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

Aartsen MG, Ackermann M, Adams J, Aguilar JA, Ahlers M, Ahrens M, Alispach C, Andeen K, Anderson T, Ansseau I, Anton G, Argüelles C, Auffenberg J, Axani S, Backes P, Bagherpour H, Bai X, Balagopal AV, Barbano A, Barwick SW, Bastian B, Baum V, Baur S, Bay R, Beatty JJ, Becker KH, Becker Tjus J, Benzvi S, Berley D, Bernardini E, Besson DZ, Binder G, Bindig D, Blaufuss E, Blot S, Bohm C, Börner M, Böser S, Botner O, Böttcher J, Bourbeau E, Bourbeau J, Bradascio F, Braun J, Bron S, Brostean-Kaiser J, Burgman A, Buscher J, Busse RS, Carver T, Chen C, Cheung E, Chirkin D, Choi S, Clark K, Classen L, Coleman A, Collin GH, Conrad JM, Coppin P, Correa P, Cowen DF, Cross R, Dave P, Clercq CD, Delaunay JJ, Dembinski H, Deoskar K, Ridder SD, Desiati P, De Vries KD, De Wasseige G, De With M, Deyoung T, Diaz A, Díaz-Vélez JC, Dujmovic H, Dunkman M, Dvorak E, Eberhardt B, Ehrhardt T, Eller P, Engel R, Evenson PA, Fahey S, Fazely AR, Felde J, Filimonov K, Finley C, Franckowiak A, Friedman E, Fritz A, Gaisser TK, Gallagher J, Ganster E, Garrappa S, Gerhardt L, Ghorbani K, Glauch T, Glüsenkamp T, Goldschmidt A, Gonzalez JG, Grant D, Griffith Z, Griswold S, Günder M, Gündüz M, Haack C, Hallgren A, Halve L, Halzen F, Hanson K, Haungs A, Hebecker D, Heereman D, Heix P, Helbing K, Hellauer R, Henningsen F, Hickford S, Hignight J, Hill GC, Hoffman KD, Hoffmann R, Hoinka T, Hokanson-Fasig B, Hoshina K, Huang F, Huber M, Huber T, Hultqvist K, Hünnefeld M, Hussain R, In S, Iovine N, Ishihara A, Japaridze GS, Jeong M, Jero K, Jones BJ, Jonske F, Joppe R, Kang D, Kang W, Kappes A, Kappesser D, Karg T, Karl M, Karle A, Katz U, Kauer M, Kelley JL, Kheirandish A, Kim J, Kintscher T, Kiryluk J, Kittler T, Klein SR, Koirala R, Kolanoski H, Köpke L, Kopper C, Kopper S, Koskinen DJ, Kowalski M, Krings K, Krückl G, Kulacz N, Kurahashi N, Kyriacou A, Labare M, Lanfranchi JL, Larson MJ, Lauber F, Lazar JP, Leonard K, Leszczyńska A, Leuermann M, Liu QR, Lohfink E, Lozano Mariscal CJ, Lu L, Lucarelli F, Lünemann J, Luszczak W, Lyu Y, Ma WY, Madsen J, Maggi G, Mahn KB, Makino Y, Mallik P, Mallot K, Mancina S, Mariş IC, Maruyama R, Mase K, Maunu R, McNally F, Meagher K, Medici M, Medina A, Meier M, Meighen-Berger S, Menne T, Merino G, Meures T, Micallef J, Mockler D, Momenté G, Montaruli T, Moore RW, Morse R, Moulai M, Muth P, Nagai R, Naumann U, Neer G, Niederhausen H, Nowicki SC, Nygren DR, Obertacke Pollmann A, Oehler M, Olivas A, O'Murchadha A, O'Sullivan E, Palczewski T, Pandya H, Pankova DV, Park N, Peiffer P, Pérez De Los Heros C, Philippen S, Pieloth D, Pinat E, Pizzuto A, Plum M, Porcelli A, Price PB, Przybylski GT, Raab C, Raissi A, Rameez M, Rauch L, Rawlins K, Rea IC, Reimann R, Relethford B, Renschler M, Renzi G, Resconi E, Rhode W, Richman M, Robertson S, Rongen M, Rott C, Ruhe T, Ryckbosch D, Rysewyk D, Safa I, Sanchez Herrera SE, Sandrock A, Sandroos J, Santander M, Sarkar S, Sarkar S, Satalecka K, Schaufel M, Schieler H, Schlunder P, Schmidt T, Schneider A, Schneider J, Schröder FG, Schumacher L, Sclafani S, Seckel D, Seunarine S, Shefali S, Silva M, Snihur R, Soedingrekso J, Soldin D, Song M, Spiczak GM, Spiering C, Stachurska J, Stamatikos M, Stanev T, Stein R, Steinmüller P, Stettner J, Steuer A, Stezelberger T, Stokstad RG, Stößl A, Strotjohann NL, Stürwald T, Stuttard T, Sullivan GW, Taboada I, Tenholt F, Ter-Antonyan S, Terliuk A, Tilav S, Tollefson K, Tomankova L, Tönnis C, Toscano S, Tosi D, Trettin A, Tselengidou M, Tung CF, Turcati A, Turcotte R, Turley CF, Ty B, Unger E, Unland Elorrieta MA, Usner M, Vandenbroucke J, Van Driessche W, Van Eijk D, Van Eijndhoven N, Vanheule S, Van Santen J, Vraeghe M, Walck C, Wallace A, Wallraff M, Wandkowsky N, Watson TB, Weaver C, Weindl A, Weiss MJ, Weldert J, Wendt C, Werthebach J, Whelan BJ, Whitehorn N, Wiebe K, Wiebusch CH, Wille L, Williams DR, Wills L, Wolf M, Wood J, Wood TR, Woschnagg K, Wrede G, Xu DL, Xu XW, Xu Y, Yanez JP, Yodh G, Yoshida S, Yuan T, Zöcklein M (2020)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Book Volume: 891

Article Number: 9

Journal Issue: 1

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab6d67

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.

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How to cite

APA:

Aartsen, M.G., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J.A., Ahlers, M., Ahrens, M.,... Zöcklein, M. (2020). Search for PeV Gamma-Ray Emission from the Southern Hemisphere with 5 Yr of Data from the IceCube Observatory. Astrophysical Journal, 891(1). https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab6d67

MLA:

Aartsen, M. G., et al. "Search for PeV Gamma-Ray Emission from the Southern Hemisphere with 5 Yr of Data from the IceCube Observatory." Astrophysical Journal 891.1 (2020).

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