The large-scale cosmic-ray anisotropy as observed with milagro

  • A. A. Abdo
  • , B. T. Allen
  • , T. Aune
  • , D. Berley
  • , S. Casanova
  • , C. Chen
  • , B. L. Dingus
  • , R. W. Ellsworth
  • , L. Fleysher
  • , R. Fleysher
  • , M. M. Gonzalez
  • , J. A. Goodman
  • , C. M. Hoffman
  • , B. Hopper
  • , P. H. Hüntemeyer
  • , B. E. Kolterman
  • , C. P. Lansdell
  • , J. T. Linnemann
  • , J. E. McEnery
  • , A. I. Mincer
  • P. Nemethy, D. Noyes, J. Pretz, J. M. Ryan, P. M. Saz Parkinson, A. Shoup, G. Sinnis, A. J. Smith, G. W. Sullivan, V. Vasileiou, G. P. Walker, D. A. Williams, G. B. Yodh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

186 Scopus citations

Abstract

Results are presented of a harmonic analysis of the large-scale cosmic-ray (CR) anisotropy as observed by the Milagro observatory. We show a two-dimensional display of the sidereal anisotropy projections in right ascension (R.A.) generated by the fitting of three harmonics to 18 separate declination bands. The Milagro observatory is a water Cherenkov detector located in the Jemez mountains near Los Alamos, New Mexico. With a high duty cycle and large field of view, Milagro is an excellent instrument for measuring this anisotropy with high sensitivity at TeV energies. The analysis is conducted using a seven-year data sample consisting of more than 95 billion events, the largest such data set in existence. We observe an anisotropy with a magnitude around 0.1% for CRs with a median energy of 6 TeV. The dominant feature is a deficit region of depth (2.49 ± 0.02 stat. ± 0.09 sys.) ×10-3 in the direction of the Galactic north pole centered at 189 deg R.A. We observe a steady increase in the magnitude of the signal over seven years.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2121-2130
Number of pages10
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume68
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2009

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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