spectrum, and we estimate 90% upper limits on pointlike emission at 2 PeV between 10−21 and 10−20 cm−2 s−1 TeV−1 for an E −2 spectrum, depending on decl. Furthermore, we exclude unbroken power-law emission up to 2 PeV for several TeV gamma-ray sources observed by the High Energy Spectroscopic System and calculate upper limits on the energy cutoffs of these sources at 90% confidence. We also find no PeV gamma-rays correlated with neutrinos from IceCube’s high-energy starting event sample. These are currently the strongest constraints on PeV gamma-ray emission.

Detector developments for a hybrid particle and radio array for cosmic-ray air-shower detection

Large-scale air-shower arrays could profit from a radio sub-detector as the radio emission in air showers is sensitive to the electromagnetic component. In particular, with an array of radio antennas in combination with particle detectors highly inclined EAS can be detected. This gives rise to new science cases, e.g. the search for PeV gamma rays coming from the Galactic Center at the South Pole, from where it is visible all over the year at an inclination of 61° degree. We report on progress and plans in the development of an optimized hybrid detector.

Carpet-2 Search for PeV Gamma Rays Associated with IceCube High-Energy Neutrino Events

Carpet-2 is an air-shower array at Baksan Valley, Russia, equipped with a large-area (175 m^2) muon detector, which makes it possible to separate primary photons from hadrons. We report the first results of the search for primary photons with energies E_\gamma>1 PeV, directionally associated with IceCube high-energy neutrino events, in the data obtained in 3080 days of Carpet-2 live time.

Search for astrophysical PeV gamma rays from point sources with Carpet-2

Early results of the search for Eγ > 1 PeV cosmic photons from point sources with the data of Carpet–2, an air-shower array equipped with a 175 m2 muon detector, are presented. They include 95% CL upper limits on PeV photon fluxes from stacked directions of high-energy IceCube neutrino events and from four predefined sources, Crab, Cyg X-3, Mrk 421 and Mrk 501. An insignificant excess of events from Mrk 421 will be further monitored. Prospects of the use of the upgraded installation, Carpet–3 (410 m2 muon detector), scheduled to start data taking in 2019, for searches of Eγ > 100 TeV photons, are briefly discussed.

Latest Cosmic Ray Results from IceTop and IceCube

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the geographic South Pole, with its surface array IceTop, detects three different components of extensive air showers: the total signal at the surface, low energy muons on the periphery of the showers, and high energy muons in the deep In Ice array of IceCube. These measurements enable determination of the energy spectrum and composition of cosmic rays from PeV to EeV energies, the anisotropy in the distribution of cosmic ray arrival directions, the muon density of cosmic ray air showers, and the PeV gamma-ray flux. Furthermore, IceTop can be used as a veto for the neutrino measurements. The latest results from these IceTop analyses will be presented along with future plans.

Search for PeVatrons at the Galactic Center using a radio air-shower array at the South Pole

The South Pole, which hosts the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, has a complete and around-the-clock exposure to the Galactic Center. Hence, it is an ideal location to search for gamma rays of PeV energy coming from the Galactic Center. However, it is hard to detect air showers initiated by these gamma rays using cosmic-ray particle detectors due to the low elevation of the Galactic Center. The use of antennas to measure the radio footprint of these air showers will help in this case, and would allow for a 24/7 operation time. So far, only air showers with energies well above 10^{16} eV have been detected with the radio technique. Thus, the energy threshold has to be lowered for the detection of gamma-ray showers of PeV energy. This can be achieved by optimizing the frequency band in order to obtain a higher level of signal-to-noise ratio. With such an approach, PeV gamma-ray showers with high inclination can be measured at the South Pole.

Searching for PeV neutrinos from photomeson interactions in magnetars

In this paper we estimate the flux of PeV neutrinos and gamma-rays from magnetar polar caps, assuming that ions/protons are injected, and accelerated in these regions and interact with the radiative background. The present study takes into account the effect of the photon splitting mechanisms that should modify the radiative background, and enhance the neutrino and gamma-ray fluxes at PeV energies, with a view to explain the PeV neutrino events detected in IceCube. The results indicate that in the near future, the possibility of any significant excess of neutrino events from a magnetar in the Milky Way is extremely low. Further, we suggest that the simultaneous observation of neutrinos and gamma-rays at Earth from expanded “Gen2” IceCube detector and/or High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory would provide opportunities to explore the possible origin of very high-energy neutrinos and gamma-rays.

Multi-messenger aspects of cosmic neutrinos*

The recent observation of TeV-PeV neutrinos by IceCube has opened a new window to the high-energy Universe. I will discuss this signal in the context of multi-messenger astronomy. For extragalactic source scenarios the corresponding gamma-rays are not directly observable due to interactions with the cosmic radiation backgrounds. Nevertheless, the isotropic sub-TeV gamma ray background observed by Fermi -LAT contains indirect information from secondary emission produced in electromagnetic cascades. On the other hand, observation of PeV gamma rays would provide a smoking-gun signal for Galactic emission. Interestingly, the overall energy density of the observed neutrino flux is close to a theoretical limit for neutrino production in ultra-high energy cosmic ray sources and might indicate a common origin of these phenomena. I will highlight various multi-messenger relations and their implications for neutrino source scenarios.

Galactic PeV neutrinos

The IceCube experiment has detected two neutrinos with energies between 1 and 10PeV. They might have originated from Galactic or extragalactic sources of cosmic rays. In the present work we consider hadronic interactions of the diffuse very high energy cosmic rays with the interstellar matter within our Galaxy to explain the PeV neutrino events detected in IceCube. We also expect PeV gamma ray events along with the PeV neutrino events if the observed PeV neutrinos were produced within our Galaxy in hadronic interactions. PeV gamma rays are unlikely to reach us from sources outside our Galaxy due to pair production with cosmic background radiation fields. We suggest that in future with simultaneous detections of PeV gamma rays and neutrinos it would be possible to distinguish between Galactic and extragalactic origins of very high energy neutrinos.

PeV gamma rays from interactions of ultra high energy cosmic rays in the Milky Way

The PeV gamma ray background produced in the interactions of ultra high energy cosmic rays with the ambient matter and radiations during their propagation in the Milky Way has been calculated in this paper. If the primary ultra high energy cosmic rays are produced from Galactic point sources then those point sources are also emitting PeV gamma rays. We discuss that the detection of galactocentric PeV gamma rays in the future would be a signature of the presence of EeV cosmic accelerators in the Milky Way.

Detection of TeV to PeV Neutrinos and Gamma-Rays with the High Mountain SHALON Mirror Cherenkov Telescope

Problems in observation of extensive air showers generated by neutrinos are connected with an extremely small cross section of inelastic collisions of neutrinos with nuclei. However, two facts allow to search for showers generated by neutrinos: (1) a hadron cascade with the primary energy of more than 10 13 eV leaves a mountain ridge to the atmosphere from the depth 300 g/cm 2 without an essential loss of the total energy in the hadron cascade, and (2) air Cherenkov radiation from such hadron cascades will be observed with a 7.5 km distant telescope over an area of more than 7 ×10 5 m 2 . This partially compensates the small cross section of inelastic neutrino collisions. The observation has been carried out since 1992 at high mountainous Tien-Shan station with SHALON Cherenkov mirror telescope with ∼11.2 m 2 mirror area and image matrix of 144 PMT with full angle >8°. The telescope characteristics permitted to start the search of local neutrino sources with energy 10 13 –10 16 eV on EAS generating in mou...

TeV to PeV neutrinos and gamma-rays with Mountain SHALON Mirror Cherenkov Telescope

Problems in observation of extensive air showers generated by neutrinos are connected with an extremely small cross-section of inelastic collisions of neutrinos with nuclei. However, two facts allow to search for showers generated by neutrinos: (1) a hadron cascade with a primary energy of more than 10 13 eV leaves a mountain ridge to the atmosphere from a depth ∼ 300 g / cm 2 without any essential loss of the total energy in the hadron cascade, and (2) air Cherenkov radiation from such hadron cascades will be observed with a 7.5 km distant telescope over an area of more than 7 × 10 5 m 2 . This partially compensates for the small cross-section of inelastic neutrino collisions. Observations have been carried out since 1992 at the high mountain Tien-Shan station using the SHALON Cherenkov mirror telescope with ∼11.2 m 2 mirror area and image matrix of 144 PMT with full angle >8°. The telescope characteristics allowed to start searching for local neutrino sources with energy 10 13 –10 16 eV on EAS generated in the mountain-range located at some 7.5 and more kilometers from the gamma-telescope (in Russian the abbreviation SHALON means - the Extensive Air Showers from Neutrino).

Observation of PeV Gamma Rays from the Monogem Ring with the Tibet Air Shower Array

We searched for steady PeV gamma-ray emission from the Monogem ring region with the Tibet air shower array from 1997 February to 2004 October. No evidence for statistically significant gamma-ray signals was found in a region 111$\degr$ $\leq$ R.A. $<$ 114$\degr$, 12$\fdg$5 $\leq$ decl. $<$ 15$\fdg$5 in the Monogem ring where the MAKET-ANI experiment recently claimed a positive detection of PeV high-energy cosmic radiation, although our flux sensitivity is approximately 10 times better than MAKET-ANI's. We set the most stringent integral flux upper limit at a 99% confidence level of 4.0 $\times$ 10$^{-12}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ sr$^{-1}$ above 1 PeV on diffuse gamma rays extended in the 3$^{\circ}$ $\times$ 3$^{\circ}$ region.