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

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.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Published
2025-05-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2025/05/061
Citations
4
Primary Topic
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
7.48

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

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

Zbigniew Szadkowski, T. Paulsen, U. Giaccari, Bruno L. Lago et al.
4 citations
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
7.48
article

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

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

Abstract

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.

Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle PhysicsVol. 2025(05)
Institut de Physique (FR), Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies (FR), Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie (FR)
Strong, Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica
Openalex Percentile: Top 4%
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
7.48
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.