FASER2

Abstract:

IceTop, the surface array of IceCube, measures air showers from cosmic rays within the energy range of 1 PeV to a few EeV and a zenith angle range of up to ≈ 36◦. This detector array can also measure air showers arriving at larger zenith angles at energies above 20 PeV. Air showers from lighter primaries arriving at the array will produce fewer muons when compared to heavier cosmic-ray primaries. A discrimination of these muons from the electromagnetic component in the shower can therefore allow a measurement of the primary mass. A study to discriminate muons using Monte-Carlo air showers of energies 20-100 PeV and within the zenith angular range of 45◦-60◦ will be presented. The discrimination is done using charge and time-based cuts which allows us to select muon-like signals in each shower. The methodology of this analysis, which aims at categorizing the measured air showers as light or heavy on an event-by-event basis, will be discussed.

Abstract:

Despite significant efforts over the last decade, the origin of the cosmic ray positron excess has still not been unambiguously established. A popular class of candidates are pulsars or pulsar wind nebulae but these cannot account for the observed hard spectrum of cosmic ray antiprotons. We revisit the alternative possibility that the observed high-energy positrons are secondaries created by spallation in supernova remnants during the diffusive shock acceleration of the primary cosmic rays, which are further accelerated by the same shocks. The resulting source spectrum of positrons at high energies is then naturally harder than that of the primaries, as is the spectrum of other secondaries such as antiprotons. We present the first comprehensive investigation of the full parameter space of this model – both the source parameters as well as those governing galactic transport. Various parameterisations of the cross-sections for the production of positrons and antiprotons are considered, and the uncertainty in the model parameters discussed. We obtain an excellent fit to the recent precision measurements by AMS-02 of cosmic ray protons, helium, positrons and antiprotons, as well as of various primary and secondary nuclei. The only notable deviation is an excess of antiprotons around 10 GeV. This model thus provides an economical explanation of the spectra of all secondary species – from a single well-motivated population of sources.

Abstract:

At very high energies (VHE), the emission of γ rays is dominated by discrete sources. Due to the limited resolution and sensitivity of current-generation instruments, only a small fraction of the total Galactic population of VHE γ-ray sources has been detected significantly. The larger part of the population can be expected to contribute as a diffuse signal alongside emission originating from propagating cosmic rays. Without quantifying the source population, it is not possible to disentangle these two components. Based on the H.E.S.S. Galactic plane survey, a numerical approach has been taken to develop a model of the population of Galactic VHE γ-ray sources, which is shown to account accurately for the observational bias. We present estimates of the absolute number of sources in the Galactic Plane and their contribution to the total VHE γ-ray emission for five different spatial source distributions. Prospects for CTA and its ability to constrain the model are discussed. Finally, first results of an extension of our modelling approach using machine learning to extract more information from the available data set are presented.

Abstract:

The IceCube DeepCore is a dense infill array of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. While IceCube is best suited for detecting neutrinos with energies of several 100 GeV and above, DeepCore allows to probe neutrinos with lower energies. We focus on a sample of neutrinos with energies above approximately 10 GeV, which was originally optimised for oscillation experiments. Recently, it has been adapted to enable searches for transient sources of astrophysical neutrinos in the sky. In particular, this low-energy dataset can be used to conduct follow-up searches of gravitational wave transients detected by the LIGO-Virgo instruments. A study of this, which complements IceCube's follow-up of gravitational wave events using high-energy neutrino samples, will be discussed here.

Abstract:

Recent observations of the gamma-ray source HAWC J2227+610 by Tibet AS+MD and LHAASO confirm the special interest of this source as a galactic PeVatron candidate in the northern hemisphere. HAWC J2227+610 emits Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-rays up to 500 TeV, from a region coincident with molecular clouds and significantly displaced from the nearby pulsar J2229+6114. Even if this morphology favours an hadronic origin, both leptonic or hadronic models can describe the current VHE gamma-ray emission. The morphology of the source is not well constrained by the present measurements and a better characterisation would greatly help the understanding of the underlying particle acceleration mechanisms. The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the future most sensitive Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope and, thanks to its unprecedented angular resolution, could contribute to better constrain the nature of this source. The present work investigates the potentiality of CTA to study the morphology and the spectrum of HAWC J2227+610. For this aim, the source is simulated assuming the hadronic model proposed by the Tibet AS+MD collaboration, recently fitted on multi-wavelength data, and two spatial templates associated to the source nearby molecular clouds. Different CTA layouts and observation times are considered. A 3D map based analysis shows that CTA is able to significantly detect the extension of the source and to attribute higher detection significance to the simulated molecular cloud template compared to the alternative one. CTA data does not allow to disentangle the hadronic and the leptonic emission models. However, it permits to correctly reproduce the simulated parent proton spectrum characterized by a ∼ 500 TeV cutoff.