Search for point sources of ultra-high energy photons with Telescope Array surface detector

Telescope Array Collaboration, R. U. Abbasi, M. Abe, T. Abu-Zayyad, M. Allen, R. Azuma, E. Barcikowski, J. W. Belz, D. R. Bergman, S. A. Blake, R. Cady, B. G. Cheon, J. Chiba, M. Chikawa, A. diMatteo, T. Fujii, K. Fujita, R. Fujiwara, M. Fukushima, G. Furlich, W. Hanlon, M. Hayashi, Y. Hayashi, N. Hayashida, K. Hibino, K. Honda, D. Ikeda, N. Inoue, T. Ishii, R. Ishimori, H. Ito, D. Ivanov, H. M. Jeong, S. Jeong, C. C. H. Jui, K. Kadota, F. Kakimoto, O. Kalashev, K. Kasahara, H. Kawai, S. Kawakami, S. Kawana, K. Kawata, E. Kido, H. B. Kim, J. H. Kim, J. H. Kim, S. Kishigami, S. Kitamura, Y. Kitamura, V. Kuzmin, M. Kuznetsov, Y. J. Kwon, K. H. Lee, B. Lubsandorzhiev, J. P. Lundquist, K. Machida, K. Martens, T. Matsuyama, J. N. Matthews, R. Mayta, M. Minamino, K. Mukai, I. Myers, K. Nagasawa, S. Nagataki, K. Nakai, R. Nakamura, T. Nakamura, T. Nonaka, H. Oda, S. Ogio, J. Ogura, M. Ohnishi, H. Ohoka, T. Okuda, Y. Omura, M. Ono, R. Onogi, A. Oshima, S. Ozawa, I. H. Park, M. S. Pshirkov, J. Remington, D. C. Rodriguez, G. Rubtsov, D. Ryu, H. Sagawa, R. Sahara, K. Saito, Y. Saito, N. Sakaki, T. Sako, N. Sakurai, L. M. Scott, T. Seki, K. Sekino, P. D. Shah, F. Shibata, T. Shibata, H. Shimodaira, B. K. Shin, H. S. Shin, J. D. Smith, P. Sokolsky, B. T. Stokes, S. R. Stratton, T. A. Stroman, T. Suzawa, Y. Takagi, Y. Takahashi, M. Takamura, M. Takeda, R. Takeishi, A. Taketa, M. Takita, Y. Tameda, H. Tanaka, K. Tanaka, M. Tanaka, Y. Tanoue, S. B. Thomas, G. B. Thomson, P. Tinyakov, I. Tkachev, H. Tokuno, T. Tomida, S. Troitsky, Y. Tsunesada, K. Tsutsumi, Y. Uchihori, S. Udo, F. Urban, T. Wong, M. Yamamoto, H. Yamaoka, K. Yamazaki, J. Yang, K. Yashiro, H. Yoshii, Y. Zhezher, Z. Zundel

Published 2019-03-30Version 1

The surface detector of the Telescope Array experiment allows for indirect detection of photons with EeV energy and higher and for separation of photons from cosmic-ray background. In this paper we present the results of a blind search for point sources of ultra-high energy photons in the Northern sky using the Telescope Array surface detector data. The photon extensive air showers are separated from the hadron extensive air showers background by means of a multivariate classifier based upon 16 parameters that characterize the air shower events. No significant evidence for the photon point sources is found. The upper-limits are set on the flux of photons in each separate point-region of the sky in the TA field of view, according to the experiment angular resolution with respect to photons. Average 95% C.L. upper-limits for the point-source flux of photons with energies greater than $10^{18}$, $10^{18.5}$, $10^{19}$, $10^{19.5}$ and $10^{20}$ eV are $0.094$, $0.029$, $0.010$, $0.0073$ and $0.0058$ km$^{-2}$yr$^{-1}$ respectively. For the energies larger than $10^{18.5}$ eV the photon point source limits are set for the first time. The results for each point-region in each energy range are supplemented to this paper as numerical tables.