arXiv subjects

The Milagro Collaboration

Publications and source records attributed to The Milagro Collaboration.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2004

TeV Gamma-Ray Survey of the Northern Hemisphere Sky Using the Milagro Observatory

Milagro is a water Cherenkov extensive air shower array that continuously monitors the entire overhead sky in the TeV energy band. The results from an analysis of $\sim$3 years of data (December 2000 through November 2003) are presented. The data has been searched for steady point sources of TeV gamma rays between declinations of 1.1 degrees and 80 degrees. Two sources are detected, the Crab Nebula and the active galaxy Mrk 421. For the remainder of the Northern hemisphere we set 95% C.L. upper limits between 275 and 600 mCrab (4.8-10.5$\times 10^{-12}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$) above 1 TeV for source declinations between 5 degrees and 70 degrees. Since the sensitivity of Milagro depends upon the spectrum of the source at the top of the atmosphere, the dependence of the limits on the spectrum of a candidate source is presented. Because high-energy gamma rays from extragalactic sources are absorbed by interactions with the extragalactic background light the dependence of the flux limits on the redshift of a candidate source are given. The upper limits presented here are over an order of magnitude more stringent than previously published limits from TeV gamma-ray all-sky surveys.

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arXiv2004

Limits on Very High Energy Emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts with the Milagro Observatory

The Milagro telescope monitors the northern sky for 100 GeV to 100 TeV transient emission through continuous very high energy wide-field observations. The large effective area and ~100 GeV energy threshold of Milagro allow it to detect very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray burst emission with much higher sensitivity than previous instruments and a fluence sensitivity at VHE energies comparable to that of dedicated gamma-ray burst satellites at keV to MeV energies. Even in the absence of a positive detection, VHE observations can place important constraints on gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor and emission models. We present limits on the VHE flux of 40 s -- 3 h duration transients nearby to earth, as well as sensitivity distributions which have been corrected for gamma-ray absorption by extragalactic background light and cosmological effects. The sensitivity distributions suggest that the typical intrinsic VHE fluence of GRBs is similar or weaker than the keV -- MeV emission, and we demonstrate how these sensitivity distributions may be used to place observational constraints on the absolute VHE luminosity of gamma-ray bursts for any GRB emission and progenitor model.

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arXiv2003

Observation of TeV Gamma Rays from the Crab Nebula with Milagro Using a New Background Rejection Technique

The recent advances in TeV gamma-ray astronomy are largely the result of the ability to differentiate between extensive air showers generated by gamma rays and hadronic cosmic rays. Air Cherenkov telescopes have developed and perfected the "imaging" technique over the past several decades. However until now no background rejection method has been successfully used in an air shower array to detect a source of TeV gamma rays. We report on a method to differentiate hadronic air showers from electromagnetic air showers in the Milagro gamma ray observatory, based on the ability to detect the energetic particles in an extensive air shower. The technique is used to detect TeV emission from the Crab nebula. The flux from the Crab is estimated to be 2.68(+-0.42stat +- 1.4sys) x10^{-7} (E/1TeV)^{-2.59} m^{-2} s^{-1} TeV^{-1}, where the spectral index is assumed to be as given by the HEGRA collaboration.

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arXiv2001

Status of the Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory

The Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory, located at an altitude of 8,600 feet in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, is the world's first large-area water Cherenkov detector capable of continuously monitoring the entire sky for sources of TeV gamma rays. It is uniquely capable of searching for transient sources of VHE gamma rays. The core of the detector is a 60m x 80m x 8m pond instrumented with 723 PMTs deployed in two layers. This part of the detector is complete and has operated continuously since Jan. 2000. Initial studies including searches for gamma-ray sources are ongoing, and preliminary results are available. The final stage of construction is under way. We are deploying 170 auxiliary "outrigger" water Cherenkov detectors in an area of 40,000 square-meters surrounding the pond, which will significantly enhance our ability to reject background and more accurately reconstruct the gamma-ray direction and energy. In addition, we are lowering the energy threshold of the detector by using custom processing to enable real-time intelligent triggering. The lower energy threshold will significantly increase our sensitivity to gamma-ray sources, and in particular to sources of cosmological origin, such as GRBs, where the higher energy gamma-rays have sizable attenuation due to the interaction with the intergalactic infra-red light.

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arXiv2001

A Survey of the Northern Sky for TeV Point Sources

A search for steady TeV point sources anywhere in the northern sky has been made with data from the Milagrito air-shower-particle detector. Over 3 x 10**9 events collected from 1997 February to 1998 May have been used in this study. No statistically significant excess above the background from the isotropic flux of cosmic rays was found for any direction of the sky with declination between -5 degrees and 71.7 degrees. Upper limits are derived for the photon flux above 1 TeV from any steady point source in the northern sky.

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arXiv2000

Evidence for TeV Emission from GRB 970417a

Milagrito, a detector sensitive to very high energy gamma rays, monitored the northern sky from February 1997 through May 1998. With a large field of view and a high duty cycle, this instrument was well suited to perform a search for TeV gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We report on a search made for TeV counterparts to GRBs observed by BATSE. BATSE detected 54 GRBs within the field of view of Milagrito during this period. An excess of events coincident in time and space with one of these bursts, GRB 970417a, was observed by Milagrito. The excess has a chance probability of $2.8 \times 10^{-5}$ of being a fluctuation of the background. The probability for observing an excess at least this large from any of the 54 bursts is $1.5 \times 10^{-3}$. No significant correlations were detected from the other bursts.

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arXiv1999

Milagrito: a TeV air-shower array

Milagrito, a large, covered water-Cherenkov detector, was the world's first air-shower-particle detector sensitive to cosmic gamma rays below 1 TeV. It served as a prototype for the Milagro detector and operated from February 1997 to May 1998. This paper gives a description of Milagrito, a summary of the operating experience, and early results that demonstrate the capabilities of this technique.

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