High-energy gamma-ray results from the second small astronomy satellite

Fichtel, C. E.; Hartman, R. C.; Kniffen, D. A.; Thompson, D. J.; Öğelman, H.; Özel, M. E.; Tumer, T.; Bignami, G. F.

doi:10.1086/153590

Cited by 370 publications

(185 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…High-energy γ-ray astrophysics is entering a new challenging phase of discovery. During the 1970's and 1980's, the SAS-2 (Fichtel et al 1975) and COS-B (Bignami et al 1975;Bennet et al 1977) space missions discovered the very first cosmic γ-ray sources around 100 MeV, but our knowledge of high-energy cosmic γ-ray emission and phenomena up to now was mainly based on the remarkable results obtained by the EGRET instrument, onboard the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) (Thompson et al 1993). Nearly 300 γ-ray sources above 100 MeV were detected by EGRET (Hartman et al 1999) during the period from April 22, 1991 to October 3, 1995; however, only a small fraction of them (∼30%) have currently been identified.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First AGILE catalog of high-confidence gamma-ray sources

Pittori¹,

Verrecchia²,

Chen

et al. 2009

A&A

103

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We present the first catalog of high-confidence γ-ray sources detected by the AGILE satellite during observations performed from July 9, 2007 to June 30, 2008. Cataloged sources were detected by merging all the available data over the entire time period. AGILE, launched in April 2007, is an ASI mission devoted to γ-ray observations in the 30 MeV-50 GeV energy range, with simultaneous X-ray imaging capability in the 18-60 keV band. This catalog is based on Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID) data for energies greater than 100 MeV. For the first AGILE catalog, we adopted a conservative analysis, with a high-quality event filter optimized to select γ-ray events within the central zone of the instrument field of view (radius of 40 • ). This is a significance-limited (4σ) catalog, and it is not a complete flux-limited sample due to the non-uniform first-year AGILE sky coverage. The catalog includes 47 sources, 21 of which are associated with confirmed or candidate pulsars, 13 with blazars (7 FSRQ, 4 BL Lacs, 2 unknown type), 2 with HMXRBs, 2 with SNRs, 1 with a colliding-wind binary system, and 8 with unidentified sources.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First AGILE catalog of high-confidence gamma-ray sources

Pittori¹,

Verrecchia²,

Chen

et al. 2009

A&A

103

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“…Ginzburg & Syrovatskii (1964) summarized the elementary process for gamma-ray production and discussed diffusion and propagation of cosmic rays in the Galactic disk. As a result, it is quite natural to expect gamma rays from the Galactic plane; however, it was 20 years after the pioneering work by Feenberg & Primakoff (1948) until the intense band of gamma-ray intensity along the Galactic plane was observed with OSO 3 (Kraushaar et al 1972) and a balloon-borne detector (Fichtel et al 1972). Advanced observations were carried out by detectors borne on SAS 2 (Fichtel et al 1975;Hartman et al 1979) and COS B (Mayer- Hasselwander et al 1980Hasselwander et al , 1982.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, it is quite natural to expect gamma rays from the Galactic plane; however, it was 20 years after the pioneering work by Feenberg & Primakoff (1948) until the intense band of gamma-ray intensity along the Galactic plane was observed with OSO 3 (Kraushaar et al 1972) and a balloon-borne detector (Fichtel et al 1972). Advanced observations were carried out by detectors borne on SAS 2 (Fichtel et al 1975;Hartman et al 1979) and COS B (Mayer- Hasselwander et al 1980Hasselwander et al , 1982. These observations revealed that the intensity profile of high-energy gamma rays is quite relevant to the structure of the Galaxy, and they have stimulated much theoretical work in gamma-ray astronomy below 10 GeV (see Bertsch et al 1993 and references therein).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observation of Multi‐TeV Diffuse Gamma Rays from the Galactic Plane with the Tibet Air Shower Array

Amenomori¹,

Ayabe²,

Cui³

et al. 2002

ApJ

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Data from the Tibet III air shower array (with energies around 3 TeV) and from the Tibet II array (with energies around 10 TeV) have been searched for diffuse gamma rays from the Galactic plane. These arrays have an angular resolution of about 0=9. The sky regions searched are the inner Galaxy, 20 l 55 , and outer Galaxy, 140 l 225 , and jbj 2 or 5 . No significant Galactic-plane gamma-ray excess was observed. The 99% confidence level upper limits for gamma-ray intensity obtained are (for jbj 2 ) 1:1 Â 10 À15 cm À2 s À1 sr À1 MeV À1 at 3 TeV and 4:1 Â 10 À17 cm À2 s À1 sr À1 MeV À1 at 10 TeV for the inner Galaxy, and 3:6 Â 10 À16 cm À2 s À1 sr À1 MeV À1 at 3 TeV and 1:3 Â 10 À17 cm À2 s À1 sr À1 MeV À1 at 10 TeV for the outer Galaxy, assuming a differential spectral index of 2.4. The upper limits are significant in the multi-TeV region when compared to those from Cerenkov telescopes in the lower energy region and other air shower arrays in the higher energy region; however, the results are not sufficient to rule out the inverse Compton model with a source electron spectral index of 2.0.

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“…Diffuse emission in the energy range from tens of MeV to tens of GeV has been studied intensively by SAS 2 (Fichtel et al 1975;Hartmann et al 1979), COS B (Mayer-Hasselwander et al 1980, 1982 and EGRET (Hunter et al 1997). The basic features can be modeled assuming π o decay as the dominant mechanism, with the gamma-ray emission proportional to the product of the gas column density and the cosmic-ray density (see, e.g., Hunter et al 1997;Fichtel et al 1975;Strong et al 1988;Bloemen 1989;Bertsch et al 1993). The distribution of cosmic rays is assumed to follow the matter density with a characteristic correlation scale of 1.5 to 2 kpc (Hunter et al 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A search for gamma-ray emission from the Galactic plane in the longitude range between $\mathsf{37}^\circ$ and $\mathsf{43}^\circ$

Aharonian

Akhperjanian

Barrio

et al. 2001

A&A

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Abstract. Using the HEGRA system of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, a region of the Galactic plane (−10 • < b < 5 • , 38 • < l < 43 • ) was surveyed for TeV gamma-ray emission, both from point sources and of diffuse nature. The region covered includes 15 known pulsars, 6 known supernova remnants (SNR) and one unidentified EGRET source. No evidence for emission from point sources was detected; upper limits are typically below 0.1 Crab units for the flux above 1 TeV. For the diffuse gamma-ray flux from the Galactic plane, an upper limit of 6.1 × 10 −15 ph cm −2 s −1 sr −1 MeV −1 was derived under the assumption that the spatial distribution measured by the EGRET instrument extends to the TeV regime. This upper flux limit is a factor of about 1.5 larger than the flux expected from the ensemble of gamma-ray unresolved Galactic cosmic ray sources.

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High-energy gamma-ray results from the second small astronomy satellite

Cited by 370 publications

References 32 publications

First AGILE catalog of high-confidence gamma-ray sources

First AGILE catalog of high-confidence gamma-ray sources

Observation of Multi‐TeV Diffuse Gamma Rays from the Galactic Plane with the Tibet Air Shower Array

A search for gamma-ray emission from the Galactic plane in the longitude range between $\mathsf{37}^\circ$ and $\mathsf{43}^\circ$

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