Gamma-ray astronomy with muons: Sensitivity of IceCube to PeVatrons in the Southern sky
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
- Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg, D-91058 Erlangen (Germany)
Northern hemisphere TeV gamma-ray observatories such as Milagro and Tibet AS{gamma} have demonstrated the importance of all-sky instruments by discovering previously unidentified sources that may be the PeVatrons producing cosmic rays up to the knee in the cosmic ray spectrum. We evaluate the potential of IceCube to identify similar sources in the southern sky by detailing an analytic approach to determine fluxes of muons from TeV gamma-ray showers. We apply this approach to known gamma-ray sources such as supernova remnants. We find that, similar to Milagro, detection is possible in 10 years for pointlike PeVatrons with fluxes stronger than several 10{sup -11} particles TeV{sup -1} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}.
- OSTI ID:
- 21325308
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 80, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.80.083009; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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