Secondary periodicities of microbursts of TeV gamma rays from the Crab pulsar

Observations were made during the past several years on the Crab pulsar using the Ooty atmospheric Cerenkov array with the aim of detecting possible emission of ultra high energy gamma rays by the pulsar. During the course of these observations, it was found that the Crab pulsar emits TeV gamma rays in bursts of short duration. The microbursts of TeV gamma rays from the Crab pulsar, which were seen in the data of at least three years, also reveal interesting secondary periodicities. It was noticed at first that some bursts could be connected with the others that occurred during the same night or during the next two nights with integral number of cycles of periods 43 + or - 1 minute. Ten possible periods in the vicinity of 43 minutes were determined for all the combinations of bursts for each year. The best values of periods thus obtained were different from year to year. But when, instead of the real time, the number of Crab cycles elapsed between the bursts was used as the unit of time, two values of burst periods - 77460 and 77770 Crab cycles - were found to be significant in the data of at least two years. A Monte Carlo simulation using 1500 trial periods chosen randomly within + or - 5 minutes of the original burst period did not reveal any value of the period as significant

Observations on TeV gamma rays from Geminga and PSR 0950+08

The Geminga (2 CG 195+04) which exhibits a periodicity with a period of 59 to 60 s in its emission of X-rays, GeV gamma rays and TeV gamma rays was studied. During the winter of 1984 to 1985, this object was observed to see if it emits TeV gamma rays with a periodicity approx 60 s. The observations were carried out at two different sites separated by 11 Km with the Ooty Atmospheric Cerenkov Array split into two parts. Data were collected during clear moonless nights for a total duration of 15.3 hours spread over 2 months. Since the first time derivative of period is believed to be large and uncertain. The total data are subdivided into segments of duration not more than 3 days each to steer clear of the effects of P in the phase analysis. If TeV gamma ray signals are seen in each of these segments, it is possible to derive P from observed data

Pulsed emission of TeV gamma rays from Vela pulsar

The Ooty atmospheric Cerenkov array, consisting of 10 parabolic mirrors of 0.9 m diameter and 8 of 1.5 m diameter, was used for observations on the Vela pulsar to see if it emits gamma rays in the TeV energy range. During the winter of 1984-85, the array was split into two parts: (1) consisting wholly of the smaller mirrors, and (2) wholly of the bigger mirrors. The two arrays were operated at two different sites to distinguish a marginally significant genuine pulsar signal from spurious signals produced trivially by chance fluctuations in the background rates. All the mirrors were pointed at the celestial object to track it for durations of the order of 1 to 6 hours during clear moonless nights. The event time data is analyzed to detect a possible pulsed emission of TeV gamma rays using the contemporaneous pulsar elements on the basis of their radio observations on the Vela pulsar. Results from the analyses of observations made during the winters of 1982-83 and 1984-85 on steady pulsed emission and on possible transient emission is presented

Microburst of TeV gamma rays from the Crab pulsar

Data on Crab pulsar from atmospheric Cerenkov array at Ooty have shown emission of TeV gamma rays in the form of microbursts. These are a series of events which are unusually closely spaced in time with time separations of less than 1.5 milliseconds. The phasogram of events in the bursts when analyzed with the Crab pulsar period shows significant peaks. Data further show that the signal is at the same absolute phase as the radio peak. Monte Carlo calculations show that the probability of peaks being due to chance is very small

Search for gamma rays of energy 10(15) eV from Cygnus X-3

Finite flux of excess radiation of energy 10 to the 15th power has been reported by two groups from the direction of Cygnus X-3, with the characteristic periodicity of 4.8 hrs. Samorski and Stamm find that the muon content of the showers generated by this excess radiation is about 77% of that in normal cosmic ray showers, whereas the expectation for gamma ray showers is less than 10%. It is thus difficult to understand the nature of the radiation arriving from the direction of Cygnus X-3. Samorski and Stamm measured the muon densities close to the core (approx. 10 m), where contamination due to other components is severe. Even though this does not explain the high ratio of muon densities, measurements should be carried out away from the core to establish the nature of the radiation. In order to establish the signal from Cygnus X-3 and its muon content with better statistical significance, an extensive air shower array, specifically designed for this purpose was operated at Kolar Gold Fields (longitude: 78 deg .3 E; latitude: + 12 deg .95; atmospheric depth: 920 q/square centimeters) since September, 1984. The details of the array and the accuracy of arrival direction measurements are discussed

Cerenkov Photon Density Fluctuations in Extensive Air Showers

The details of Cerenkov light produced by a gamma ray or a cosmic ray incident at the top of the atmosphere is best studied through systematic simulations of the extensive air showers. Recently such studies have become all the more important in view of the various techniques resulting from such studies, to distinguish gamma ray initiated showers from those generated by much more abundant hadronic component of cosmic rays. We have carried out here such systematic simulation studies using CORSIKA package in order to understand the Cerenkov photon density fluctuations for 5 different energies at various core distances both for gamma ray and proton primaries incident vertically at the top of the atmosphere. Such a systematic comparison of shower to shower density fluctuations for gamma ray and proton primaries is carried out for the first time here. It is found that the density fluctuations are significantly non-Poissonian. Such fluctuations are much more pronounced in the proton primaries than gamma ray primaries at all energies. The processes that contribute significantly to the observed fluctuations have been identified. It has been found that significant contribution to fluctuations comes from photons emitted after shower maximum. The electron number fluctuations and correlated emission of Cerenkov photons are mainly responsible for the observed fluctuations.Comment: 31 pages, latex, 16 figures in ps files, Accepted for publication in "Astroparticle Physics