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| 2. |
- Aartsen, M. G., et al.
(author)
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Very high-energy gamma-ray follow-up program using neutrino triggers from IceCube
- 2016
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In: Journal of Instrumentation. - 1748-0221 .- 1748-0221. ; 11
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We describe and report the status of a neutrino-triggered program in IceCube that generates real-time alerts for gamma-ray follow-up observations by atmospheric-Cherenkov telescopes (MAGIC and VERITAS). While IceCube is capable of monitoring the whole sky continuously, high-energy gamma-ray telescopes have restricted fields of view and in general are unlikely to be observing a potential neutrino-flaring source at the time such neutrinos are recorded. The use of neutrino-triggered alerts thus aims at increasing the availability of simultaneous multi-messenger data during potential neutrino flaring activity, which can increase the discovery potential and constrain the phenomenological interpretation of the high-energy emission of selected source classes (e. g. blazars). The requirements of a fast and stable online analysis of potential neutrino signals and its operation are presented, along with first results of the program operating between 14 March 2012 and 31 December 2015.
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| 3. |
- Abdalla, H., et al.
(author)
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Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array for probing cosmology and fundamental physics with gamma-ray propagation
- 2021
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In: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 1475-7516. ; :2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the new-generation ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy, provides unique capabilities to address significant open questions in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. We study some of the salient areas of gamma-ray cosmology that can be explored as part of the Key Science Projects of CTA, through simulated observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and of their relativistic jets. Observations of AGN with CTA will enable a measurement of gamma-ray absorption on the extragalactic background light with a statistical uncertainty below 15% up to a redshift z = 2 and to constrain or detect gamma-ray halos up to intergalactic-magnetic-field strengths of at least 0.3 pG. Extragalactic observations with CTA also show promising potential to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. The best limits on Lorentz invariance violation from gamma-ray astronomy will be improved by a factor of at least two to three. CTA will also probe the parameter space in which axion-like particles could constitute a significant fraction, if not all, of dark matter. We conclude on the synergies between CTA and other upcoming facilities that will foster the growth of gamma-ray cosmology.
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| 4. |
- Mayer, Manuel, et al.
(author)
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Constraints on particle acceleration in SS433/W50 from MAGIC and HESS observations
- 2018
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 612
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context. The large jet kinetic power and non-thermal processes occurring in the microquasar SS 433 make this source a good candidate for a very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emitter. Gamma-ray fluxes above the sensitivity limits of current Cherenkov telescopes have been predicted for both the central X-ray binary system and the interaction regions of SS 433 jets with the surrounding W50 nebula. Non-thermal emission at lower energies has been previously reported, indicating that efficient particle acceleration is taking place in the system. Aims. We explore the capability of SS 433 to emit VHE gamma rays during periods in which the expected flux attenuation due to periodic eclipses (P-orb similar to 13.1 days) and precession of the circumstellar disk (P-pre similar to 162 days) periodically covering the central binary system is expected to be at its minimum. The eastern and western SS 433/W50 interaction regions are also examined using the whole data set available. We aim to constrain some theoretical models previously developed for this system with our observations. Methods. We made use of dedicated observations from the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov telescopes (MAGIC) and High Energy Spectroscopic System (H.E.S.S.) of SS 433 taken from 2006 to 2011. These observation were combined for the first time and accounted for a total effective observation time of 16.5 h, which were scheduled considering the expected phases of minimum absorption of the putative VHE emission. Gamma-ray attenuation does not affect the jet/medium interaction regions. In this case, the analysis of a larger data set amounting to similar to 40-80 h, depending on the region, was employed. Results. No evidence of VHE gamma-ray emission either from the central binary system or from the eastern/western interaction regions was found. Upper limits were computed for the combined data set. Differential fluxes from the central system are found to be less than or similar to 10(-12)-10(-13) TeV-1 cm(-2) s(-1) in an energy interval ranging from similar to few x 100 GeV to similar to few TeV. Integral flux limits down to similar to 10(-12)-10(-13) ph cm(-2) s(-1) and similar to 10(-13)-10(-14) ph cm(-2) s(-1) are obtained at 300 and 800 GeV, respectively. Our results are used to place constraints on the particle acceleration fraction at the inner jet regions and on the physics of the jet/medium interactions. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that the fraction of the jet kinetic power that is transferred to relativistic protons must be relatively small in SS 433, q(p) <= 2.5 x 10(-5), to explain the lack of TeV and neutrino emission from the central system. At the SS 433/W50 interface, the presence of magnetic fields greater than or similar to 10 mu G is derived assuming a synchrotron origin for the observed X-ray emission. This also implies the presence of high-energy electrons with E-e up to 50 TeV, preventing an efficient production of gamma-ray fluxes in these interaction regions.
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| 5. |
- Veres, P., et al.
(author)
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Observation of inverse Compton emission from a long gamma-ray burst
- 2019
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In: Nature. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 575:7783, s. 459-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) originate from ultra-relativistic jets launched from the collapsing cores of dying massive stars. They are characterized by an initial phase of bright and highly variable radiation in the kiloelectron volt-to-mega electronvoltband, which is probably produced within the jet and lasts from milliseconds to minutes, known as the prompt emission(1,2). Subsequently, the interaction of the jet with the surrounding medium generates shock waves that are responsible for the afterglow emission, which lasts from days to months and occurs over a broad energy range from the radio to the gigaelectronvolt bands(1-6). The afterglow emission is generally well explained as synchrotron radiation emitted by electrons accelerated by the external shock(7-9). Recently, intense long-lasting emission between 0.2 and 1 teraelectronvolts was observed from GRB 190114C(10,11). Here we report multifrequency observations of GRB 190114C, and study the evolution in time of the GRB emission across 17 orders of magnitude in energy, from 5 x 10(-6) to 10(12) electronvolts. We find that the broadband spectral energy distribution is double-peaked, with the teraelectronvolt emission constituting a distinct spectral component with power comparable to the synchrotron component. This component is associated with the afterglow and is satisfactorily explained by inverse Compton up-scattering of synchrotron photons by high-energy electrons. We find that the conditions required to account for the observed teraelectronvolt component are typical for GRBs, supporting the possibility that inverse Compton emission is commonly produced in GRBs.
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| 6. |
- Hassan, T., et al.
(author)
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Performance of a proposed event-type based analysis for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
- 2022
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In: 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2021) - GAI - Gamma Ray Indirect. - Trieste, Italy : Sissa Medialab. - 1824-8039. ; 395
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next-generation observatory in the field of very-high-energy (20 GeV to 300 TeV) gamma-ray astroparticle physics. Classically, data analysis in the field maximizes sensitivity by applying quality cuts on the data acquired. These cuts, optimized using Monte Carlo simulations, select higher quality events from the initial dataset. Subsequent steps of the analysis typically use the surviving events to calculate one set of instrument response functions (IRFs). An alternative approach is the use of event types, as implemented in experiments such as the Fermi-LAT. In this approach, events are divided into sub-samples based on their reconstruction quality, and a set of IRFs is calculated for each sub-sample. The sub-samples are then combined in a joint analysis, treating them as independent observations. This leads to an improvement in performance parameters such as sensitivity, angular and energy resolution. Data loss is reduced since lower quality events are included in the analysis as well, rather than discarded. In this study, machine learning methods will be used to classify events according to their expected angular reconstruction quality. We will report the impact on CTA high-level performance when applying such an event-type classification, compared to the classical procedure. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
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| 7. |
- Nöthe, M., et al.
(author)
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Prototype Open Event Reconstruction Pipeline for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
- 2022
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In: 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2021) - GAI - Gamma Ray Indirect. - Trieste, Italy : Sissa Medialab. - 1824-8039. ; 395
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation gamma-ray observatory currently under construction. It will improve over the current generation of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) by a factor of five to ten in sensitivity and it will be able to observe the whole sky from a combination of two sites: a northern site in La Palma, Spain, and a southern one in Paranal, Chile. CTA will also be the first open gamma-ray observatory. Accordingly, the data analysis pipeline is developed as open-source software. The event reconstruction pipeline accepts raw data of the telescopes and processes it to produce suitable input for the higher-level science tools. Its primary tasks include reconstructing the physical properties of each recorded shower and providing the corresponding instrument response functions. ctapipe is a framework providing algorithms and tools to facilitate raw data calibration, image extraction, image parameterization and event reconstruction. Its main focus is currently the analysis of simulated data but it has also been successfully applied for the analysis of data obtained with the first CTA prototype telescopes, such as the Large-Sized Telescope 1 (LST-1). pyirf is a library to calculate IACT instrument response functions, needed to obtain physics results like spectra and light curves, from the reconstructed event lists. Building on these two, protopipe is a prototype for the event reconstruction pipeline for CTA. Recent developments in these software packages will be presented. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons.
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