Cherenkov gamma-ray telescopes: Past,present, future. The ALEGRO project

A brief overview of the history of atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray telescopes is given. Topical problems of modern astrophysics and fundamental physics to be solved with these instruments are listed. The ALEGRO project of a low-threshold gamma-ray observatory is characterized in detail. The aim of this project is to examine cosmic gamma-ray sources (especially the rapidly variable gamma-ray sources, gamma-ray transients) with high statistics of detected photons in the energy range of 5–50 GeV.     

TeV gamma rays from photodisintegration and daughter deexcitation of cosmic-ray nuclei

It is commonly assumed that high-energy gamma rays are made via either purely electromagnetic processes or the hadronic process of pion production, followed by decay. We investigate astrophysical contexts where a third process (A*) would dominate: namely, the photodisintegration of highly boosted nuclei followed by daughter deexcitation. Starburst regions such as Cygnus OB2 appear to be promising sites for TeV gamma-ray emission via this mechanism. A unique feature of the A* process is a sharp flattening of the energy spectrum below approximately 10 TeV/(T/eV) for gamma-ray emission from a thermal region of temperature T. The A* mechanism described herein offers an important contribution to gamma-ray astronomy in the era of intense observational activity.     

Gamma-ray emission from molecular clouds: A probe of cosmic-ray origin and propagation

Cosmic rays up to at least 10¹⁵ eV (PeV) are believed to be emitted by Galactic sources, such as supernova remnants. However, no conclusive evidence of their acceleration has been found yet. A trace of ongoing cosmic-ray acceleration is the gamma-ray emission produced by these highly energetic particles when they scatter off the interstellar medium gas, mainly atomic and molecular hydrogen. Whereas the atomic hydrogen is uniformly distributed in the Galaxy, the molecular hydrogen is usually aggregated in dense clouds, and the gamma-ray emission from such clouds is particularly intense and localised. A multi-frequency approach, which combines the data from the upcoming and future gamma-ray emissions with the data from the submillimeter and millimeter surveys of the molecular hydrogen, is therefore crucial to probe the Galactic cosmic-ray flux. In order to fully exploit this multi-frequency approach, one needs to develop predictions of the expected emission. Here we will discuss the GeV to TeV emission from runaway CRs penetrating molecular clouds close to the young supernova remnant RX J1713-3946 and in molecular clouds illuminated by the background cosmic-ray flux.     

Dark matter and generation of galactic magnetic fields

We look for possible spectral features and systematic effects in the Fermi LAT publicly available high-energy gamma-ray data by studying photons from the Galactic center, nearby galaxy clusters, nearby brightest galaxies, AGNs, unassociated sources, hydrogen clouds and from the Earth limb. Apart from the already known 130 GeV gamma-ray excesses from the first two sources, we find no statistically significant excesses from any of the cosmological sources nor from any control region. Therefore our main effort goes to the study of gamma rays appearing from the Earth limb. In the energy range of 30 to 200 GeV the Earth limb gamma-ray spectrum follows a power-law with spectral index 2.86±0.05 at 95 % CL, in a good agreement with the PAMELA measurement of the cosmic ray proton spectral index of 2.82–2.85, confirming the physical origin of the limb gamma-rays. In subsets of the Earth limb data at small photon incidence angle spectral features occur, including a feature at 130 GeV. We observe a systematic ～2σ-level difference in the Earth limb spectra with small and large incidence angles. The behavior of those spectral features as well as the background indicates that those may be statistical fluctuations or complicated unknown systematic effects of the Fermi LAT. In the latter case, only the Fermi LAT Collaboration can give the final answer having access to raw data and all details of the reconstruction.     

173Lu和174gLu衰变数据的测量

175Lu（n;2n）174m,gLu（n;2n）173Lu反应在高能中子通量监测中具有重要作用,其产物的放射性活度通常用HPGe探测器测量,这就需要174m,gLu和173Lu的半衰期和γ射线发射率等衰变数据必须准确无误。在主要的评价核数据库中,只有ENDF/B 7.1和JEFF 3.1.1数据库给出了173Lu和174Lu的半衰期和γ射线的发射几率等衰变数据,其中173Lu的射线发射几率ENDF/B 7.1库比JEFF 3.1.1库总体偏高,其他评价数据两个数据库非常一致。在中国原子能研究院的串列加速器上用20 MeV质子辐照金属Yb靶生产了含有173Lu,174m,gLu的放射性溶液,用激光共振电离质谱（LRIMS）和热表面电离质谱（TIMS）两种同位素稀释法测定了该溶液中173Lu和174m,gLu核素浓度,然后制备测量源在HPGe探测器上进行了近7年的跟踪测量,发现173Lu的半衰期为1.45 a,比目前评价的数据1.37 a高6.1%,636.1 keV射线发射几率的偏差最大,比ENDF/B 7.1的评价数据偏高7%。174gLu半衰期的测量结果3.37 a175Lu（n;2n）174m,gLu（n;2n）173Lu反应在高能中子通量监测中具有重要作用,其产物的放射性活度通常用HPGe探测器测量,这就需要174m,gLu和173Lu的半衰期和γ射线发射率等衰变数据必须准确无误。在主要的评价核数据库中,只有ENDF/B 7.1和JEFF 3.1.1数据库给出了173Lu和174Lu的半衰期和射线的发射几率等衰变数据,其中173Lu的射线发射几率ENDF/B 7.1库比JEFF 3.1.1库总体偏高,其他评价数据两个数据库非常一致。在中国原子能研究院的串列加速器上用20 MeV质子辐照金属Yb靶生产了含有173Lu,174m,gLu的放射性溶液,用激光共振电离质谱（LRIMS）和热表面电离质谱（TIMS）两种同位素稀释法测定了该溶液中173Lu和174m,gLu核素浓度,然后制备测量源在HPGe探测器上进行了近7年的跟踪测量,发现173Lu的半衰期为1.45 a,比目前评价的数据1.37 a高6.1%,636.1 keV γ射线发射几率的偏差最大,比ENDF/B 7.1的评价数据偏高7%。174gLu半衰期的测量结果3.37 a,比评价数据3.31 a高约1.8%,174gLu 76.5 keV和1 241.8 keV γ射线的发射几率比ENDF/B 7.1的评价数据分别低1.87%和12.8%。175Lu(n,2n)174m,gLu(n,2n)173Lu are important neutron reactions to monitor the high energy neutron fluxes and the residual nuclei, 174m,gLu and 173Lu, are usually measured by a HPGe spectrometer conveniently so that the decay data such as half lives and gamma-ray emission probabilities of 174m,gLu and 173Lu must be accurate. There are evaluated decay data only in ENDF/B 7.1 and JEFF 3.1.1 among the major evaluated nuclear data libraries, where the most data are almost same besides the gamma-ray emission probabilities of 173Lu are higher in ENDF/B 7.1 than that in JEFF 3.1.1. Yb metal as a target was irradiated by 20 MeV proton beams on a tandem accelerator in CIAE to produce 174m,gLu and 173Lu, and 176Lu isotopic dilution methods based upon a laser resonance ionization mass spectrometer (LRIMS) and a thermal surface ionization mass spectrometer (TIMS) were employed to determine the numbers of nuclides of 174Lu and 173Lu in a solution containing the irradiated target. Several radioactive sources made from the solution had been measured by a HPGe detector during the past 7 years and the peak intensities of the characteristic gamma-rays from 174gLu and 173Lu were analyzed to determine the half lives and gamma-ray emission probabilities. According to the measurements, the half life of 173Lu is 1.45 a, which is about 6.1% longer than the evaluated 1.37 a, and the gamma-ray emission probabilities of 173Lu is also different from the evaluated data, especially the emission probability of 636.1 keV gamma-ray of 173Lu is 7% higher than the value in ENDF/B 7.1. The half life of 174gLu is 3.37 a, about 1.8% longer than the evaluated 3.31 a, and the emission probabilities of 76.5 keV and 1 241.8 keV gamma-rays of 174Lu are 1.87% and 12.8% lower than the evaluated data in ENDF/B 7.1, respectively.     

Gamma-ray direct observations from space

Summary This paper is devoted to problems of gamma-ray astronomy in the energy range <10¹¹ eV. Measurements of spectra and fluxes in this energy range are carried out by means of direct observations from space. Most of the discussed results have been performed with the four telescopes of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. The main topics of the paper are: diffuse galactic gamma-ray emission, point-like galactic gamma-ray sources, gamma-ray line emission, gamma-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei. Rapporteur talk given at the XXIV International Cosmic-Ray Conference, Rome, August 28–September, 8, 1995.     

5-10 GeV neutrinos from gamma-Ray burst fireballs

A gamma-ray burst fireball is likely to contain an admixture of neutrons. Inelastic collisions between differentially streaming protons and neutrons in the fireball produce nu(&mgr;) (nu;(&mgr;)) of approximately 10 GeV as well as nu(e) (nu;(e)) of approximately 5 GeV, which could produce approximately 7 events/year in km(3) detectors, if the neutron abundance is comparable to that of protons. Photons of approximately 10 GeV from pi(0) decay and approximately 100 MeV nu;(e) from neutron decay are also produced, but will be difficult to detect. Photons with energies less, similar1 MeV from shocks following neutron decay produce a characteristic signal which may be distinguishable from the proton-related MeV photons.     

Galactic cosmic ray propagation: sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray and neutrino emission

The Tibet ASγ experiment just reported their measurement of sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Galactic disk, with the highest energy up to 957 TeV. These diffuse gamma rays are most likely the hadronic origin by cosmic ray (CR) interaction with interstellar gas in the galaxy. This measurement provides direct evidence to the hypothesis that the Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) can be accelerated beyond PeV energies. In this work, we try to explain the sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray spectrum with different CR propagation models. We find that there is a tension between the sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray and the local CR spectrum. To describe the sub-PeV diffuse gamma-ray flux, it generally requires larger local CR flux than measurement in the knee region. We further calculate the PeV neutrino flux from the CR propagation model. Even all of these sub-PeV diffuse gamma rays originate from the propagation, the Galactic Neutrinos (GNs) only account for less than ~15% of observed flux, most of which are still from extragalactic sources.     

Upturn in the heavy nuclei to iron ratio in the ATIC experiment above 100 GeV/nucleon

It is argued that the upturn observed in heavy nuclei to iron ratios as measured in the ATIC experiment can be understood within a model of a closed galaxy with embedded local regions containing sources of cosmic rays. This model predicts a universal upturn near energies of 200–300 GeV/nucleon in the spectra of abundant primary nuclei. It also predicts the source spectral index to lie near 2.5.     

Variable gamma-ray sky at 1 GeV

We search for the long-term variability of the gamma-ray sky in the energy range E > 1 GeV with 168 weeks of the gamma-ray telescope Fermi-LAT data. We perform a full sky blind search for regions with variable flux looking for deviations from uniformity. We bin the sky into 12288 pixels using the HEALPix package and use the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to compare weekly photon counts in each pixel with the constant flux hypothesis. The weekly exposure of Fermi-LAT for each pixel is calculated with the Fermi-LAT tools. We consider flux variations in a pixel significant if the statistical probability of uniformity is less than 4 × 10^?6, which corresponds to 0.05 false detections in the whole set. We identified 117 variable sources, 27 of which have not been reported variable before. The sources with previously unidentified variability contain 25 active galactic nuclei (AGN) belonging to the blazar class (11 BL Lacs and 14 FSRQs), one AGN of an uncertain type, and one pulsar PSR J0633+1746 (Geminga).     

Evidence for TeV gamma-ray emission from a region of the galactic plane

Gamma-ray emission from a narrow band at the galactic equator has previously been detected up to 30 GeV. We report evidence for a TeV gamma-ray signal from a region of the galactic plane by Milagro, a large-field-of-view water Cherenkov detector for extensive air showers. An excess with a significance of 4.5 standard deviations has been observed from the region of galactic longitude l E (40 degrees, 100 degrees) and latitude /b/ < 5 degrees. Under the assumption of a simple power law spectrum, with no cutoff in the EGRET-Milagro energy range, the measured integral flux is phi gamma(>3.5 TeV) = (6.4 +/- 1.4 +/- 2.1) x 10(-11) cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1). This flux is consistent with an extrapolation of the EGRET spectrum between 1 and 30 GeV in this galactic region.     

Rigidity dependence of cosmic-ray escape length obtained from a comparison of proton and iron spectra in the energy range 3–3000 GeV

A simple leaky-box model of cosmic-ray propagation in the Galaxy is quite suitable for analysis of cosmic-ray nuclei energy spectra and composition at energies under 1 GeV [1, 2]. Within this model the full information about the cosmic-ray propagation in the Galaxy is compressed into a single parameter, viz., escape length, X _e , which characterizes the mean grams of matter that are passed by cosmic-rays from sources to the Earth. In this paper we analyze the worldwide data on proton and iron cosmic-ray spectra that have been collected in experiments and obtain the rigidity dependence of the escape length from the measured rigidity dependence of the proton/iron ratio. This agrees well with the one estimated by a standard manner from the secondary/primary nuclei ratio. However, at R > 300 GV the behavior of X _e (R) distinctly changes, which can point to a change of the proton/iron ratio in cosmic-ray sources.     

Can FSRQs produce the Ice Cube detected diffuse neutrino emission?

Ice Cube has reported the detection of a diffuse Te V-Pe V neutrino emission, for which the flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs) have been proposed to be the candidate sources. Here we assume that the neutrino flux from FSRQs is proportional to their gamma-ray ones, and obtain the gamma-ray/neutrino flux ratio by the diffuse gamma-ray flux from Fermi-LAT measurement of FSRQs and the diffuse neutrino flux detected by Ice Cube. We apply this ratio to individual FSRQs and hence predict their neutrino flux. We find that a large fraction of candidate FSRQs from the northern sky in the Ice Cube point source search has predicted neutrino flux above the Ice Cube upper limit; and for the sample of stacking search for neutrinos by Ice Cube, the predicted stacked flux is even larger than the upper limit of stacked flux by orders of magnitude. Therefore the Ice Cube limit from stacking searches, combined with the Fermi-LAT observations, already rejects FSRQs as the main sources of Ice Cube-detected diffuse neutrinos: FSRQs can only account for 10%( 4%) of the Ice Cube-detected diffuse neutrino flux, according to the stacking searches from the whole(northern) sky. The derived small neutrino/gamma-ray flux ratio also implies that the gamma-ray emission from FSRQs cannot be produced by the secondary leptons and photons from the pion production processes. The caveat in the assumptions is discussed.     

On the contribution of a hard galactic plane component to the excesses of secondary particles

The standard model of cosmic ray propagation has been very successful in explaining all kinds of galactic cosmic ray spectra. However, high precision measurement have recently revealed an appreciable discrepancy between data and model expectations, from spectrum observations of gamma-rays, e+/e- and probably the B=C ratio starting from ~10 GeV energy . In this work, we propose that a hard galactic plane component, supplied by the fresh cosmic ray sources and detained by local magnetic elds, can contribute additional secondary particles interacting with local materials. By properly choosing the intensity and spectral index of the harder component up to multi-T eV energy , a two-component gamma-ray spectrum is obtained and agrees very well with the observation. Simultaneously , the expected neutrino numbers from the galactic plane could contribute ~60% of IceCube observed neutrino number below a few hundreds of TeV under our model. In addition to these studies, we nd that the same pp-collision process responsible for the excess gamma ray emission could account for a signi cant amount of the positron excess, but a more detailed mechanism is needed for a full agreement. It is expected that the excesses in the p=p and B=C ratio will show up when energy is above ~10 GeV. We look forward this model being tested in the near future by new observations from AMS02, IceCube, AS-gamma, HA WC and future  experiments such as LHASSO, HiSCORE and CTA.     

HESS observations of the galactic center region and their possible dark matter interpretation

The detection of gamma rays from the source HESS J1745-290 in the Galactic Center (GC) region with the High Energy Spectroscopic System (HESS) array of Cherenkov telescopes in 2004 is presented. After subtraction of the diffuse gamma-ray emission from the GC ridge, the source is compatible with a point source with spatial extent less than 1.2;{'}(stat) (95% C.L.). The measured energy spectrum above 160 GeV is compatible with a power law with photon index of 2.25+/-0.04(stat)+/-0.10(syst) and no significant flux variation is detected. It is finally found that the bulk of the very high energy emission must have non-dark-matter origin.     

Progress in the pumping of gamma-ray laser

A gamma-ray laser would stimulate coherent emission of radiation at wavelengths below 1 Å from excited states of nuclei. However, the difficulties in realizing such a device were considered insurmountable when the first cycle of study ended in1981. Since then, research on the feasibility of a gamma-ray laser has taken on a completely new character. A nuclear analog of the ruby laser has been proposed and many of the component steps for pumping the nuclei have been demonstrated experimentally. A quantitative model based upon the new data and the concepts of this decade shows the gamma-ray laser to be feasible if some real isotope has its properties sufficiently close to the ideals. The greatest positive impact has come from the discovery of giant resonances for pumping nuclei with photons that greatly reduce the levels of input power needed. Most recently, attention has been focused upon efforts to demonstrate prelasing levels of fluorescence from simulation nuclides and actual gamma-ray laser candidates. Problems being addressed are the acquisition of macroscopic samples of the best nuclei for testing and the demonstration of appropriate instrumentation.     

Characteristics of the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope for searching for dark matter signatures

The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope currently under development is designed to measure fluxes of gamma rays and electron-positron cosmic-ray components, which could be associated with the annihilation or decay of dark matter particles, and to survey in detail the celestial sphere in order to search for and investigate discrete gamma-ray sources; to measure the energy spectra of Galactic and extragalactic dif- fuse gamma-ray emissions; and to study gamma-ray bursts and the gamma-ray emissions of active Sun. The GAMMA-400 energy range is 100 MeV to 3000 GeV. The gamma-ray telescope has an angular resolution of ～0.01°, an energy resolution of ～1%, and a proton rejection factor of ～10⁶. The GAMMA-400 will be installed on Russia’s Navigator space platform. Observations are planned to commence in 2018.     

Fast helium nuclei in interactions induced by very heavy nuclei

Fast helium nuclei emitted in interactions between heavy cosmic ray nuclei (12≦Z≦26) and photoemulsion nuclei at energies >1 GeV/nucleon have been studied. Comparisons with interactions where the incident particles are protons, pions or light nuclei reveal some characteristic features of nucleus-nucleus interactions. The frequency of fast target helium nuclei is much larger and the high energy tail of the energy spectrum of these helium nuclei is more pronounced in nucleus-nucleus interactions than in proton-nucleus and pion-nucleus interactions. The number of helium nuclei emitted depends on the size and disintegration of the interacting nuclei. In order to explain our experimental data several possible production mechanisms have to be considered. Some characteristics of the emission of multiply-charged projectile fragments have-also been studied.     

Inverse problem for the equation of ultrahigh energy cosmic ray transport

The propagation of ultrahigh energy nuclei in an expanding universe filled with background electromagnetic radiation is considered. A numerical method for solving the inverse problem for the equation of cosmic ray transport is developed. The method allows us to determine a source spectrum from the cosmic ray spectrum observed near Earth. The spectra of injected protons and nuclei of iron were found in extragalactic sources under the assumption that these types of particles predominate in the composition of the sources. The method of calculation is illustrated using observational data obtained in the Auger and Telescope Array experiments.     

Two source emission behavior of projectile fragments alpha in 84Kr interactions at around 1 GeV per nucleon

The emission of projectile fragments alpha has been studied in ⁸⁴Kr interactions with nuclei of the nuclear emulsion detector composition at relativistic energy below 2 GeV per nucleon. The angular distribution of projectile fragments alpha in terms of transverse momentum could not be explained by a straight and clean-cut collision geometry hypothesis of Participant — Spectator (PS) Model. Therefore, it is assumed that projectile fragments alpha were produced from two separate sources that belong to the projectile spectator region differing drastically in their temperatures. It has been clearly observed that the emission of projectile fragments alpha are from two different sources. The contribution of projectile fragments alpha from contact layer or hot source is a few percent of the total emission of projectile fragments alphas. Most of the projectile fragments alphas are emitted from the cold source.