Search for sources of high-energy neutrons with four years of data from the IceTop detector
Date
2016
Authors
Aartsen, M.G.
Abraham, K.
Ackermann, M.
Adams, J.
Aguilar, J.A.
Ahlers, M.
Ahrens, M.
Altmann, D.
Andeen, K.
Anderson, T.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
The Astrophysical Journal: an international review of astronomy and astronomical physics, 2016; 830(2):1-12
Statement of Responsibility
M.G. Aartsen … S. Robertson … A. Wallace … B.J. Whelan … [et al.] (The ICECUBE Collaboration)
Conference Name
Abstract
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. 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 (10¹⁶ 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 also 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 found for any target set. Flux upper limits are determined for both searches, which can constrain Galactic neutron sources and production scenarios.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Access Status
Rights
© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.