Observations of occultations of bright γ-ray sources by the Sun may reveal predicted pair halos around blazars and/or new physics, such as, e.g., hypothetical light dark matter particles—axions. We use Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (Fermi) data to analyze four occultations of blazar 3C 279 by the Sun on October 8 each year from 2008 to 2011. A combined analysis of the observations of these occultations allows a point-like source at the position of 3C 279 to be detected with significance of ≈3σ, but does not reveal any significant excess over the flux expected from the quiescent Sun. The likelihood ratio test rules out complete transparency of the Sun to the blazar γ-ray emission at a 3σ confidence level.
Titolo: | Fermi LARGE AREA TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS OF BLAZAR 3C 279 OCCULTATIONS BY THE SUN |
Autori: | |
Data di pubblicazione: | 2014 |
Rivista: | |
Abstract: | Observations of occultations of bright γ-ray sources by the Sun may reveal predicted pair halos around blazars and/or new physics, such as, e.g., hypothetical light dark matter particles—axions. We use Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (Fermi) data to analyze four occultations of blazar 3C 279 by the Sun on October 8 each year from 2008 to 2011. A combined analysis of the observations of these occultations allows a point-like source at the position of 3C 279 to be detected with significance of ≈3σ, but does not reveal any significant excess over the flux expected from the quiescent Sun. The likelihood ratio test rules out complete transparency of the Sun to the blazar γ-ray emission at a 3σ confidence level. |
Handle: | http://hdl.handle.net/11368/2766735 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/784/2/118 |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 1.1 Articolo in Rivista |