arXiv subjects

K. Fang

Publications and source records attributed to K. Fang.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Search for neutrino doublets and triplets using 11.4 years of IceCube data

We report a search for high-energy astrophysical neutrino multiplets, detections of multiple neutrino clusters in the same direction within 30 days, based on an analysis of 11.4 years of IceCube data. A new search method optimized for transient neutrino emission with a monthly time scale is employed, providing a higher sensitivity to neutrino fluxes. This result is sensitive to neutrino transient emission, reaching per-flavor flux of approximately $10^{-10}\ {\rm erg}\ {\rm cm}^{-2}\ {\rm sec}^{-1}$ from the Northern sky in the energy range $E\gtrsim 50$~TeV. The number of doublets and triplets identified in this search is compatible with the atmospheric background hypothesis, which leads us to set limits on the nature of neutrino transient sources with emission timescales of one month.

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arXiv2025

Hadronic cross section measurements with the DAMPE space mission using 20GeV-10TeV cosmic-ray protons and $^4$He

Precise direct cosmic-ray (CR) measurements provide an important probe to study the energetic particle sources in our Galaxy, and the interstellar environment through which these particles propagate. Uncertainties on hadronic models, ion-nucleon cross sections in particular, are currently the limiting factor towards obtaining more accurate CR ion flux measurements with calorimetric space-based experiments. We present an energy-dependent measurement of the inelastic cross section of protons and helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) on a Bi$_4$Ge$_3$O$_{12}$ target, using 88 months of data collected by the DAMPE space mission. The kinetic energy range per nucleon of the measurement points ranges from 18 GeV to 9 TeV for protons, and from 5 GeV/n to 3 TeV/n for helium-4 nuclei. Our results lead to a significant improvement of the CR flux normalisation. In the case of helium-4, these results correspond to the first cross section measurements on a heavy target material at energies above 10 GeV/n.

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arXiv2024

Observation of a spectral hardening in cosmic ray boron spectrum with the DAMPE space mission

Secondary cosmic ray fluxes are important probes of the propagation and interaction of high-energy particles in the Galaxy. Recent measurements of primary and secondary cosmic ray nuclei have revealed unexpected spectral features that demand a deeper understanding. In this work we report the direct measurement of the cosmic ray boron spectrum from 10 GeV/n to 8 TeV/n with eight years of data collected by the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) mission. The measured spectrum shows an evident hardening at $182\pm24$ GeV/n with a spectral power index of $γ_1 = 3.02 \pm 0.01$ before the break and an index change of $Δγ= 0.31 \pm 0.05$ after the break. A simple power law model is disfavored at a confidence level of 8$σ$. Compared with the hardenings measured in the DAMPE proton and helium spectra, the secondary boron spectrum hardens roughly twice as much as these primaries, which is consistent with a propagation related mechanism to interpret the spectral hardenings of cosmic rays observed at hundreds of GeV/n.

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arXiv2024

LHAASO detection of very-high-energy gamma-ray emission surrounding PSR J0248+6021

We report the detection of an extended very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray source coincident with the location of middle-aged (62.4~\rm kyr) pulsar PSR J0248+6021, by using the LHAASO-WCDA data of live 796 days and LHAASO-KM2A data of live 1216 days. A significant excess of \gray induced showers is observed both by WCDA in energy bands of 1-25~\rm TeV and KM2A in energy bands of $>$ 25~\rm TeV with 7.3 $σ$ and 13.5 $σ$, respectively. The best-fit position derived through WCDA data is R.A. = 42.06$^\circ \pm$ 0.12$^\circ$ and Dec. = 60.24$^\circ \pm $ 0.13$^\circ$ with an extension of 0.69$^\circ\pm$0.15$^\circ$ and that of the KM2A data is R.A.= 42.29$^\circ \pm $ 0.13$^\circ$ and Dec. = 60.38$^\circ \pm$ 0.07$^\circ$ with an extension of 0.37$^\circ\pm$0.07$^\circ$. No clear extended multiwavelength counterpart of this LHAASO source has been found from the radio band to the GeV band. The most plausible explanation of the VHE \gray emission is the inverse Compton process of highly relativistic electrons and positrons injected by the pulsar. These electrons/positrons are hypothesized to be either confined within the pulsar wind nebula or to have already escaped into the interstellar medium, forming a pulsar halo.

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arXiv2024

Methods and stability tests associated with the sterile neutrino search using improved high-energy $ν_μ$ event reconstruction in IceCube

We provide supporting details for the search for a 3+1 sterile neutrino using data collected over eleven years at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The analysis uses atmospheric muon-flavored neutrinos from 0.5 to 100\, TeV that traverse the Earth to reach the IceCube detector, and finds a best-fit point at $\sin^2(2θ_{24}) = 0.16$ and $Δm^{2}_{41} = 3.5$ eV$^2$ with a goodness-of-fit p-value of 12\% and consistency with the null hypothesis of no oscillations to sterile neutrinos with a p-value of 3.1\%. Several improvements were made over past analyses, which are reviewed in this article, including upgrades to the reconstruction and the study of sources of systematic uncertainty. We provide details of the fit quality and discuss stability tests that split the data for separate samples, comparing results. We find that the fits are consistent between split data sets.

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arXiv2024

A search for an eV-scale sterile neutrino using improved high-energy $ν_μ$ event reconstruction in IceCube

This Letter presents the result of a 3+1 sterile neutrino search using 10.7 years of IceCube data. We analyze atmospheric muon neutrinos that traverse the Earth with energies ranging from 0.5 to 100 TeV, incorporating significant improvements in modeling neutrino flux and detector response compared to earlier studies. Notably, for the first time, we categorize data into starting and through-going events, distinguishing neutrino interactions with vertices inside or outside the instrumented volume, to improve energy resolution. The best-fit point for a 3+1 model is found to be at $\sin^2(2θ_{24}) = 0.16$ and $Δm^{2}_{41} = 3.5$ eV$^2$, which agrees with previous iterations of this study. The result is consistent with the null hypothesis of no sterile neutrinos with a p-value of 3.1\%.

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arXiv2024

Spectral study of very high energy gamma rays from SS 433 with HAWC

Very-high-energy (0.1-100 TeV) gamma-ray emission was observed in HAWC data from the lobes of the microquasar SS 433, making them the first set of astrophysical jets that were resolved at TeV energies. In this work, we update the analysis of SS 433 using 2,565 days of data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory. Our analysis reports the detection of a point-like source in the east lobe at a significance of $6.6\,σ$ and in the west lobe at a significance of $8.2\,σ$. For each jet lobe, we localize the gamma-ray emission and identify a best-fit position. The locations are close to the X-ray emission sites "e1" and "w1" for the east and west lobes, respectively. We analyze the spectral energy distributions and find that the energy spectra of the lobes are consistent with a simple power-law $\text{d}N/\text{d}E\propto E^α$ with $α= -2.44^{+0.13+0.04}_{-0.12-0.04}$ and $α= -2.35^{+0.12+0.03}_{-0.11-0.03}$ for the east and west lobes, respectively. The maximum energy of photons from the east and west lobes reaches 56 TeV and 123 TeV, respectively. We compare our observations to various models and conclude that the very-high-energy gamma-ray emission can be produced by a population of electrons that were efficiently accelerated.

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arXiv2024

Exploration of mass splitting and muon/tau mixing parameters for an eV-scale sterile neutrino with IceCube

We present the first three-parameter fit to a 3+1 sterile neutrino model using 7.634 years of data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory on $ν_μ+\overlineν_μ$ charged-current interactions in the energy range 500--9976 GeV. Our analysis is sensitive to the mass-squared splitting between the heaviest and lightest mass state ($Δm_{41}^2$), the mixing matrix element connecting muon flavor to the fourth mass state ($|U_{\mu4}|^2$), and the element connecting tau flavor to the fourth mass state ($|U_{\tau4}|^2$). Predicted propagation effects in matter enhance the signature through a resonance as atmospheric neutrinos from the Northern Hemisphere traverse the Earth to the IceCube detector at the South Pole. The remaining sterile neutrino matrix elements are left fixed, with $|U_{e4}|^2= 0$ and $δ_{14}=0$, as they have a negligible effect, and $δ_{24}=π$ is set to give the most conservative limits. The result is consistent with the no-sterile neutrino hypothesis with a probability of 4.3%. Profiling the likelihood of each parameter yields the 90\% confidence levels: $ 2.4\,\mathrm{eV}^{2} < Δm_{41}^2 <9.6\,\mathrm{eV}^{2} $ , $0.0081 < |U_{\mu4}|^2 < 0.10$ , and $|U_{\tau4}|^2< 0.035$, which narrows the allowed parameter-space for $|U_{\tau4}|^2$. However, the primary result of this analysis is the first map of the 3+1 parameter space exploring the interdependence of $Δm_{41}^2$, $|U_{\mu4}|^2$, and $|U_{\tau4}|^2$.

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arXiv2024

Ultra-High-Energy Gamma-Ray Bubble around Microquasar V4641 Sgr

Microquasars are laboratories for the study of jets of relativistic particles produced by accretion onto a spinning black hole. Microquasars are near enough to allow detailed imaging of spatial features across the multiwavelength spectrum. The recent extension of the spatial morphology of a microquasar, SS 433, to TeV gamma rays \cite{abeysekara2018very} localizes the acceleration of electrons at shocks in the jet far from the black hole \cite{hess2024ss433}. Here we report TeV gamma-ray emission from another microquasar, V4641~Sgr, which reveals particle acceleration at similar distances from the black hole as SS~433. Additionally, the gamma-ray spectrum of V4641 is among the hardest TeV spectra observed from any known gamma-ray source and is detected up to 200 TeV. Gamma rays are produced by particles, either electrons or hadrons, of higher energies. Because electrons lose energy more quickly the higher their energy, such a spectrum either very strongly constrains the electron production mechanism or points to the acceleration of high-energy hadrons. This observation suggests that large-scale jets from microquasars could be more common than previously expected and that microquasars could be a significant source of Galactic cosmic rays. high energy gamma-rays also provide unique constraints on the acceleration mechanisms of extra-Galactic cosmic rays postulated to be produced by the supermassive black holes and relativistic jets of quasars. The distance to quasars limits imaging studies due to insufficient angular resolution of gamma-rays and due to attenuation of the highest energy gamma-rays by the extragalactic background light.

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arXiv2024

Testing the Molecular Cloud Paradigm for Ultra-High-Energy Gamma Ray Emission from the Direction of SNR G106.3+2.7

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are believed to be capable of accelerating cosmic rays (CRs) to PeV energies. SNR G106.3+2.7 is a prime PeVatron candidate. It is formed by a head region, where the pulsar J2229+6114 and its boomerang-shaped pulsar wind nebula are located, and a tail region containing SN ejecta. The lack of observed gamma ray emission from the two regions of this SNR has made it difficult to assess which region would be responsible for the PeV CRs. We aim to characterize the very-high-energy (VHE, 0.1-100 TeV) gamma ray emission from SNR G106.3+2.7 by determining the morphology and spectral energy distribution of the region. This is accomplished using 2565 days of data and improved reconstruction algorithms from the HAWC Observatory. We also explore possible gamma ray production mechanisms for different energy ranges. Using a multi-source fitting procedure based on a maximum-likelihood estimation method, we evaluate the complex nature of this region. We determine the morphology, spectrum, and energy range for the source found in the region. Molecular cloud information is also used to create a template and evaluate the HAWC gamma ray spectral properties at ultra-high-energies (UHE, >56 TeV). This will help probe the hadronic nature of the highest-energy emission from the region. We resolve one extended source coincident with all other gamma ray observations of the region. The emission reaches above 100~TeV and its preferred log-parabola shape in the spectrum shows a flux peak in the TeV range. The molecular cloud template fit on the higher energy data reveals that the SNR's energy budget is fully capable of producing a purely hadronic source for UHE gamma rays.

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arXiv2024

Search for a light sterile neutrino with 7.5 years of IceCube DeepCore data

We present a search for an eV-scale sterile neutrino using 7.5 years of data from the IceCube DeepCore detector. The analysis uses a sample of 21,914 events with energies between 5 and 150 GeV to search for sterile neutrinos through atmospheric muon neutrino disappearance. Improvements in event selection and treatment of systematic uncertainties provide greater statistical power compared to previous DeepCore sterile neutrino searches. Our results are compatible with the absence of mixing between active and sterile neutrino states, and we place constraints on the mixing matrix elements $|U_{μ4}|^2 < 0.0534$ and $|U_{τ4}|^2 < 0.0574$ at 90% CL under the assumption that $Δm^2_{41}\geq 1\;\mathrm{eV^2}$. These null results add to the growing tension between anomalous appearance results and constraints from disappearance searches in the 3+1 sterile neutrino landscape.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2024

Observation of the Galactic Center PeVatron Beyond 100 TeV with HAWC

We report an observation of ultra-high energy (UHE) gamma rays from the Galactic Center region, using seven years of data collected by the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. The HAWC data are best described as a point-like source (HAWC J1746-2856) with a power-law spectrum ($\mathrm{d}N/\mathrm{d}E=ϕ(E/26 \,\text{TeV})^γ$), where $γ=-2.88 \pm 0.15_{\text{stat}} - 0.1_{\text{sys}} $ and $ϕ=1.5 \times 10^{-15}$ (TeV cm$^{2}$s)$^{-1}$ $\pm\, 0.3_{\text{stat}}\,^{+0.08_{\text{sys}}}_{-0.13_{\text{sys}}}$ extending from 6 to 114 TeV. We find no evidence of a spectral cutoff up to $100$ TeV using HAWC data. Two known point-like gamma-ray sources are spatially coincident with the HAWC gamma-ray excess: Sgr A$^{*}$ (HESS J1745-290) and the Arc (HESS J1746-285). We subtract the known flux contribution of these point sources from the measured flux of HAWC J1746-2856 to exclude their contamination and show that the excess observed by HAWC remains significant ($>$5$σ$) with the spectrum extending to $>$100 TeV. Our result supports that these detected UHE gamma rays can originate via hadronic interaction of PeV cosmic-ray protons with the dense ambient gas and confirms the presence of a proton PeVatron at the Galactic Center.

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arXiv2024

Measurement of the cosmic p+He energy spectrum from 50 GeV to 0.5 PeV with the DAMPE space mission

Recent observations of the light component of the cosmic-ray spectrum have revealed unexpected features that motivate further and more precise measurements up to the highest energies. The Dark Matter Particle Explorer is a satellite-based cosmic-ray experiment that has been operational since December 2015, continuously collecting data on high-energy cosmic particles with very good statistics, energy resolution, and particle identification capabilities. In this work, the latest measurements of the energy spectrum of proton+helium in the energy range from 46 GeV to 464 TeV are presented. Among the most distinctive features of the spectrum, a spectral hardening at 600 GeV has been observed, along with a softening at 29 TeV measured with a 6.6σ significance. Moreover, the detector features and the analysis approach allowed for the extension of the spectral measurement up to the sub-PeV region. Even if with small statistical significance due to the low number of events, data suggest a new spectral hardening at about 150 TeV.

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arXiv2024

A Search for IceCube sub-TeV Neutrinos Correlated with Gravitational-Wave Events Detected By LIGO/Virgo

The LIGO/Virgo collaboration published the catalogs GWTC-1, GWTC-2.1 and GWTC-3 containing candidate gravitational-wave (GW) events detected during its runs O1, O2 and O3. These GW events can be possible sites of neutrino emission. In this paper, we present a search for neutrino counterparts of 90 GW candidates using IceCube DeepCore, the low-energy infill array of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The search is conducted using an unbinned maximum likelihood method, within a time window of 1000 s and uses the spatial and timing information from the GW events. The neutrinos used for the search have energies ranging from a few GeV to several tens of TeV. We do not find any significant emission of neutrinos, and place upper limits on the flux and the isotropic-equivalent energy emitted in low-energy neutrinos. We also conduct a binomial test to search for source populations potentially contributing to neutrino emission. We report a non-detection of a significant neutrino-source population with this test.

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arXiv2024

Search for 10--1000 GeV neutrinos from Gamma Ray Bursts with IceCube

We present the results of a search for 10--1,000 GeV neutrinos from 2,268 gamma-ray bursts over 8 years of IceCube-DeepCore data. This work probes burst physics below the photosphere where electromagnetic radiation cannot escape. Neutrinos of tens of GeVs are predicted in sub-photospheric collision of free streaming neutrons with bulk-jet protons. In a first analysis, we searched for the most significant neutrino-GRB coincidence using six overlapping time windows centered on the prompt phase of each GRB. In a second analysis, we conducted a search for a group of GRBs, each individually too weak to be detectable, but potentially significant when combined. No evidence of neutrino emission is found for either analysis. The most significant neutrino coincidence is for Fermi-GBM GRB bn 140807500, with a p-value of 0.097 corrected for all trials. The binomial test used to search for a group of GRBs had a p-value of 0.65 after all trial corrections. The binomial test found a group consisting only of GRB bn 140807500 and no additional GRBs. The neutrino limits of this work complement those obtained by IceCube at TeV to PeV energies. We compare our findings for the large set of GRBs as well as GRB 221009A to the sub-photospheric neutron-proton collision model and find that GRB 221009A provides the most constraining limit on baryon loading. For a jet Lorentz factor of 300 (800), the baryon loading on GRB 221009A is lower than 3.85 (2.13) at a 90% confidence level.

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arXiv2024

TeV Analysis of a Source Rich Region with HAWC Observatory: Is HESS J1809-193 a Potential Hadronic PeVatron?

HESS J1809-193 is an unidentified TeV source, first detected by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Collaboration. The emission originates in a source-rich region that includes several Supernova Remnants (SNR) and Pulsars (PSR) including SNR G11.1+0.1, SNR G11.0-0.0, and the young radio pulsar J1809-1917. Originally classified as a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) candidate, recent studies show the peak of the TeV region overlapping with a system of molecular clouds. This resulted in the revision of the original leptonic scenario to look for alternate hadronic scenarios. Marked as a potential PeVatron candidate, this region has been studied extensively by H.E.S.S. due to its emission extending up-to several tens of TeV. In this work, we use 2398 days of data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory to carry out a systematic source search for the HESS J1809-193 region. We were able to resolve emission detected as an extended component (modelled as a Symmetric Gaussian with a 1 $σ$ radius of 0.21 $^\circ$) with no clear cutoff at high energies and emitting photons up-to 210 TeV. We model the multi-wavelength observations for the region HESS J1809-193 using a time-dependent leptonic model and a lepto-hadronic model. Our model indicates that both scenarios could explain the observed data within the region of HESS J1809-193.

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arXiv2024

Performance of the HAWC Observatory and TeV Gamma-Ray Measurements of the Crab Nebula with Improved Extensive Air Shower Reconstruction Algorithms

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory located on the side of the Sierra Negra volcano in Mexico, has been fully operational since 2015. The HAWC collaboration has recently significantly improved their extensive-air-shower reconstruction algorithms, which has notably advanced the observatory performance. The energy resolution for primary gamma rays with energies below 1~TeV was improved by including a noise-suppression algorithm. Corrections have also been made to systematic errors in direction fitting related to the detector and shower plane inclinations, $\mathcal{O}(0.1^{\circ})$ biases in highly inclined showers, as well as enhancements to the core reconstruction. The angular resolution for gamma rays approaching the HAWC array from large zenith angles ($> 37^{\circ}$) has improved by a factor of four at the highest energies ($> 70$~TeV) as compared to previous reconstructions. The inclusion of a lateral distribution function fit to the extensive air shower footprint on the array to separate gamma-ray primaries from cosmic-ray ones, based on the resulting $χ^{2}$ values, improved the background rejection performance at all inclinations. At large zenith angles, the improvement in significance is a factor of four compared to previous HAWC publications. These enhancements have been verified by observing the Crab Nebula, which is an overhead source for the HAWC Observatory. We show that the sensitivity to Crab-like point sources ($E^{-2.63}$) with locations overhead to 30$^{\circ}$ zenith is comparable or less than 10\% of the Crab Nebula's flux between 2 and 50~TeV. Thanks to these improvements, HAWC can now detect more sources, including the Galactic Center.

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arXiv2024

Probing the connection between IceCube neutrinos and MOJAVE AGN

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are prime candidate sources of the high-energy, astrophysical neutrinos detected by IceCube. This is demonstrated by the real-time multi-messenger detection of the blazar TXS 0506+056 and the recent evidence of neutrino emission from NGC 1068 from a separate time-averaged study. However, the production mechanism of the astrophysical neutrinos in AGN is not well established which can be resolved via correlation studies with photon observations. For neutrinos produced due to photohadronic interactions in AGN, in addition to a correlation of neutrinos with high-energy photons, there would also be a correlation of neutrinos with photons emitted at radio wavelengths. In this work, we perform an in-depth stacking study of the correlation between 15 GHz radio observations of AGN reported in the MOJAVE XV catalog, and ten years of neutrino data from IceCube. We also use a time-dependent approach which improves the statistical power of the stacking analysis. No significant correlation was found for both analyses and upper limits are reported. When compared to the IceCube diffuse flux, at 100 TeV and for a spectral index of 2.5, the upper limits derived are $\sim3\%$ and $\sim9\%$ for the time-averaged and time-dependent case, respectively.

astro-ph.HE↗