First Detection of Photons with Energy Beyond 100 TeV from an Astrophysical Source

Abstract

We report on the highest energy photons from the Crab Nebula observed by the Tibet air shower array with the underground water-Cherenkov-type muon detector array. Based on the criterion of muon number measured in an air shower, we successfully suppress 99.92% of the cosmic-ray background events with energies $E>100$ TeV. As a result, we observed 24 photon-like events with $E>100$ TeV against 5.5 background events, which corresponds to 5.6$\sigma$ statistical significance. This is the first detection of photons with $E>100$ TeV from an astrophysical source.

arXiv commentApril 4, 2019; Submitted to the Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (16)

• EPOS LHC : test of collective hadronization with LHC data
• Observations of the Crab Nebula with H.E.S.S
• Observation of the Crab Nebula with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
• VHE Gamma-Ray Observation of the Crab Nebula and its Pulsar with the MAGIC telescope
• The Crab Nebula and Pulsar between 500 GeV and 80 TeV: Observations with the HEGRA stereoscopic air Cherenkov telescopes
• The all-particle spectrum of primary cosmic rays in the wide energy range from 10^14 eV to 10^17 eV observed with the Tibet-III air-shower array
• Measurement of the Crab Nebula spectrum over three decades in energy with the MAGIC telescopes
• Detection of Gamma Rays of Up to 50 TeV From the Crab Nebula
• TeV gamma-ray survey of the Northern sky using the ARGO-YBJ detector
• Multi-TeV Gamma-Ray Flares from Markarian 421 in 2000 and 2001 Observed with the Tibet Air Shower Array
• Multi-Tev Gamma-Ray Observation from the Crab Nebula Using the Tibet-III Air Shower Array Finely Tuned by the Cosmic-Ray Moon's Shadow
• Observation of Multi-Tev Gamma Rays from the Crab Nebula Using the Tibet Air Shower Array
• H.E.S.S. Observations of the Crab during its March 2013 GeV Gamma-Ray Flare
• Exploration of a 100 TeV gamma-ray northern sky using the Tibet air-shower array combined with an underground water-Cherenkov muon-detector array
• A search for enhanced very high energy gamma-ray emission from the March 2013 Crab Nebula flare
• Observation and Spectral Measurements of the Crab Nebula with Milagro

Cited by in corpus (92)

• The First LHAASO Catalog of Gamma-Ray Sources
• Multiple Galactic Sources with Emission Above 56 TeV Detected by HAWC
• First Detection of sub-PeV Diffuse Gamma Rays from the Galactic Disk: Evidence for Ubiquitous Galactic Cosmic Rays beyond PeV Energies
• 3HWC: The Third HAWC Catalog of Very-High-Energy Gamma-ray Sources
• Peta-electron volt gamma-ray emission from the Crab Nebula
• The observation of the Crab Nebula with LHAASO-KM2A for the performance study
• Potential PeVatron supernova remnant G106.3+2.7 seen in the highest-energy gamma rays
• The Hunt for Pevatrons: The Case of Supernova Remnants
• MAGIC very large zenith angle observations of the Crab Nebula up to 100 TeV
• ASTRI Mini-Array Core Science at the Observatorio del Teide
• Discovery of the Ultra-high energy gamma-ray source LHAASO J2108+5157
• Analytical Solution of Magnetically Dominated Astrophysical Jets and Winds: Jet Launching, Acceleration, and Collimation
• Axion and dark photon limits from Crab Nebula high energy gamma-rays
• Unresolved sources naturally contribute to PeV $\gamma$-ray diffuse emission observed by Tibet AS$\gamma$
• Evidence that Ultra-High-Energy Gamma Rays are a Universal Feature Near Powerful Pulsars
• Galactic contribution to the high-energy neutrino flux found in track-like IceCube events
• The Highest Energy HAWC Sources are Likely Leptonic and Powered by Pulsars
• Observation of photons above 300 TeV associated with a high-energy neutrino from the Cygnus region
• Discovery of a new $\gamma$-ray source LHAASO J0341+5258 with emission up to 200TeV
• PeV emission of the Crab Nebula: constraints on the proton content in pulsar wind and implications
• New constraints on Lorentz Invariance violation from Crab Nebula spectrum beyond $100$ TeV
• Probing Quantum Gravity with Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes
• Where are Milky Way's Hadronic PeVatrons?
• A pulsar wind nebula origin of the LHAASO-detected UHE gamma-ray sources
• Probing New Physics at Future Tau Neutrino Telescopes
• Gamma-ray Observation of the Cygnus Region in the 100 TeV Energy Region
• Multi-wavelength study of the galactic PeVatron candidate LHAASO J2108+5157
• Fermi-type particle acceleration from magnetic reconnection at the termination shock of a relativistic striped wind
• Spectrum and extension of the inverse-Compton emission of the Crab Nebula from a combined Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. analysis
• On the Unusually Large Spatial Extent of the TeV nebula HESS J1825-137: Implication from the Energy-Dependent Morphology
• Testing Lorentz invariance of electrons with LHAASO observations of PeV gamma-rays from the Crab Nebula
• Multi-band Emission up to PeV Energy from the Crab Nebula in a Spatially Dependent Lepto-hadronic Model
• Observation of thermal microwave photons with a Josephson junction detector
• Galactic gamma-ray and neutrino emission from interacting cosmic-ray nuclei
• The angular resolution of GRAPES-3 EAS array after correction for the shower front curvature
• Ultrahigh-energy Gamma-Ray Radiation from the Crab Pulsar Wind Nebula
• Detectability of southern gamma-ray sources beyond 100 TeV with ALPAQUITA, the prototype experiment of ALPACA
• Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy: history and development of techniques
• Modeling the broadest spectral band of the Crab nebula and constraining the ions acceleration efficiency
• Detection of UHE gamma rays from the Crab Nebula: Physical Implications
• Ultra-High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy
• Phenomenological modelling of the Crab Nebula's broad band energy spectrum and its apparent extension
• The LHAASO PeVatron bright sky: what we learned
• Neutrino Observations of LHAASO Sources: Present Constraints and Future Prospects
• Carpet-3 detection of a photon-like air shower with estimated primary energy above 100 TeV in a spatial and temporal coincidence with GRB 221009A
• Galactic and Extragalactic Sources of Very High Energy Gamma-rays
• Reacceleration of Galactic Cosmic Rays Beyond the Knee at the Termination Shock of a Cosmic-Ray-Driven Galactic Wind
• Astrophysical and Cosmological Searches for Lorentz Invariance Violation
• Detection of a new molecular cloud in the LHAASO J2108+5157 region supporting a hadronic PeVatron scenario
• Detection prospects of very and ultra high-energy gamma rays from extended sources with ASTRI, CTA, and LHAASO
• Possible contribution of X-ray binary jets to the Galactic cosmic ray and neutrino flux
• Constraints on Hadronic Contribution to LHAASO Sources with Neutrino Observations
• Quantum gravity phenomenology at the dawn of the multi-messenger era -- A review
• Observation of gamma rays up to 320 TeV from the middle-aged TeV pulsar wind nebula HESS J1849$-$000
• No black holes from light
• Probing $\mu$eV ALPs with future LHAASO observation of AGN $\gamma$-ray spectra
• LHAASO J2226+6057 as a pulsar wind nebula
• The Southern Wide-Field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO)
• Two-sided constraints on Lorentz Invariance violation from Tibet-AS$\gamma$ and LHAASO Very-High-Energy photon observations
• Measurement of the Gamma-Ray Energy Spectrum beyond 100 TeV from the HESS J1843$-$033 Region
• Search for galactic Pevatron candidates in a population of unidentified gamma-ray sources
• The Making of Catalogues of Very-High-Energy γ-ray Sources
• Imprints of PeV cosmic-ray sources on the diffuse gamma-ray emission
• Dissecting the emission from LHAASO J0341+5258: implications for future multi-wavelength observations
• Escape of cosmic rays from perpendicular shocks in the circumstellar magnetic field
• Search for a diffuse flux of photons with energies above tens of PeV at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Improved Bounds on Lorentz Symmetry Violation From High-Energy Astrophysical Sources
• Blazar jets as possible sources of ultra-high energy photons: a short review
• Investigating the energy distribution of the high-energy particles in the Crab nebula
• Using Circular Polarisation to Test the Composition and Dynamics of Astrophysical Particle Accelerators
• Probes for String-Inspired Foam, Lorentz, and CPT Violations in Astrophysics
• The Crab nebula variability at short timescales with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Wave optics of quantum gravity for massive particles
• Top Hadrons in Lorentz-Violating Field Theory
• A Very-High-Energy Gamma-Ray View of the Transient Sky
• VERITAS and HAWC observations of unidentified source LHAASO J2108+5157
• Analysis Methods for Gamma-ray Astronomy
• Searching for TeV emission from LHAASO J0341+5258 with VERITAS and HAWC
• Pulsars as candidates of LHAASO sources J2226+6057, J1908+0621 and J1825-1326
• Constraining dark photon parameters based on the very high energy observations of blazars
• The implications of gamma-ray photons from LHAASO on Lorentz symmetry
• Deja-Vu: A Glimpse on Radioactive Soft-Error Consequences on Classical and Quantum Computations
• The Potential for Hadronic Particle Acceleration in Galactic Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• First constraints on axion-like particles from Galactic sub-PeV gamma rays
• The expected potential of hadronic PeVatron searches with spectral $\gamma$-ray data from the Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory
• Are Kronberger 80 and/or Kronberger 82 regions PeVatron candidates for LHAASO J2108+5157?
• The primary proton spectrum of the hadronic PeVatron candidate HAWC J1825-134
• Pulsars as candidates of LHAASO sources J2226+6057, J1908+0621 and J1825-1326: The leptonic origin
• HAWC J0630+186 Could Not Be Powered by PSR J0630+19
• The GPSP Atlas: High-resolution Galactic Photon Survival Probability Atlas for Very-High- and Ultra-High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy
• KM3-230213A and IceCube Neutrino Events from Metastable Dark Matter of Primordial Black Hole Origin
• Towards Searching for Photons with Energies beyond the PeV Range from Galactic PeVatrons