Search for a diffuse flux of photons with energies above tens of PeV at the Pierre Auger Observatory

作者：Adila Abdul Halim, P. Abreu, M. Aglietta, I. Allekotte, Kévin Almeida Cheminant, A. Almela, Roberto Aloisio, Jaime Álvarez-Muñiz, Antonio Ambrosone, Juan Ammerman Yebra, Gioacchino Alex Anastasi, Luis A. Anchordoqui, B. Andrada, Luciana Andrade Dourado, S. Andringa, Lorenzo Apollonio, C. Aramo, Enrico Arnone, J.C. Arteaga Velázquez, P. Assis, Gael Flores Avila, Emanuele Avocone, Alena Bakalová, Felicia Barbato, Adriel Bartz Mocellin, Jose A. Bellido, Corinne Bérat, М. Бертаина, Marta Bianciotto, Peter L. Biermann, V. Binet, Kathrin Bismark, Teresa Bister, J. Biteau, Jiří Blažek, J. Blümer, M. Boháčová, Denise Boncioli, C. Bonifazi, Luan Bonneau Arbeletche, Nataliia Borodai, J. Brack, P.G. Brichetto Orchera, F. L. Briechle, A. Bueno, S. Buitink, Mario Buscemi, M. Büsken, Anthony Bwembya, K. S. Caballero‐Mora, Sergio Cabana-Freire, Lorenzo Caccianiga, F. Campuzano, Jorge Caraça-Valente, R. Caruso, A. Castellina, Fernando Catalani, G. Cataldi, Lorenzo Cazon, M. Cerda, Berenika Čermáková, A. Cermenati, J. A. Chinellato, J. Chudoba, L. Chytka, R. W. Clay, A. C. Cobos Cerutti, Roberta Colalillo, R. Conceição, Giovanni Consolati, M. Conte, Fabio Convenga, Diego Correia dos Santos, Paulo J. Costa, C. E. Covault, M. Cristinziani, Carlo Salvattore Cruz Sanchez, S. Dasso, K. Daumiller, B. R. Dawson, R. M. de Almeida, E.-T. de Boone, Beatriz de Errico, Joaquín de Jesús, S. J. de Jong, J.R.T. de Mello Neto, I. De Mitri, J. de Oliveira, Danelise de Oliveira Franco, F. de Palma, V. de Souza, Emanuele De Vito, Antonino Del Popolo, Olivier Deligny, N. Denner, L. Deval, Armando di Matteo, C. Dobrigkeit, J. C. D’Olivo, Luis Miguel Domingues Mendes, Qader Dorosti, J.C. dos Anjos, R. C. dos Anjos, Jan Ebr, Fiona H. Ellwanger, M. Emam, R. Engel, Italo Epicoco, M. Erdmann, A. Etchegoyen, Carmelo Evoli, H. Falcke, Glennys R. Farrar, A. C. Fauth, Tim Fehler, Fridtjof Feldbusch, A. Fernandes, B. Fick, J.M. Figueira, P. Filip, A. Filipčič, Thomas Fitoussi, Benjamin Flaggs, Tomáš Fodran, M. Freitas, Toshihiro Fujii, A. Fuster, C. Galea, B. Garćıa, Chloé Gaudu, P. L. Ghia, U. Giaccari, F. Gobbi, Fernando Gollan, G. Golup, M. Gómez Berisso, Primo F. Gómez Vitale, J.P. Gongora, J. M. González, Nicolás Martín González, D. Góra, A. Gorgi, Marvin Gottowik, F. Guarino, G.P. Guedes, Eleonora Guido, Lukas Gülzow, Steffen Hahn, P. Hamal, Matías Rolf Hampel, P. Hansen, V.M. Harvey, A. Haungs, T. Hebbeker, C. Hojvat, J.R. Hörandel, Pavel Horváth, M. Hrabovský, T. Huege, A. Insolia, Paula Gina Isar, Petr Janeček, Vlastimil Jílek, K.‐H. Kampert, B. Keilhauer, Abha Khakurdikar, Varada Varma Kizakke Covilakam, H.O. Klages, M. Kleifges, J. Köhler, F. Krieger, Margita Kubátová, N. Kunka, Bruno L. Lago, Niklas Langner, M. A. Leigui de Oliveira, Yago Lema-Capeans, A. Letessier‐Selvon, I. Lhenry-Yvon, L. Lopes, Jon Paul Lundquist, Allan Machado Payeras, M. Mallamaci, Dušan Mandát, Bradley C. Manning, P. Mantsch, F. M. Mariani, A. G. Mariazzi, Ioana Codrina Mariş, G. Marsella, D. Martello, S. Martinelli, Miguel A. Martins, Hermann-Josef Mathes, J. Matthews, G. Matthiae, Eric William Mayotte, Sonja Mayotte, P. O. Mazur, Gustavo Medina‐Tanco, Janning Meinert, D. Melo, A. Menshikov, Carmen Merx, Stanislav Michal, María Isabel Micheletti, L. Miramonti, Megha Mogarkar, Silvia Mollerach, F. Montanet, Leonel Morejón, Katharine Mulrey, R. Mussa, Wilson M. Namasaka, S. Negi, L. Nellen, Khoa Nguyen, Gabriela Nicora, Marcus Niechciol, D. Nitz, Dalibor Nosek, Alexander Novikov, Vladimír Novotný, L. Nožka, Achille Nucita, Luis A. Núñez, José Ochoa, Cainã de Oliveira, L. Östman, M. Palatka, Juan Pallotta, S. Panja, G. Parente, T. Paulsen, J. Pawlowsky, M. Pech, Jan Pękala, R. Pelayo, Vincent Pelgrims, Luiz Augusto Pereira, Edyvânia Emily Pereira Martins, Carmina Pérez Bertolli, Lorenzo Perrone, S. Petrera, C. Petrucci, T. Pierog, M. Pimenta, M. Platino, Bjarni Pont, Mohsen Pourmohammad Shahvar, Paolo Privitera, M. Prouza, Krzysztof Pytel, S. Querchfeld, J. Rautenberg, D. Ravignani, João Vítor Reginatto Akim, Alex Reuzki, J. Řídký, Felix Riehn, Markus Risse, V. Rizi, E. Rodriguez, G. Rodriguez Fernandez, J. Rodriguez Rojo, S. Rossoni, M. Roth, Esteban Roulet, Adrián Rovero, A. Sǎftoiu, M. Saharan, F. Salamida, Humberto Antonio Salazar Ibarguen, G. Salina, P. Sampathkumar, Nicolas San Martin, Jose Sanabria Gomez, F. Sánchez, Edivaldo Moura Santos, Eva Santos, F. Sarazin, R. Sarmento, R. Sato, Pierpaolo Savina, Viviana Scherini, H. Schieler, Martin Schimassek, M. Schimp, David Schmidt, O. Schölten, Harm Schoorlemmer, Petr Schovánek, Frank Schröder, Josina Schulte, T. Schulz, Sergio J Sciutto, M. Scornavacche, Adrian Sedoski, A. Segreto, S. Sehgal, S.U. Shivashankara, G. Sigl, Katarína Simkova, F. Simon, Radomir Šmída, P. Sommers, R. Squartini, Maximilian Stadelmaier, S. Stanič, Jarosław Stasielak, Patrick Stassi, S. Strähnz, M. Straub, Tiina Suomijärvi, A. D. Supanitsky, Zuzana Svozilikova, Zbigniew Szadkowski, Fedor Tairli, A. Tapia, Carla Taricco, Charles Timmermans, Olena Tkachenko, Petr Tobiška, Carlos J. Todero Peixoto, B. Tomé, Andres Travaini, P. Trávnı́ček, Matias Jorge Tueros, M. Unger, Rukije Uzeiroska, Lukáš Vaclavek, Martin Vacula, Igor Vaiman, Jose F. Valdés Galicia, Laura Valore, Enrique Varela, V. Vašíčková, Adriana Vásquez-Ramírez, Darko Veberič, Indira D. Vergara Quispe, Stef Verpoest, V. Verzi, J. Vícha, Jacco Vink, S. Vorobiov, J.B. Vuta, C. Watanabe, Alan Watson, Andreas Weindl, Melanie Weitz, Lawrence Wiencke, H. Wilczyński, D. Wittkowski, Brian Wundheiler, B. B. Yue, Alexey Yushkov, E. Zas, Danilo Zavrtanik, Marko Zavrtanik · 发表于：Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1088/1475-7516/2025/05/061 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena、Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena、Neutrino Physics Research

Abstract Diffuse photons of energy above 0.1 PeV, produced through the interactions between cosmic rays and either interstellar matter or background radiation fields, are powerful tracers of the distribution of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. Furthermore, the measurement of a diffuse photon flux would be an important probe to test models of super-heavy dark matter decaying into gamma-rays. In this work, we search for a diffuse photon flux in the energy range between 50 PeV and 200 PeV using data from the Pierre Auger Observatory. For the first time, we combine the air-shower measurements from a 2 km 2 surface array consisting of 19 water-Cherenkov surface detectors, spaced at 433 m, with the muon measurements from an array of buried scintillators placed in the same area. Using 15 months of data, collected while the array was still under construction, we derive upper limits to the integral photon flux ranging from 13.3 to 13.8 km -2 sr -1 yr -1 above tens of PeV. We extend the Pierre Auger Observatory photon search program towards lower energies, covering more than three decades of cosmic-ray energy. This work lays the foundation for future diffuse photon searches: with the data from the next 10 years of operation of the Observatory, this limit is expected to improve by a factor of ∼20.