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[16.02] Limits on Intrinsic VHE Emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts with the Milagro Observatory

M. F. Morales (UCSC, MIT Center for Space Research), Milagro Collaboration

The Milagro telescope monitors the northern sky for 100 GeV -- 100 TeV transient emission through continuous very high energy wide-field observations. The large effective area and low energy threshold of Milagro allow it to detect very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray burst emission with much higher sensitivity than previous instruments, and a fluence sensitivity at TeV energies comparable to dedicated gamma-ray burst satellites at keV-MeV energies. Observations of VHE gamma-ray burst emission can place important constraints on gamma-ray burst progenitor and emission models. Between 2001 May 2^nd and 2002 May 22^nd no VHE transients of 40 seconds to 3 hours duration were observed by Milagro. In addition to observer-frame limits on VHE gamma-ray burst emission, first-ever limits on the intrinsic VHE emission of gamma-ray bursts are presented. The implications of both sets of limits are discussed.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mmorales@space.mit.edu

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#2
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.