TeV Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts with Milagro

by

Julie E. McEnery
20 July 2001

Gamma-Ray bursts are flashes of gamma-rays lasting from well under 1 second to over 1000 seconds. Recent satellite findings indicate that they originate from near the visible edges of our Universe, and are therefore by far the most luminous objects in nature. Almost all GRBs discovered to date have been observed at energies between 10keV and 300 keV only. The existence of emission at energies above those accessible by satellite experiments has remained an open question. In Fall 1999, Milagro, a new type of very-high-energy gamma-ray observatory sensitive at energies above 200 GeV began operation; it is ideally suited to a search for very high energy emission from GRBs. I will discuss evidence of very-high-energy emission from a GRB obtained in 1997 with a smaller prototype of Milagro called Milagrito and review the current status of the GRB search in Milagro.




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