Abstract
Observation techniques of high-energy gamma rays using air showers have remarkably progressed via the Tibet ASγ, HAWC, and LHAASO experiments. These observations have significantly contributed to gamma-ray astronomy in the northern sky’s sub-PeV region. Moreover, in the southern sky, the ALPACA experiment is underway at 4,740 m altitude on the Chacaltaya plateau in Bolivia. This experiment estimates the gamma-ray flux from the difference between the number of on-source and off-source events by real data, utilizing the gamma-ray detection efficiency calculated through Monte Carlo simulations, which in turn depends on the hadronic interaction models. Even though the number of cosmic-ray background events can be experimentally estimated, this model dependence affects the estimation of gamma-ray detection efficiency. However, previous reports have assumed that the model dependence is negligible and have not included it in the error of gamma-ray flux estimation. Using ALPAQUITA, the prototype experiment of ALPACA, we quantitatively evaluated the model dependence on hadronic interaction models for the first time. We evaluate the model dependence on hadronic interactions as less than 3.6 % in the typical gamma-ray flux estimation performed by ALPAQUITA; this is negligible compared with other uncertainties such as energy scale uncertainty in the energy range from 6 to 300 TeV, which is dominated by the Monte Carlo statistics. This upper limit of 3.6 % model dependence is expected to apply to ALPACA.
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Acknowledgements
The ALPACA project is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) 19H00678, Scientific Research (B) 19H01922, Scientific Research (B) 20H01920, Scientific Research (S) 20H05640, Scientific Research (B) 20H01234, Scientific Research (C) 22K03660, and Specially Promoted Research 22H04912, the LeoAtrox supercomputer located at the facilities of the Centro de Análisis de Datos (CADS), CGSAIT, Universidad de Guadalajara, México, and by the joint research program of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR), The University of Tokyo. Y. Katayose is also supported by JSPS Open Partnership joint Research projectsF2018, F2019. K. Kawata is supported by the Toray Science Foundation. E. de la Fuente thanks Coordinación General Académica y de Innovación (CGAI-UDG), cuerpo académico PRODEP-UDG-CA-499, Carlos Iván Moreno, Cynthia Ruano, Rosario Cedano, and Diana Naylleli, for financial and administrative support during sabbatical year stay at the ICRR on 2021. I. Toledano-Juarez acknowledges support from CONACyT, México; grant 754851.
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Okukawa, S., Anzorena, M., Asano, S. et al. Hadronic interaction model dependence in cosmic Gamma-ray flux estimation using an extensive air shower array with a muon detector. Exp Astron 55, 325–342 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-022-09883-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-022-09883-4