Exploration of a 100 TeV gamma-ray northern sky using the Tibet air-shower array combined with an underground water-Cherenkov muon-detector array

Abstract

Aiming to observe cosmic gamma rays in the 10 - 1000 TeV energy region, we propose a 10000 m^2 underground water-Cherenkov muon-detector (MD) array that operates in conjunction with the Tibet air-shower (AS) array. Significant improvement is expected in the sensitivity of the Tibet AS array towards celestial gamma-ray signals above 10 TeV by utilizing the fact that gamma-ray-induced air showers contain far fewer muons compared with cosmic-ray-induced ones. We carried out detailed Monte Carlo simulations to assess the attainable sensitivity of the Tibet AS+MD array towards celestial TeV gamma-ray signals. Based on the simulation results, the Tibet AS+MD array will be able to reject 99.99% of background events at 100 TeV, with 83% of gamma-ray events remaining. The sensitivity of the Tibet AS+MD array will be ~20 times better than that of the present Tibet AS array around 20 - 100 TeV. The Tibet AS+MD array will measure the directions of the celestial TeV gamma-ray sources and the cutoffs of their energy spectra. Furthermore, the Tibet AS+MD array, along with imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes as well as the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and X-ray satellites such as Suzaku and MAXI, will make multiwavelength observations and conduct morphological studies on sources in the quest for evidence of the hadronic nature of the cosmic-ray acceleration mechanism.

Accepted by Astroparticle Physics

References in corpus (12)

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• On the plasma temperature in supernova remnants with cosmic-ray modified shocks
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• Underground Water Cherenkov Muon Detector Array with the Tibet Air Shower Array for Gamma-Ray Astronomy in the 100 TeV Region

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• Testing the Dark Matter Scenario for PeV Neutrinos Observed in IceCube
• Potential PeVatron supernova remnant G106.3+2.7 seen in the highest-energy gamma rays
• Observation of photons above 300 TeV associated with a high-energy neutrino from the Cygnus region
• Detectability of southern gamma-ray sources beyond 100 TeV with ALPAQUITA, the prototype experiment of ALPACA
• High energy cosmic-ray interactions with particles from the Sun
• Ultra-High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy
• The Steady-State Multi-TeV Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission Predicted with GALPROP and Prospects for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Observation of gamma rays up to 320 TeV from the middle-aged TeV pulsar wind nebula HESS J1849$-$000
• Measurement of the Gamma-Ray Energy Spectrum beyond 100 TeV from the HESS J1843$-$033 Region
• Future developments in ground-based gamma-ray astronomy
• Future Extensive Air Shower arrays: from Gamma-Ray Astronomy to Cosmic Rays