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NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum

AGN as Multi-Messenger Probes of the High-Energy Universe: Observations with the HAWC Observatory

Date: Thursday, January 24th

Time: 2:00 pm

Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall

Speaker: Asif Imran, Los Alamos National Lab

Abstract: Ground-based gamma-ray observatories have opened up a new window into the high-energy universe. To date, exciting results reported by experiments such as VERITAS, H.E.S.S., and Milagro include the the detection of photons from nearly 50 relativistic AGN jets at TeV energies. However, the picture of the universe beyond 1 TeV is far from complete. The origin and composition of the extra-galactic ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECR) remains a central problems in astrophysics. Based on energy considerations, recent studies have argued that highly relativistic jets in AGNs are the best candidates for the sites of UHECR acceleration. Consequently, we may be able to observe >20 TeV emission from nearby AGN contrary to conventional models that predict significant attenuations of the source gamma-ray photons via the diffuse extragalactic background light. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, a next-generation ground-based particle shower detector will be sensitive to photon energies from 50 GeV to 100 TeV with angular resolution of 0.3 degrees at E> 1 TeV. HAWC's high duty cycle (~100%) and wide field of view (~2 sr) is ideal to test AGN as possible sites for the acceleration of UHECR. Furthermore, HAWC's observations of an orphan flare from AGN coupled with the detection of coincident neutrinos by the IceCube observatory with allow us to independently probe the acceleration of UHECR in AGN.

In this talk, I will give an overview of the mechanism for the production of high energy photons from UHECR-induced cascade emission along with an update on the current status of the HAWC observatory. I'll also present the sensitivity of the HAWC detector to TeV emission from AGN.

Host: Westerhoff

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