Search

Milagrito, a detector sensitive to very high energy gamma rays, monitored the northern sky from 1997 February through 1998 May. 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 × 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 × 10-3. No significant correlations were detected from the other bursts.

The Milagrito water Cherenkov detector near Los Alamos, New Mexico, operated as a sky monitor at energies of a few TeV between February 1997 and May 1998 including the period of the strong, long-lasting 1997 flare of Markarian 501. Milagrito served as a test run for the full Milagro detector. An event excess with a significance of 3.7 sigma from Markarian 501 was observed, in agreement with expectations.

Milagro will be the first water-Cerenkov detector specifically built to study extensive air showers. It is being built in an existing man-made pond located near Los Alamos, NM. Milagro will be the only air shower detector to have an energy threshold as low as a few hundred GeV and an angular resolution as good as 0.3°. Milagro will observe the entire overhead sky at all times. We describe here the Milagro detector, it capabilities and its physics goals.

The Milagro water Cherenkov detector began full operation in January 2000. This detector is capable of monitoring the Northern sky at energies above 500 GeV for sources of equivalent strength to the Crab Nebula over one year of integration. We report on the current performance and sensitivity of Milagro.

Milagrito, a detector sensitive to gamma-rays at TeV energies, monitored the northern sky during the period February 1997 through May 1998. With a large field of view and high duty cycle, this instrument was used to perform a search for TeV counterparts to gamma-ray bursts. Within the Milagrito field of view 54 gamma-ray bursts at keV energies were observed by the Burst And Transient Satellite Experiment (BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. This paper describes the results of a preliminary analysis to search for TeV emission correlated with BATSE detected bursts. Milagrito detected an excess of events coincident both spatially and temporally with GRB 970417a, with chance probability $2.8 \times 10^{-5}$ within the BATSE error radius. No other significant correlations were detected. Since 54 bursts were examined the chance probability of observing an excess with this significance in any of these bursts is $1.5 \times 10^{-3}$. The statistical aspects and physical implications of this result are discussed., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to appear in "GeV-TeV Astrophysics: Toward a Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope VI," Snowbird, Utah (August, 1999)

A new type of very high energy (> a few 100 GeV) gamma-ray observatory, Milagro, has been built with a large field of view of >1 steradian and nearly 24 hours/day operation. Milagrito, a prototype for Milagro, was operated from February 1997 to May 1998. During the summer of 1998, Milagrito was dismantled and Milagro was built. Both detectors use a 80 m×60 m×8 m pond of water in which a 3 m×3 m grid of photomultiplier tubes detects the Cherenkov light produced in the water by the relativistic particles in extensive air showers. Milagrito was smaller and had only one layer of photomultipliers, but allowed the technique to be tested. Milagrito observations of the Moon’s shadow and Mrk 501 are consistent with the Monte Carlo prediction of the telescopes parameters, such as effective area and angular resolution. Milagro is larger and consists of two layers of photomultiplier tubes. The bottom layer detects penetrating particles that are used to reject the background of cosmic-ray initiated showers.

Progress in high-energy gamma-ray astronomy has depended upon the development of sophisticated detectors and analysis techniques. Observations in this decade using space-based and ground-based detectors have observed gamma-ray emission from a variety of sources. For the first time a consistent picture of the {gamma}-ray sky has emerged. This article describes the detection techniques in {gamma}-ray astronomy, the nature of the astrophysical objects studied, and the present state of the observations. Several possible new directions in the field are also described. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}

A search has been made for steady emission or ultra-high-energy radiation from individual point sources over most or the northern sky. Over 2×10 8 air showers induced by primary particles or energy greater than about 10 TeV were recorded from 1986 April until 1991 May by the CYGNUS air shower array. No statistically significant excess above the background from the isotropic flux or cosmic rays was found for any direction in the sky from 0° to 80° declination. In addition, 49 specific potential sources were examined, and none showed a statistically significant excess or events

A 10 m2 multi-mirror telescope for observing Cherenkov light signals from atmospheric cascades is now operating at Mount Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii. It differs from other atmospheric Cherenkov detectors in accepting pulses that originate from single photoelectrons, employing two sets of 18 optically independent phototubes in a logic system with nanosecond time resolution to reject ambient light from the night sky. With an angular aperture of 1.3 × 10−4 sr, cosmic ray showers are observed at a rate of ∼ 0.5 hz at the zenith, with nearly complete rejection of ambient light. This rate for hadronic showers implies an effective threshold near 100 GeV for electromagnetic showers. Two regions of the sky, one centered on the source and the other separated by from it by 3.6° are simultaneously monitored. Examples of observations of episodic and periodic (pulsar) sources are given.

Milagrito, a detector sensitive to γ-rays at TeV energies, monitored the northern sky during the period February 1997 through May 1998. With a large field of view and high duty cycle, this instrument was used to perform a search for TeV counterparts to γ-ray bursts. BATSE detected 54 GRBs within the field of view of Milagrito during this period. This paper describes the results of an analysis to search for TeV emission correlated with BATSE detected bursts. Milagrito detected an excess of events coincident both spatially and temporally with GRB 970417a, with chance probability 2.8×10−5 within the BATSE error radius. No other significant correlations were detected. Since 54 bursts were examined, the chance probability of observing an excess with at least this significance in any of these bursts is 1.5×10−3.