316 research outputs found
Exploration of a 100 TeV gamma-ray northern sky using the Tibet air-shower array combined with an underground water-Cherenkov muon-detector array
Aiming to observe cosmic gamma rays in the 10 - 1000 TeV energy region, we
propose a 10000 m^2 underground water-Cherenkov muon-detector (MD) array that
operates in conjunction with the Tibet air-shower (AS) array. Significant
improvement is expected in the sensitivity of the Tibet AS array towards
celestial gamma-ray signals above 10 TeV by utilizing the fact that
gamma-ray-induced air showers contain far fewer muons compared with
cosmic-ray-induced ones. We carried out detailed Monte Carlo simulations to
assess the attainable sensitivity of the Tibet AS+MD array towards celestial
TeV gamma-ray signals. Based on the simulation results, the Tibet AS+MD array
will be able to reject 99.99% of background events at 100 TeV, with 83% of
gamma-ray events remaining. The sensitivity of the Tibet AS+MD array will be
~20 times better than that of the present Tibet AS array around 20 - 100 TeV.
The Tibet AS+MD array will measure the directions of the celestial TeV
gamma-ray sources and the cutoffs of their energy spectra. Furthermore, the
Tibet AS+MD array, along with imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes as well
as the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and X-ray satellites such as Suzaku and
MAXI, will make multiwavelength observations and conduct morphological studies
on sources in the quest for evidence of the hadronic nature of the cosmic-ray
acceleration mechanism.Comment: Accepted by Astroparticle Physic
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