HAWC detection of an ultra-high-energy gamma-ray bubble around a microquasar

This story is adapted from the HAWC Collaboration press release. Microquasars—compact regions surrounding a black hole with a mass several times that of its companion star—have long been recognized as powerful particle accelerators within our galaxy. The enormous jets spewing out of microquasars are thought to play an important role in the production of galactic cosmic rays, although [...]

Read the full article at: https://wipac.wisc.edu/hawc-detection-of-an-ultra-high-energy-gamma-ray-bubble-around-a-microquasar/

Seeking the Sources of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays

This story is modified from one originally published by AAS Nova. Where do the highest-energy particles in the universe come from? New research led by WIPAC researchers suggests that the sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays aren’t necessarily the sources of ultra-high-energy photons as well. Cosmic Rays Across the Universe Across the universe, extremely energetic charged particles called cosmic [...]

Read the full article at: https://wipac.wisc.edu/seeking-the-sources-of-ultra-high-energy-cosmic-rays/

Ke Fang named inaugural recipient of the Bernice Durand Faculty Fellowship

The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that Ke Fang, assistant professor of physics and WIPAC investigator, has received the inaugural Bernice Durand Faculty Fellowship. This fellowship, given in honor of late Professor Emerit …

Read the full article at: https://www.physics.wisc.edu/2024/05/08/fang-durand-fellowship/

Ke Fang elected HAWC collaboration’s next US spokesperson

Ke Fang, an assistant professor of physics at the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center (WIPAC) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, was recently elected the next US spokesperson for the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma-ray Observatory (HAWC) collaboration.  Located near Puebla, Mexico, at an altitude of 13,500 feet, the HAWC experiment observes gamma and cosmic rays between [...]

Read the full article at: https://wipac.wisc.edu/ke-fang-elected-hawc-collaborations-next-us-spokesperson/

The future of particle physics is also written from the South Pole

A month ago, the Seattle Community Summer Study Workshop—July 17-26, 2022, at the University of Washington—brought together over a thousand scientists in one of the final steps of the Particle Physics Community Planning Exercise. The meetings and accompanying white papers put the cherry on top of a period of collaborative work setting a vision for [...]

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Read the full article at: https://icecube.wisc.edu/news/collaboration/2022/09/the-future-of-particle-physics-is-also-written-from-the-south-pole/

Study led by UW–Madison researcher confirms star wreck as source of extreme cosmic particles

Astronomers have long sought the launch sites for some of the highest energy protons in our galaxy. Now, a study using 12 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) confirms that a remnant of a supernova, or star explosion, is just such a place, solving a decade-long cosmic mystery.  Previously, Fermi has [...]

Read the full article at: https://wipac.wisc.edu/study-led-by-uw-madison-researcher-confirms-star-wreck-as-source-of-extreme-cosmic-particles/