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Register a new userSensitivity of the High Altitude Water Cherenkov Detector to Sources of Multi-TeV Gamma Rays
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The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is an array of large water Cherenkov detectors sensitive to gamma rays and hadronic cosmic rays in the energy band between 100 GeV and 100 TeV. The observatory will be used to measure high-energy protons and cosmic rays via detection of the energetic secondary particles reaching the ground when one of these particles interacts in the atmosphere above the detector. HAWC is under construction at a site 4100 meters above sea level on the northern slope of the volcano Sierra Negra, which is located in central Mexico at 19 degrees N latitude. It is scheduled for completion in 2014. In this paper we estimate the sensitivity of the HAWC instrument to point-like and extended sources of gamma rays. The source fluxes are modeled using both unbroken power laws and power laws with exponential cutoffs. HAWC, in one year, is sensitive to point sources with integral power-law spectra as low as 5x10^-13 cm^-2 sec^-1 above 2 TeV (approximately 50 mCrab) over 5 sr of the sky. This is a conservative estimate based on simple event parameters and is expected to improve as the data analysis techniques are refined. We discuss known TeV sources and the scientific contributions that HAWC can make to our understanding of particle acceleration in these sources.
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The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory, or HAWC, is carrying out an unbiased survey of cosmic rays and gamma rays from the Northern Hemisphere between 100 GeV and 100 TeV. HAWC is currently the only high-uptime wide-field TeV observatory in operation, and has a robust program to search for flares and other transient sources of gamma rays. The detector is also well suited to observe spatially extended regions of gamma-ray emission and cosmic-ray anisotropy. HAWC recently concluded its first year of data taking with the complete detector. The results include not only observations of many known TeV point sources, but also extended emission from Galactic objects like the Geminga supernova remnant. These results have implications for the origins of several astrophysical anomalies observed in the cosmic-ray data, such as the excess of Galactic positrons at Earth. We will describe results from HAWC with a focus on the observation of cosmic rays and Galactic sources of gamma rays.
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory was completed this year at a 4100-meter site on the flank of the Sierra Negra volcano in Mexico. HAWC is a water Cherenkov ground array with the capability to distinguish 100 GeV - 100 TeV gamma rays from the hadronic cosmic-ray background. HAWC is uniquely suited to study extremely high energy cosmic-ray sources, search for regions of extended gamma-ray emission, and to identify transient gamma-ray phenomena. HAWC will play a key role in triggering multi-wavelength and multi-messenger studies of active galaxies, gamma-ray bursts, supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae. Observation of TeV photons also provide unique tests for a number of fundamental physics phenomena including dark matter annihilation and primordial black hole evaporation. Operation began mid-2013 with the partially-completed detector. Multi-TeV emission from the Galactic Plane is clearly seen in the first year of operation, confirming a number of known TeV sources, and a number of AGN have been observed. We discuss the science of HAWC, summarize the status of the experiment, and highlight first results from analysis of the data.
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a TeV gamma-ray and cosmic-ray detector currently under construction at an altitude of 4100 m close to volcano Sierra Negra in the state of Puebla, Mexico. The HAWC observatory is an extensive air-shower array comprised of 300 optically-isolated water Cherenkov detectors (WCDs). Each WCD contains $sim$200,000 liters of filtered water and four upward-facing photomultiplier tubes. In Fall 2014, when the HAWC observatory will reach an area of 22,000 m$^{2}$, the sensitivity will be 15 times higher than its predecessor Milagro. Since September 2012, more than 30 WCDs have been instrumented and taking data. This first commissioning phase has been crucial for the verification of the data acquisition and event reconstruction algorithms. Moreover, with the increasing number of instrumented WCDs, it is important to verify the data taken with different configuration geometries. In this work we present a comparison between Monte Carlo simulation and data recorded by the experiment during 24 hours of live time between 14 and 15 April of 2013 when 29 WCDs were active.
The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory is designed to record air showers produced by cosmic rays and gamma rays between 100 GeV and 100 TeV. Because of its large field of view and high livetime, HAWC is well-suited to measure gamma rays from extended sources, diffuse emission, and transient sources. We describe the sensitivity of HAWC to emission from the extended Cygnus region as well as other types of galactic diffuse emission; searches for flares from gamma-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei; and the first measurement of the Crab Nebula with HAWC-30.
The ANITA collaboration has recently announced the supposed observation of two upward going cosmic ray showers at earth emergence angles $27^{circ}$ and $35^{circ}$ with reconstructed energy $sim$0.6~EeV. Upward air showers (UAS) are expected from tau leptons resulting from the interaction of astrophysical neutrinos inside the Earth. However, at emergence angles larger than $20^{circ}$, the probability of tau emergence from a neutrino is less than $10^{-7}$, which makes a standard model explanation for these signals difficult. If confirmed by other experiments, these energetic events would strengthen the argument for physics beyond the standard model. Both the proposed EUSO-SPB2 and the POEMMA instruments will be equipped with optical Cherenkov detectors in order to measure the Cherenkov emission from UAS, which, if aimed low enough below the horizon, could, in principle, capture these events as well. An observation in the Cherenkov channel would help to rule out anthropogenic and other explanations for these events. We present here the sensitivity to the ANITA anamolous events for a balloon based and a satellite based Cherenkov detector, as could be realized in the upcoming EUSO-SPB2 mission and the proposed POEMMA mission, respectively.
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