First results of a study of TeV emission from GRBs in Milagrito

Authors

J E. McEnery, University of UtahFollow
R Atkins, University of UtahFollow
W Benbow, University of California - Santa Cruz
D Berley, University of Maryland - College Park
M L. Chen, University of Maryland - College Park
D G. Coyne, University of California - Santa Cruz
B L. Dingus, University of UtahFollow
D E. Dorfan, University of California - Santa Cruz
R W. Ellsworth, George Mason University
D Evans, University of Maryland - College Park
A Falcone, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
L Fleysher, New York UniversityFollow
R Fleysher, New York UniversityFollow
G Gisler, Los Alamos National Laboratory
J A. Goodman, University of Maryland - College Park
T J. Haines, Los Alamos National LaboratoryFollow
C M. Hoffman, Los Alamos National Laboratory
S Hugenberger, University of California - Irvine
L A. Kelley, University of California - Santa Cruz
I Leonor, University of California - Irvine
Mark L. McConnell, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
J F. McCullough, University of California - Santa Cruz
R S. Miller, University of New Hampshire - Main CampusFollow
A I. Mincer, New York University
M F. Morales, University of California - Santa CruzFollow
P Nemethy, New York University
James M. Ryan, University of New HampshireFollow
B Shen, University of California - Riverside
A Shoup, University of California - Irvine
C Sinnis, Los Alamos National Laboratory
A J. Smith, University of California - RiversideFollow
G W. Sullivan, University of Maryland - College Park
O T. Tumer, University of California - Riverside
K Wang, University of California - Riverside
M O. Wascko, University of California - Riverside
S Westerhoff, University of California - Santa Cruz
D A. Williams, University of California - Santa CruzFollow
T Yang, University of California - Santa Cruz
G B. Yodh, University of California - Irvine

Abstract

Milagrito, a detector sensitive to γ-rays at TeV energies, monitored the northern sky during the period February 1997 through May 1998. With a large field of view and high duty cycle, this instrument was used to perform a search for TeV counterparts to γ-ray bursts. Within the Milagrito field of view 54 γ-ray bursts at keV energies were observed by the Burst And Transient Satellite Experiment (BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. This paper describes the results of a preliminary analysis to search for TeV emission correlated with BATSE detected bursts. Milagrito detected an excess of events coincident both spatially and temporally with GRB 970417a, with chance probability 2.8×10−5 within the BATSE error radius. No other significant correlations were detected. Since 54 bursts were examined the chance probability of observing an excess with this significance in any of these bursts is 1.5×10−3. The statistical aspects and physical implications of this result are discussed.

Department

Space Science Center, Physics

Publication Date

2000

Journal Title

AIP Conference Proceedings

Publisher

AIP Publishing

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1063/1.1291374

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Recommended Citation

First results of a study of TeV emission from GRBs in Milagrito McEnery, J. E. and Atkins, R. and Benbow, W. and Berley, D. and Chen, M. L. and Coyne, D. G. and Dingus, B. L. and Dorfan, D. E. and Ellsworth, R. W. and Evans, D. and Falcone, A. and Fleysher, L. and Fleysher, R. and Gisler, G. and Goodman, J. A. and Haines, T. J. and Hoffman, C. M. and Hugenberger, S. and Kelley, L. A. and Leonor, I. and McConnell, M. and McCullough, J. F. and Miller, R. S. and Mincer, A. I. and Morales, M. F. and Nemethy, P. and Ryan, J. M. and Shen, B. and Shoup, A. and Sinnis, C. and Smith, A. J. and Sullivan, G. W. and Tumer, T. and Wang, K. and Wascko, M. O. and Westerhoff, S. and Williams, D. A. and Yang, T. and Yodh, G. B., AIP Conference Proceedings, 515, 243-248 (2000), DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1291374

Rights

© 2000 American Institute of Physics