Search for Sources of High-Energy Neutrons with Four Years of Data from the IceTop Detector
IceTop is an air-shower array located on the Antarctic ice sheet at the geographic South Pole. IceTop can detect an astrophysical flux of neutrons from Galactic sources as an excess of cosmic-ray air showers arriving from the source direction. Neutrons are undeflected by the Galactic magnetic field...
Published in: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
2022
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1544421 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1544421 https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/830/2/129 |
Summary: | IceTop is an air-shower array located on the Antarctic ice sheet at the geographic South Pole. IceTop can detect an astrophysical flux of neutrons from Galactic sources as an excess of cosmic-ray air showers arriving from the source direction. Neutrons are undeflected by the Galactic magnetic field and can typically travel 10 (E/PeV) pc before decay. Here, two searches are performed using 4 yr of the IceTop data set to look for a statistically significant excess of events with energies above 10 PeV (10 16 eV) arriving within a small solid angle. The all-sky search method covers from ₋90° to approximately ₋50° in declination. No significant excess is found. A targeted search is additionally performed, looking for significant correlation with candidate sources in different target sets. This search uses a higher-energy cut (100 PeV) since most target objects lie beyond 1 kpc. The target sets include pulsars with confirmed TeV energy photon fluxes and high-mass X-ray binaries. No significant correlation is discovered for any target set. Flux upper limits are determined for both searches, which can constrain Galactic neutron sources and production scenarios. |
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