Dortmund 2021 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 54: Cosmic Rays III

T 54.1: Talk

Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 16:00–16:15, Td

Follow-Up Search for UHE Photons after Gravitational Wave Events with the Pierre Auger Observatory — •Philip Ruehl, Marcus Niechciol, and Markus Risse — Center for Particle Physics Siegen, Experimentelle Teilchenphysik, Universität Siegen

With the first detection of a gravitational wave (GW) event by the Advanced LIGO detectors in September 2015 a new window to multimessenger astronomy has been opened. The origin of this event has later been identified as the merger of a binary black hole system. Since then, multiple gravitational wave events have been observed from different sources. Possibly, these transient objects could be sources of ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic rays. This can be tested by multimessenger observations. Unlike charged particles, neutral messengers like neutrinos and photons carry information about the direction and the time of their production site making them ideal tools for multimessenger astronomy. While in classical scenarios photons can interact with the cosmic microwave background such that a measurable UHE photon fraction would only be expected from nearby sources, a UHE photon detection from a distant source could point towards new physics.
To extend the search window of the Pierre Auger Observatory, in addition to the established follow-up neutrino search now also a follow-up photon search is being developed. In this contribution, the first approach towards a search for UHE photons from GW sources using the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory will be presented.
Gefördert durch BMBF-Verbundforschung.