학술논문
Limits on Very High Energy Emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts with the Milagro Observatory
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
The Milagro Collaboration; Atkins, R.; Benbow, W.; Berley, D.; Blaufuss, E.; Bussons, J.; Coyne, D. G.; DeYoung, T.; Dingus, B. L.; Dorfan, D. E.; Ellsworth, R. W.; Fleysher, L.; Fleysher, R.; Gisler, G.; Gonzalez, M. M.; Goodman, J. A.; Haines, T. J.; Hays, E.; Hoffman, C. M.; Kelley, L. A.; McEnery, J. E.; Miller, R. S.; Mincer, A. I.; Morales, M. F.; Nemethy, P.; Noyes, D.; Ryan, J. M.; Samuelson, F. W.; Shoup, A.; Sinnis, G.; Smith, A. J.; Sullivan, G. W.; Williams, D. A.; Westerhoff, S.; Wilson, M. E.; Xu, X.; Yodh, G. B.
Source
Astrophys.J. 604 (2004) L25-L28
Subject
Language
Abstract
The Milagro telescope monitors the northern sky for 100 GeV to 100 TeV transient emission through continuous very high energy wide-field observations. The large effective area and ~100 GeV energy threshold of Milagro allow it to detect very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray burst emission with much higher sensitivity than previous instruments and a fluence sensitivity at VHE energies comparable to that of dedicated gamma-ray burst satellites at keV to MeV energies. Even in the absence of a positive detection, VHE observations can place important constraints on gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor and emission models. We present limits on the VHE flux of 40 s -- 3 h duration transients nearby to earth, as well as sensitivity distributions which have been corrected for gamma-ray absorption by extragalactic background light and cosmological effects. The sensitivity distributions suggest that the typical intrinsic VHE fluence of GRBs is similar or weaker than the keV -- MeV emission, and we demonstrate how these sensitivity distributions may be used to place observational constraints on the absolute VHE luminosity of gamma-ray bursts for any GRB emission and progenitor model.
Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL, minor revisions to the text, retypeset in emulateapj style
Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL, minor revisions to the text, retypeset in emulateapj style