First Detection of sub-PeV Diffuse Gamma Rays from the Galactic Disk: Evidence for Ubiquitous Galactic Cosmic Rays beyond PeV Energies
Physical Review Letters2021Vol. 126(14), pp. 141101–141101
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M. Amenomori, Y. W. Bao, Xiao-Jun Bi, D. Chen, T. L. Chen, Wen‐Yun Chen, Xu Chen, Yang Chen, Cirennima, S. W. Cui, Danzengluobu Danzengluobu, L. K. Ding, J. Fang, Kun Fang, C. Feng, Zhaoyang Feng, Zhao-Qing Feng, Qi Gao, Q. B. Gou, Y. Q. Guo, Yingying Guo, H. H. He, Z. T. He, K. Hibino, N. Hotta, Haibing Hu, H. B. Hu, J. Huang, H. Y. Jia, Long Jiang, H.-B. Jin, K. Kasahara, Y. Katayose, C. Kato, Shinsuke Kato, K. Kawata, W. Kihara, Y. Ko, M. Kozai, Labaciren Labaciren, G. M. Le, A. F. Li, H. J. Li, Wenjuan Li, Y. H. Lin, Jianwei Liu, C. Liu, J. S. Liu, M. Y. Liu, Wei Liu, Y.‐Q. Lou, H. Lu, X. R. Meng, K. Munakata, H. Nakada, Yuya Nakamura, H. Nanjo, M. Nishizawa, M. Ohnishi, T. Ohura, S. Ozawa, X. L. Qian, X. B. Qu, T. Saito, M. Sakata, T. Sako, J. Shao, M. Shibata, A. Shiomi, H. Sugimoto, W. Takano, M. Takita, Y. H. Tan, N. Tateyama, S. Torii, H. Tsuchiya, S. Udo, Han Wang, H. R. Wu, L. Xue, Y. Yamamoto, Z. Yang, Y. Yokoe, A. F. Yuan, L. M. Zhai, H. M. Zhang, J. L. Zhang, Xiang Zhang, X. Y. Zhang, Yi Zhang, Yi Zhang, Ying Zhang, S. P. Zhao, Zhaxisangzhu, Xiaojuan Zhou
Abstract
We report, for the first time, the long-awaited detection of diffuse gamma rays with energies between 100 TeV and 1 PeV in the Galactic disk. Particularly, all gamma rays above 398 TeV are observed apart from known TeV gamma-ray sources and compatible with expectations from the hadronic emission scenario in which gamma rays originate from the decay of π^{0}'s produced through the interaction of protons with the interstellar medium in the Galaxy. This is strong evidence that cosmic rays are accelerated beyond PeV energies in our Galaxy and spread over the Galactic disk.