Abstract
The γ-ray sky can be decomposed into individually detected sources, diffuse emission attributed to the interactions of Galactic cosmic rays with gas and radiation fields, and a residual all-sky emission component commonly called the isotropic diffuse γ-ray background (IGRB). The IGRB comprises all extragalactic emissions too faint or too diffuse to be resolved in a given survey, as well as any residual Galactic foregrounds that are approximately isotropic. The first IGRB measurement with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi ) used 10 months of sky-survey data and considered an energy range between 200 MeV and 100 GeV. Improvements in event selection and characterization of cosmic-ray backgrounds, better understanding of the diffuse Galactic emission (DGE), and a longer data accumulation of 50 months allow for a refinement and extension of the IGRB measurement with the LAT, now covering the energy range from 100 MeV to 820 GeV. The IGRB spectrum shows a significant high-energy cutoff feature and can be well described over nearly four decades in energy by a power law with exponential cutoff having a spectral index of 2.32 ± 0.02 and a break energy of (279 ± 52) GeV using our baseline DGE model. The total intensity attributed to the IGRB is (7.2 ± 0.6) x 10-6 cm-2 s-1 sr-1 above 100 MeV, with an additional +15%/-30% systematic uncertainty due to the Galactic diffuse foregrounds.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 86 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 799 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 20 Jan 2015 |
Keywords
- Diffuse radiation
- Gamma rays: Diffuse background
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science