首次从天体物理源探测到能量超过 100 TeV 的光子。

First Detection of Photons with Energy beyond 100 TeV from an Astrophysical Source.

机构信息

Department of Physics, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki 036-8561, Japan.

School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.

出版信息

Phys Rev Lett. 2019 Aug 2;123(5):051101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.051101.

DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.051101

PMID:31491288

Abstract

We report on the highest energy photons from the Crab Nebula observed by the Tibet air shower array with the underground water-Cherenkov-type muon detector array. Based on the criterion of a muon number measured in an air shower, we successfully suppress 99.92% of the cosmic-ray background events with energies E>100 TeV. As a result, we observed 24 photonlike events with E>100 TeV against 5.5 background events, which corresponds to a 5.6σ statistical significance. This is the first detection of photons with E>100 TeV from an astrophysical source.

摘要

我们报告了在西藏空气簇射阵列与地下水中切伦科夫型μ子探测器阵列观测到的来自蟹状星云的最高能量光子。基于在空气簇射中测量到的μ子数量的标准，我们成功地抑制了能量 E>100 TeV 的宇宙射线背景事件的 99.92%。结果，我们观测到了 24 个光子事件，能量 E>100 TeV，而背景事件为 5.5 个，这对应于 5.6σ 的统计显著性。这是首次从天体源探测到能量 E>100 TeV 的光子。