Search for Short Duration Bursts of TeV Gamma Rays with the Milagrito Telescope
astro-ph
/ Authors
R. Atkins, W. Benbow, D. Berley, M. -L. Chen, D. G. Coyne, R. S. Delay, B. L. Dingus, D. E. Dorfan, R. W. Ellsworth, D. Evans
and 33 more authors
A. Falcone, L. Fleysher, R. Fleysher, G. Gisler, J. A. Goodman, T. J. Haines, C. M. Hoffman, S. Hugenberger, L. A. Kelley, I. Leonor, J. Macri, M. McConnell, J. F. McCullough, J. E. McEnery, R. S. Miller, A. I. Mincer, M. F. Morales, P. Nemethy, J. M. Ryan, M. Schneider, B. Shen, A. Shoup, G. Sinnis, A. J. Smith
/ Abstract
The Milagrito water Cherenkov telescope operated for over a year. The most probable gamma-ray energy was ~1 TeV and the trigger rate was as high as 400 Hz. We have developed an efficient technique for searching the entire sky for short duration bursts of TeV photons. Such bursts may result from "traditional" gamma-ray bursts that were not in the field-of-view of any other instruments, the evaporation of primordial black holes, or some as yet undiscovered phenomenon. We have begun to search the Milagrito data set for bursts of duration 10 seconds. Here we will present the technique and the expected results. Final results will be presented at the conference.