Search for PeVatrons at the Galactic Center using a radio air-shower array at the South Pole

Abstract

The South Pole, which hosts the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, has a complete and around-the-clock exposure to the Galactic Center. Hence, it is an ideal location to search for gamma rays of PeV energy coming from the Galactic Center. However, it is hard to detect air showers initiated by these gamma rays using cosmic-ray particle detectors due to the low elevation of the Galactic Center. The use of antennas to measure the radio footprint of these air showers will help in this case, and would allow for a 24/7 operation time. So far, only air showers with energies well above 10 PeV have been detected with the radio technique. Thus, the energy threshold has to be lowered for the detection of gamma-ray showers of PeV energy. This can be achieved by optimizing the frequency band in order to obtain a higher level of signal-to-noise ratio. With such an approach, PeV gamma-ray showers with high inclination can be measured at the South Pole.

accepted by EPJC; erratum included

References in corpus (10)

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• IceCube-Gen2: The Window to the Extreme Universe
• The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND): Science and Design
• The Hunt for Pevatrons: The Case of Supernova Remnants
• Reconstruction of cosmic ray air showers with Tunka-Rex data using template fitting of radio pulses
• Science with the Murchison Widefield Array: Phase I Results and Phase II Opportunities
• A Scintillator and Radio Enhancement of the IceCube Surface Detector Array
• Enhancing the cosmic-ray mass sensitivity of air-shower arrays by combining radio and muon detectors
• Final results of the LOPES radio interferometer for cosmic-ray air showers
• Search for PeV Gamma-Ray Emission from the Southern Hemisphere with 5 Years of Data from the IceCube Observatory
• Expected performance of air-shower measurements with the radio-interferometric technique
• Radio Detection of ultra-high-energy Cosmic-Ray Air Showers
• A Surface Radio Array for the Enhancement of IceTop and its Science Prospects
• Radio detection in the multi-messenger context