Search for Sources of High-Energy Neutrons with four Years of Data from the IceTop Detector
Collaboration
12 pages
Published in:
- Astrophys.J. 830 (2016) 2, 129
- Published: Oct 18, 2016
e-Print:
- 1607.05614 [astro-ph.HE]
Experiments:
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Abstract: (IOP)
IceTop is an air-shower array located on the Antarctic ice sheet at the geographic South Pole. IceTop can detect an astrophysical flux of neutrons from Galactic sources as an excess of cosmic-ray air showers arriving from the source direction. Neutrons are undeflected by the Galactic magnetic field and can typically travel 10 (E/PeV) pc before decay. Two searches are performed using 4 yr of the IceTop data set to look for a statistically significant excess of events with energies above 10 PeV (10(16) eV) arriving within a small solid angle. The all-sky search method covers from −90° to approximately −50° in declination. No significant excess is found. A targeted search is also performed, looking for significant correlation with candidate sources in different target sets. This search uses a higher-energy cut (100 PeV) since most target objects lie beyond 1 kpc. The target sets include pulsars with confirmed TeV energy photon fluxes and high-mass X-ray binaries. No significant correlation is found for any target set. Flux upper limits are determined for both searches, which can constrain Galactic neutron sources and production scenarios.Note:
- 12 pages, 9 figures, 9 tables
- astroparticle physics
- cosmic rays
- methods: data analysis
- energy: high
- n: energy
- n: flux
- magnetic field: galaxy
- photon: energy
- flux: upper limit
- X-ray: binary
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