Search for early gamma-ray production in supernovae located in a dense circumstellar medium with the Fermi LAT

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 807; no. 2
• Main Authors: Arcavi, I., Baldini, L., Ballet, J., Barbiellini, G., Bastieri, D., Bellazzini, R., Bissaldi, E., Blandford, R. D., Bottacini, E., Brandt, T. J., Bregeon, J., Bruel, P., Buehler, R., Buson, S., Caliandro, G. A., Cameron, R. A., Caragiulo, M., Caraveo, P. A., Cavazzuti, E., Cecchi, C., Charles, E., Chekhtman, A., Chiang, J., Chiaro, G., Ciprini, S., Claus, R., Cohen-Tanugi, J., Cutini, S., Angelis, A. de, Palma, F. de, Desiante, R., Venere, L. Di, Drell, P. S., Favuzzi, C., Fegan, S. J., Franckowiak, A., Funk, S., Gal-Yam, A., Gargano, F., Gasparrini, D., Giglietto, N., Giordano, F., Giroletti, M., Glanzman, T., Godfrey, G., Grenier, I. A., Grove, J. E., Guiriec, S., Harding, A. K., Hayashi, K., Hewitt, J. W., Hill, A. B., Horan, D., Jogler, T., Jóhannesson, G., Kocevski, D., Kuss, M., Larsson, S., Lashner, J., Latronico, L., Li, J., Li, L., Longo, F., Loparco, F., Lovellette, M. N., Lubrano, P., Malyshev, D., Mayer, M., Mizuno, T., Monzani, M. E., Morselli, A., Nugent, P., Nuss, E., Ofek, E., Ohsugi, T., Orienti, M., Orlando, E., Ormes, J. F., Pesce-Rollins, M., Piron, F., Pivato, G., Rainò, S., Rando, R., Razzano, M., Reimer, A., Reimer, O., Schulz, A., Sgrò, C., Spada, F., Spinelli, P., Suson, D. J., Takahashi, H., Thayer, J. B., Tibaldo, L., Torres, D. F., Troja, E., Vianello, G., Werner, M., Wood, K. S., Wood, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Institute of Physics (IOP) 09.07.2015
• Subjects: ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; cosmic rays; data analysis; gamma rays; supernovae
• ISSN: 1538-4357; 1538-4357

Supernovae (SNe) exploding in a dense circumstellar medium (CSM) are hypothesized to accelerate cosmic rays in collisionless shocks and emit GeV γ-rays and TeV neutrinos on a timescale of several months. We perform the first systematic search for γ-ray emission in Fermi Large Area Telescope data in the energy range from $100\;\mathrm{MeV}$ to $300\;\mathrm{GeV}$ from the ensemble of 147 SNe Type IIn exploding in a dense CSM. Here, we search for a γ-ray excess at each SNe location in a one-year time window. In order to enhance a possible weak signal, we simultaneously study the closest and optically brightest sources of our sample in a joint-likelihood analysis in three different time windows (1 year, 6 months, and 3 months). For the most promising source of the sample, SN 2010jl (PTF 10aaxf), we repeat the analysis with an extended time window lasting 4.5 years. We do not find a significant excess in γ-rays for any individual source nor for the combined sources and provide model-independent flux upper limits for both cases. Additionally, we derive limits on the γ-ray luminosity and the ratio of γ-ray-to-optical luminosity ratio as a function of the index of the proton injection spectrum assuming a generic γ-ray production model. Furthermore, we present detailed flux predictions based on multi-wavelength observations and the corresponding flux upper limit at a 95% confidence level (CL) for the source SN 2010jl (PTF 10aaxf).