Limits on the TeV flux of diffuse gamma rays as measured with the HEGRA air shower array HEGRA Collaboration

Using data from the HEGRA air shower array, taken in the period from April 1998 to March 2000, upper limits on the ratio Iγ/ICR of the diffuse photon flux Iγ to the hadronic cosmic ray flux ICR are determined for the energy region 20 TeV to 100 TeV. The analysis uses a gamma-hadron discrimination which is based on differences in the development of photonand hadron-induced air showers after the shower maximum. A method which is sensitive only to the non-isotropic component of the diffuse photon flux yields an upper limit of Iγ/ICR (at 54 TeV) < 2.0×10 −3 (at the 90% confidence level) for a sky region near the inner galaxy (20◦ < galactic longitude < 60◦ and |galactic latitude| < 5◦). A method which is sensitive to both the isotropic and the non-isotropic component yields global upper limits of Iγ/ICR (at 31 TeV) < 1.2 × 10 −2 and Iγ/ICR (at 53 TeV) < 1.4 × 10 −2 (at the 90% confidence level).