509 research outputs found
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays may come from clustered sources
Clustering of cosmic-ray sources affects the flux observed beyond the cutoff
imposed by the cosmic microwave background and may be important in interpreting
the AGASA, Fly's Eye, and HiRes data. The standard deviation, sigma, in the
predicted number, N, of events above 10^{20} eV is sigma/N = 0.9(r_0/10
Mpc)^{0.9}, where r_0 is the unknown scale length of the correlation function
(r_0 = 10 Mpc for field galaxies). Future experiments will allow the
determination of r_0 through the detection of anisotropies in arrival
directions of ~ 10^{20} eV cosmic-rays over angular scales of Theta ~ r_0/30
Mpc.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa
Application of imaging to the atmospheric Cherenkov technique
Turver and Weekes proposed using a system of phototubes in the focal plane of a large reflector to give an air Cherenkov camera for gamma ray astronomy. Preliminary results with a 19 element camera have been reported previously. In 1983 the camera was increased to 37 pixels; it has now been routinely operated for two years. A brief physical description of the camera, its mode of operation, and the data reduction procedures are presented. The Monte Carlo simultations on which these are based on also reviewed
The energy spectrum observed by the AGASA experiment and the spatial distribution of the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays
Seven and a half years of continuous monitoring of giant air showers
triggered by ultra high-energy cosmic rays have been recently summarized by the
AGASA collaboration. The resulting energy spectrum indicates clearly that the
cosmic ray spectrum extends well beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK)
cut-off at eV. Furthermore, despite the small number
statistics involved, some structure in the spectrum may be emerging. Using
numerical simulations, it is demonstrated in the present work that these
features are consistent with a spatial distribution of sources that follows the
distribution of luminous matter in the local Universe. Therefore, from this
point of view, there is no need for a second high-energy component of cosmic
rays dominating the spectrum beyond the GZK cut-off.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, Astrophys. J. Letters (submitted
Correlation between Compact Radio Quasars and Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
Some proposals to account for the highest energy cosmic rays predict that
they should point to their sources. We study the five highest energy events
(E>10^20 eV) and find they are all aligned with compact, radio-loud quasars.
The probability that these alignments are coincidental is 0.005, given the
accuracy of the position measurements and the rarity of such sources. The
source quasars have redshifts between 0.3 and 2.2. If the correlation pointed
out here is confirmed by further data, the primary must be a new hadron or one
produced by a novel mechanism.Comment: 8 pages, 3 tables, revtex. with some versions of latex it's necessary
to break out the tables and latex them separately using article.sty rather
than revtex.st
Effectiveness of TeV Gamma-Ray Observations at Large Zenith Angles with a Stereoscopic System of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes
The sensitivity of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) in TeV
gamma-ray observations reachs its maximum at small zenith angles (< 30 degree)
which provide the minimum attainable energy threshold of an instrument.
However, for a specific telescope site a number of gamma-ray sources, or source
candidates, can only be observed at much larger zenith angles (< 60 degree).
Moreover the observations at large zenith angles allow to extend the
observation time window for any object seen at small zenith angles, as well as
to enlarge the dynamic energy range of an instrument towards the highest
observable energies of gamma-rays. Based on Monte Carlo simulations we present
here the results on the sensitivity of a stereoscopic system of 5 IACTs in
observations at large zenith angles. We point out some important parameters of
the telescope design which could substantially improve the efficiency of such
observations with forthcoming IACT arrays like CANGAROO III, HESS and VERITAS.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX, 5 tables, 7 postscript figures; Accepted for
publication in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics 24 June
199
The background from single electromagnetic subcascades for a stereo system of air Cherenkov telescopes
The MAGIC experiment, a very large Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope (IACT)
with sensitivity to low energy (E < 100 GeV) VHE gamma rays, has been operated
since 2004. It has been found that the gamma/hadron separation in IACTs becomes
much more difficult below 100 GeV [Albert et al 2008] A system of two large
telescopes may eventually be triggered by hadronic events containing Cherenkov
light from only one electromagnetic subcascade or two gamma subcascades, which
are products of the single pi^0 decay. This is a possible reason for the
deterioration of the experiment's sensitivity below 100 GeV. In this paper a
system of two MAGIC telescopes working in stereoscopic mode is studied using
Monte Carlo simulations. The detected images have similar shapes to that of
primary gamma-rays and they have small sizes (mainly below 400 photoelectrons
(p.e.)) which correspond to an energy of primary gamma-rays below 100 GeV. The
background from single or two electromagnetic subcascdes is concentrated at
energies below 200 GeV. Finally the number of background events is compared to
the number of VHE gamma-ray excess events from the Crab Nebula. The
investigated background survives simple cuts for sizes below 250 p.e. and thus
the experiment's sensitivity deteriorates at lower energies.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, published in Journ.of Phys.
Ultra high energy cosmic rays and the large scale structure of the galactic magnetic field
We study the deflection of ultra high energy cosmic ray protons in different
models of the regular galactic magnetic field. Such particles have gyroradii
well in excess of 1 kpc and their propagation in the galaxy reflects only the
large scale structure of the galactic magnetic field. A future large
experimental statistics of cosmic rays of energy above 10 eV could be
used for a study of the large scale structure of the galactic magnetic field if
such cosmic rays are indeed charged nuclei accelerated at powerful
astrophysical objects and if the distribution of their sources is not fully
isotropic.Comment: 9 pages LaTeX file (AASTeX), 4 eps figures, submitted to The
Astrophysical Journa
The nature of the highest energy cosmic rays
Ultra high energy gamma rays produce electron--positron pairs in interactions
on the geomagnetic field. The pair electrons suffer magnetic bremsstrahlung and
the energy of the primary gamma ray is shared by a bunch of lower energy
secondaries. These processes reflect the structure of the geomagnetic field and
cause experimentally observable effects. The study of these effects with future
giant air shower arrays can identify the nature of the highest energy cosmic
rays as either gamma-rays or nuclei.Comment: 15 pages of RevTeX plus 6 postscript figures, tarred, gzipped and
uuencoded. Subm. to Physical Review
A cosmic ray current driven instability in partially ionised media
We investigate the growth of hydromagnetic waves driven by streaming cosmic
rays in the precursor environment of a supernova remnant shock. It is known
that transverse waves propagating parallel to the mean magnetic field are
unstable to anisotropies in the cosmic ray distribution, and may provide a
mechanism to substantially amplify the ambient magnetic field. We quantify the
extent to which temperature and ionisation fractions modify this picture. Using
a kinetic description of the plasma we derive the dispersion relation for a
collisionless thermal plasma with a streaming cosmic ray current. Fluid
equations are then used to discuss the effects of neutral-ion collisions. We
calculate the extent to which the environment into which the cosmic rays
propagate influences the growth of the magnetic field, and determines the range
of possible growth rates. If the cosmic ray acceleration is efficient, we find
that very large neutral fractions are required to stabilise the growth of the
non-resonant mode. For typical supernova parameters in our galaxy, thermal
effects do not significantly alter the growth rates. For weakly driven modes,
ion-neutral damping can dominate over the instability at more modest ionisation
fractions. In the case of a supernova shock interacting with a molecular
clouds, such as in RX J1713.7-3946, with high density and low ionisation, the
modes can be rapidly damped.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted to A&A. Corrections made. Applications
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