A Search for High-Energy Radiation from Cen XR-4,
Abstract
A balloon observation of Cen XR-4, a source of celestial z-radiation observed to appear and later decline during 1969 by the Los Alamos group, was conducted from Parana, Argentina on 26 November 1969. The measurements spanned the energy range 30 Kev - 950 Kev. The background at 130,000 feet was found to be only 60% of that measured over Texas. No radiation attributable to Cen XR-4 was detected. The upper limits consequently established are 1.7 x 10 to the minus 5th power protons/sq cm.-sec-keV at 511 plus or minus 50 Kev and 8.5 x 10 to the minus 6th power protons/sq cm-sec-keV at energies of 850 plus or minus 70 Kev. These upper limits are incompatible, according to the theory of nucleosynthesis by silicon-burning shells in supernovae, with a supernova less than two megaparsecs distant. Thus the nature of Cen XR-4, which has not been optically identified, remains unknown. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1970
- Accession Number
- AD0723734
Entities
People
- D. B. Twieg
- F. R. Harnden Jr.
- H. E. Bosch
- O. Santocchi
- W. N. Johnson Iii
Organizations
- Rice University