HADAR实验对Fermi-LAT伽马射线源观测的预期研究

高海拔天体辐射探测(high altitude detection of astronomical radiation,HADAR)实验是一个新型的采用纯水作为介质的大气切伦科夫望远镜实验阵列,其采用大口径半球型透镜来收集大气切伦科夫光,以实现对10 GeV—10 TeV能量段的伽马射线和宇宙线的探测.HADAR具有低阈能、高灵敏度和传统成像大气切伦科夫望远镜所不具备的大视场优势,可以对天区进行连续扫描观测,因此将成为全天伽马源的理想观测仪器和爆发源、时变源的理想搜寻探测器.本文基于Fermi-LAT的最新伽马射线源表,详细研究了HADAR实验对这些源的观测能力.对银河系外的源,将这些源的能谱加入河外背景光吸收效应外推至甚高能段.通过对这些源的显著性进行模拟研究,结果显示HADAR运行一年预期有93个伽马射线源以大于5倍的显著性标准偏差被观测到,其中包括45个银河系内的源,39个银河系外的源,3个未知类型的源和6个未关联类型的源.

HADAR实验对活动星系核伽马射线辐射观测的预期研究

HADAR(High Altitude Detection of Astronomical Radiation)是一个基于大气切伦科夫成像技术的地面望远镜阵列,其采用大口径折射式水透镜系统来收集大气切伦科夫光,以实现对10 GeV—10 TeV能量段的伽马射线和宇宙线的探测.HADAR具有低阈能和大视场的优势,因此可以对天区进行连续扫描和观测,在观测活动星系核(Active Galactic Nuclei,AGN)等银河系外伽马射线源方面具有明显优势.本文研究了HADAR实验对AGN的探测能力.基于费米望远镜(Fermi Large Area Telescope,Fermi-LAT)的AGN源能谱信息,将观测能量外推至甚高能能段,同时加入河外背景光的吸收效应,以计算HADAR对AGN源观测的统计显著性.研究结果显示,HADAR运行一年时间,预计将有31个Fermi-LAT AGN源以高于5倍显著性被观测到,其中大部分为蝎虎状天体类型.

Flux variations of cosmic ray air showers detected by LHAASO-KM2A during a thunderstorm on June 10,2021

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory(LHAASO)has three sub-arrays,KM2A,WCDA,and WFCTA.The flux variations of cosmic ray air showers were studied by analyzing the KM2A data during a thunderstorm on June 10,2021.The number of shower events that meet the trigger conditions increases significantly in atmospheric electric fields,with a maximum fractional increase of 20%.The variations in trigger rates(increases or decreases)were found to be strongly dependent on the primary zenith angle.The flux of secondary particles increased significantly,following a trend similar to that of shower events.To better understand the observed behavior,Monte Carlo simulations were performed with CORSIKA and G4KM2A(a code based on GEANT4).We found that the experimental data(in saturated negative fields)were in good agreement with the simulations,assuming the presence of a uniform electric field of-700 V/cm with a thickness of 1500 m in the atmosphere above the observation level.Due to the acceleration/deceleration by the atmospheric electric field,the number of secondary particles with energy above the detector threshold was modified,resulting in the changes in shower detection rate.

Prospects for the detection rate of very-high-energyγ-ray emissions from shortγ-ray bursts with the HADAR experiment

The observation of short gamma ray bursts(SGRBs)in the TeV energy range plays an important role in understanding the radiation mechanism and probing potential new physics,such as Lorentz invariance violation(LIV).However,no SGRBs have been observed in this energy range owing to the short duration of SGRBs and the weakness of current experiments.New experiments with new technology are required to detect the very high energy(VHE)emission of SGRBs.In this study,we simulate the VHE γ-ray emissions from SGRBs and calculate the annu-al detection rate with the High Altitude Detection of Astronomical Radiation(HADAR)experiment.First,a set of pseudo-SGRB samples is generated and checked using the observations of the Fermi-GBM,Fermi-LAT,and Swift-BAT measurements.The annual detection rate is calculated from these SGRB samples based on the performance of the HADAR instrument.As a result,the HADAR experiment can detect 0.5 SGRBs per year if the spectral break-off of γ-rays caused by the internal absorption and Klein-Nishina(KN)effect is larger than 100 GeV.For a GRB090510-like GRB in HADAR's view,it should be possible to detect approximately 2000 photons considering the internal absorption and KN effect.With a time delay assumption due to LIV effects,a simulated light curve of GRB090510 has evident energy dependence.We hope that the HADAR experiment can perform SGRB observa-tions and test our calculations in the future.

Lateral distribution of EAS muons measured for the primary cosmic ray energy around 100 TeV

The muonic component of the extensive air showers (EAS) is of great importance for the astroparticle physics. It carries the information about the properties of primary cosmic ray (CR) particles, such as their mass, and electromagnetic and hadronic nature. It provides a sensitive test for the hadronic interaction models, which are inevitable for describing the cascade shower development of cosmic rays in EAS experiments. The YangBaJing Hybrid Array (YBJ-HA) experiment has been in operation since the end of 2016. Surface detectors are used for the measurements of primary energy, angular direction and core position of a shower event, while underground muon detectors are used for measuring the density of muons at various locations. Using the data obtained by the YBJ-HA experiment,this work reports the first measurement of the lateral muon distribution for the primary cosmic ray energy in the 100TeV region. The punch-through effect is evaluated via MC simulation.

Constraining the cosmic ray propagation halo thickness using Fermi-LAT observations of high-latitude clouds

The diffusive halo is a basic characteristic of cosmic ray(CR)propagation and can advance our understanding of many CR-related phenomena and indirect dark matter.The method used to derive the halo size often has degeneracy problems and is thus affected by large uncertainties.The diffuseγrays from high-latitude clouds might shed light on the halo size independently.Because predictions using the spatially dependent propagation(SDP)model have better agreement with the observed CRs than those of the conventional propagation model,in this work,we investigated halo thickness based on the SDP model using Fermi-LATγ-ray observations of high-and intermediatevelocity clouds.We found that to avoid exceeding the relativeγ-ray emissivity in high-latitude clouds,the halo thickness should be in the range of 3.3-9 kpc.Moreover,the spatial morphology ofγ-rays estimated based on the SDP model for different values of the halo thickness are distinctive,which provides us with a tool to determine the halo size.This newly developed model can be tested and tuned using multi-wavelength observations in future studies.

Prospects for a multi-TeV gamma-ray sky survey with the LHAASO water Cherenkov detector array

The Water Cherenkov Detector Array(WCDA) is a major component of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Array Observatory(LHAASO), a new generation cosmic-ray experiment with unprecedented sensitivity, currently under construction. WCDA is aimed at the study of TeV γ-rays. In order to evaluate the prospects of searching for TeV γ-ray sources with WCDA, we present a projection of the one-year sensitivity of WCDA to TeV γ-ray sources from TeVCat using an all-sky approach. Out of 128 TeVCat sources observable by WCDA up to a zenith angle of 45°, we estimate that 42 would be detectable in one year of observations at a median energy of 1 TeV. Most of them are Galactic sources, and the extragalactic sources are Active Galactic Nuclei(AGN).