Survey of the Galactic Plane with Milagro and the Discovery of MGRO J1908+06 and MGRO J2031+41

The Milagro Gamma-Ray Observatory is a water Cherenkov detector that operates continuously, detecting extensive air showers from the overhead sky. The large field of view and long observation time of Milagro is ideal for surveying large regions of the Northern Hemisphere sky and for detecting gamma rays at the highest energies. The emission from the entire inner galaxy as visible from the Northern Hemisphere - Galactic latitude vertical bar b vertical bar < 2 degrees and Galactic longitude I epsilon [30 degrees, 110 degrees] - is detected at a median energy of 20 TeV with a significance of 10 standard deviations above the isotropic background. The flux of this region exceeds that predicted from cosmic ray interactions with matter and radiation. However, discrete sources will contribute to this flux and 7 locations within the inner Galaxy region with latitudes vertical bar b vertical bar < 5 degrees are more than 4.5 standard deviations above the isotropic background. Given the size of the Galaxy selected and the search method, 0.3 locations are expected above 4.5 standard deviations by chance, if the background is isotropic. The flux of the Galactic plane, of these 7 excess locations, and of a source at the location of Geminga will be reported.