Evidence for TeV Emission from GRB 970417a.
Milagrito, a detector sensitive to very high energy gamma rays, monitored the northern sky from 1997 February through 1998 May. With a large field of view and a high duty cycle, this instrument was well suited to perform a search for TeV gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We report on a search made for TeV counterparts to GRBs observed by BATSE. BATSE detected 54 GRBs within the field of view of Milagrito during this period. An excess of events coincident in time and space with one of these bursts, GRB 970417a, was observed by Milagrito. The excess has a chance probability of 2.8x10-5 of being a fluctuation of the background. The probability for observing an excess at least this large from any of the 54 bursts is 1.5x10-3. No significant correlations were detected from the other bursts.
Atkins
R
Benbow
W
Berley
D
Chen
ML
Coyne
DG
Dingus
BL
Dorfan
DE
Ellsworth
RW
Evans
D
Falcone
A
Fleysher
L
Fleysher
R
Gisler
G
Goodman
JA
Haines
TJ
Hoffman
CM
Hugenberger
S
Kelley
LA
Leonor
I
McConnell
M
McCullough
JF
McEnery
JE
Miller
RS
Mincer
AI
Morales
MF
Nemethy
P
Ryan
JM
Shen
B
Shoup
A
Sinnis
C
Smith
AJ
Sullivan
GW
Tumer
T
Wang
K
Wascko
MO
Westerhoff
S
Williams
DA
Yang
T
Yodh
GB