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R. Fleysher (New York University), Milagro Collaboration
Diffuse high energy gamma radiation can arise from a variety of astrophysical sources, in particular from interactions between energetic cosmic rays and matter in our galaxy. Emission from the galactic plane has been detected in the energy range up to 30 GeV by space-based detectors. Above 1 GeV, the observed intensity is significantly higher than expected which may imply an enhancement at TeV region. Observations at these energies, for which the flux is too low for satellites, can be done with ground based telescopes. Milagro is a wide-aperture extensive air shower water Cerenkov detector collecting data from a solid angle of more than two steradians in the overhead sky at energies near 1 TeV. We have used a 2000-2001 data set from Milagro to search for the emission of diffuse gamma rays from the galactic disk. The low rate of gamma rays, relative to the cosmic ray background, requires careful attention to data processing. Analysis methods and preliminary results from the search will be presented.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.