Observation of the Crab Nebula with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory

Abstract. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory is a wide field-of-view observatory sensitive to 500 GeV -100 TeV gamma rays and cosmic rays. With its observations over 2/3 of the sky every day, the HAWC observatory is sensitive to a wide variety of astrophysical sources, including possible gamma rays from dark matter. Dark matter annihilation and decay in the Milky Way Galaxy should produce gamma-ray signals across many degrees on the sky. The HAWC instantaneous field-of-view of 2 sr enables observations of extended regions on the sky, such as those from dark matter in the Galactic halo. Here we show limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section and decay lifetime from HAWC observations of the Galactic halo with 15 months of data. These are some of the most robust limits on TeV and PeV dark matter, largely insensitive to the dark matter morphology. These limits begin to constrain models in which PeV IceCube neutrinos are explained by dark matter which primarily decays into hadrons.

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“…These separators select the gamma-like showers [51]. For more details on the values of these cuts, see table 2 of ref.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This data has under-fluctuations for this region on the sky. In addition to this statistical uncertainty, it should be noted that HAWC has a systematic uncertainty of 50% at these high energies [51].…”

Section: Dark Matter Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A search for dark matter in the Galactic halo with HAWC

Abeysekara

Albert

Alfaro

et al. 2018

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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“…A wide FoV, approximately defined by a cone with an opening angle of 45 • from zenith, spans the declination range of −26 • to +64 • and rotates with the Earth through the full range of right ascension every day. For a detailed description of the array and analysis methods see Abeysekara et al (2017b).…”

Section: The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The energy range covered by these limits extends from 500 GeV to 160 TeV. A discussion of systematic uncertainties of HAWC flux measurements can be found in Abeysekara et al (2017b). These systematic uncertainties are not incorporated into the limits.…”

Section: The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiwavelength follow-up of a rare IceCube neutrino multiplet

Aartsen¹,

Ackermann²,

Adams³

et al. 2017

A&A

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On February 17 2016, the IceCube real-time neutrino search identified, for the first time, three muon neutrino candidates arriving within 100 s of one another, consistent with coming from the same point in the sky. Such a triplet is expected once every 13.7 years as a random coincidence of background events. However, considering the lifetime of the follow-up program the probability of detecting at least one triplet from atmospheric background is 32%. Follow-up observatories were notified in order to search for an electromagnetic counterpart. Observations were obtained by Swift's X-ray telescope, by ASAS-SN, LCO and MASTER at optical wavelengths, and by VERITAS in the very-high-energy gamma-ray regime. Moreover, the Swift BAT serendipitously observed the location 100 s after the first neutrino was detected, and data from the Fermi LAT and HAWC observatory were analyzed. We present details of the neutrino triplet and the follow-up observations. No likely electromagnetic counterpart was detected, and we discuss the implications of these constraints on candidate neutrino sources such as gamma-ray bursts, core-collapse supernovae and active galactic nucleus flares. This study illustrates the potential of and challenges for future follow-up campaigns.

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“…The sensitivity of the HAWC detector was established through both Monte Carlo simulations and observations of the Crab plerion [2]. A good rule of thumb is that HAWC detects the Crab at roughly 5σ with each transit of roughly 5 hours.…”

Section: Search For Tev Transients From Coalescing Binary System Discmentioning

confidence: 99%

Search for TeV transients from Coalescing Binary systems discovered in Gravity Waves by LIGO/Virgo.

Smith¹

2018

Proceedings of 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2017)

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The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is a wide-field continuously operating gamma-ray telescope. The detector consists of an array of 300 water tanks, each containing 200kTons of purified water instrumented with 4 larger area PMTs. The observatory is located at an elevation of 4100m a.s.l. near the Sierra Negra volcano in central Mexico. The combination of density, area and sensitivity gives HAWC an unprecedented threshold for air shower arrays, below 1 TeV. Unlike IACTs, the HAWC operates continuously (90% uptime) and can observe the entire overhead sky ( 2 sr), making it well suited for catching rapid transients from unknown directions and times. The LIGO/Virgo collaboration has recently discovered gravity wave ?bursts? emitted from coalescing massive compact objects. Gravity-wave detectors have very poor position resolution, making follow-up observations by narrow-field telescopes challenging. We have developed a systematic method for searching the locations where the probability contours overlap the HAWC field of view for gamma-ray transients. We describe in detail our analysis procedure and will report on our follow-ups observations of LIGO/Virgo triggers for both observation runs O1 and O2 (on going at the time of abstract submission).

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Observation of the Crab Nebula with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory

Cited by 281 publications

References 33 publications

A search for dark matter in the Galactic halo with HAWC

A search for dark matter in the Galactic halo with HAWC

Multiwavelength follow-up of a rare IceCube neutrino multiplet

Search for TeV transients from Coalescing Binary systems discovered in Gravity Waves by LIGO/Virgo.

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