No Arabic abstract
The predictions of hadronic interaction models for cosmic-ray induced air showers contain inherent uncertainties due to limitations of available accelerator data and theoretical understanding in the required energy and rapidity regime. Differences between models are typically evaluated in the range appropriate for cosmic-ray air shower arrays ($10^{15}$-$10^{20}$ eV). However, accurate modelling of charged cosmic-ray measurements with ground based gamma-ray observatories is becoming more and more important. We assess the model predictions on the gross behaviour of measurable air shower parameters in the energy (0.1-100 TeV) and altitude ranges most appropriate for detection by ground-based gamma-ray observatories. We go on to investigate the particle distributions just after the first interaction point, to examine how differences in the micro-physics of the models may compound into differences in the gross air shower behaviour. Differences between the models above 1 TeV are typically less than 10%. However, we find the largest variation in particle densities at ground at the lowest energy tested (100 GeV), resulting from striking differences in the early stages of shower development.
We propose a model where a supernova explodes in some vicinity of our solar system (some tens of parsecs) in the recent past (some tens of thousands years) with the energy release in cosmic rays of order of $ 10 ^ {51} $ erg. The flux from this supernova is added to an isotropic flux from other sources. We consider the case where the Suns location is not in some typical for Our Galaxy average environment, but in the Local Superbubble about 100 pc across, in which the diffusion coefficient $D (E) = D_0 times E ^ {0.6} $, with the value of $ D_0 sim 10 ^ {25} cm^ 2 s^ {-1} $. We describe the energy dependence of the anisotropy of cosmic rays in the TeV region, together with the observed features of the energy spectrum of protons found in direct measurements. Our model provides a natural explanation to the hardening of the proton spectrum at 200 GeV, together with the observed steepening of the spectrum above 50 TeV.
A measurement of the atmospheric muon neutrino energy spectrum from 100 GeV to 400 TeV was performed using a data sample of about 18,000 up-going atmospheric muon neutrino events in IceCube. Boosted decision trees were used for event selection to reject mis-reconstructed atmospheric muons and obtain a sample of up-going muon neutrino events. Background contamination in the final event sample is less than one percent. This is the first measurement of atmospheric neutrinos up to 400 TeV, and is fundamental to understanding the impact of this neutrino background on astrophysical neutrino observations with IceCube. The measured spectrum is consistent with predictions for the atmospheric muon neutrino plus muon antineutrino flux.
A search for dark matter line-like signals was performed in the vicinity of the Galactic Centre by the H.E.S.S. experiment on observational data taken in 2014. An unbinned likelihood analysis was developed to improve the sensitivity to line-like signals. The upgraded analysis along with newer data extend the energy coverage of the previous measurement down to 100 GeV. The 18 h of data collected with the H.E.S.S. array allow one to rule out at 95% CL the presence of a 130 GeV line (at $l = -1.5^{circ}, b = 0^{circ}$ and for a dark matter profile centered at this location) previously reported in Fermi-LAT data. This new analysis overlaps significantly in energy with previous Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. results. No significant excess associated with dark matter annihilations was found in the energy range 100 GeV to 2 TeV and upper limits on the gamma-ray flux and the velocity weighted annihilation cross-section are derived adopting an Einasto dark matter halo profile. Expected limits for present and future large statistics H.E.S.S. observations are also given.
Atmospheric neutrinos are produced during cascades initiated by the interaction of primary cosmic rays with air nuclei. In this paper, a measurement of the atmospheric u_mu + bar{ u}_mu energy spectrum in the energy range 0.1 - 200 TeV is presented, using data collected by the ANTARES underwater neutrino telescope from 2008 to 2011. Overall, the measured flux is ~25% higher than predicted by the conventional neutrino flux, and compatible with the measurements reported in ice. The flux is compatible with a single power-law dependence with spectral index gamma_{meas}=3.58pm 0.12. With the present statistics the contribution of prompt neutrinos cannot be established.
The aim of this report of the Working Group on Hadronic Interactions and Air Shower Simulation is to give an overview of the status of the field, emphasizing open questions and a comparison of relevant results of the different experiments. It is shown that an approximate overall understanding of extensive air showers and the corresponding hadronic interactions has been reached. The simulations provide a qualitative description of the bulk of the air shower observables. Discrepancies are however found when the correlation between measurements of the longitudinal shower profile are compared to that of the lateral particle distributions at ground. The report concludes with a list of important problems that should be addressed to make progress in understanding hadronic interactions and, hence, improve the reliability of air shower simulations.