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https://hdl.handle.net/2440/126439
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Type: | Journal article |
Title: | Search for PeV gamma-ray emission from the Southern Hemisphere with 5 yr of data from the IceCube Observatory |
Author: | Aartsen, M.G. Ackermann, M. Adams, J. Aguilar, J.A. 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, A.V. Barbano, A. Barwick, S.W. et al. |
Citation: | The Astrophysical Journal: an international review of astronomy and astronomical physics, 2020; 891(1):9-1-9-16 |
Publisher: | IOP Publishing |
Issue Date: | 2020 |
ISSN: | 0004-637X 1538-4357 |
Statement of Responsibility: | M.G. Aartsen … G.C. Hill … A. Kyriacou … A. Wallace … B.J. Whelan … et al. [the IceCube Collaboration] |
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. |
Rights: | © 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. |
DOI: | 10.3847/1538-4357/ab6d67 |
Grant ID: | ARC |
Published version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab6d67 |
Appears in Collections: | Aurora harvest 4 Physics publications |
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