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arXiv 1005.2626astro-ph.CO
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河外背景光的Gamma-Ray视图

The Gamma-Ray View of the Extragalactic Background Light

Justin D. Finke

摘要:

从红外线(IR)到紫外线(UV)的河外背景光(EBL)主要来自恒星的发射,直接或通过尘埃的吸收和再辐射。因此,它可以提供有关宇宙恒星形成历史的信息。然而,由于来自银河系和太阳系的前景辐射场,很难直接测量。来自宇宙学距离的河外源(耀变体和伽马射线暴)的伽玛射线与EBL光子相互作用,产生电子-正电子对,吸收伽玛射线。给定源的本征伽马射线谱及其红移,EBL原则上可以测量。然而,耀变体和伽玛暴的内禀伽玛射线能谱在不同的源之间以及同一源在短时间尺度上的变化很大。从理论上可以假设一个最大的内禀谱,给出了用地基大气切伦科夫望远镜观测的极高能γ射线在低红移耀变体的EBL吸收的上限。对耀变体和伽玛暴的Fermi-LAT观测可以探测更高红移处的EBL吸收。这些源的LAT谱的较低能量部分未被EBL衰减,因此将其外推到较高能量可以给出源的最大本征谱。将其与观察到的较高能量LAT光谱进行比较,然后将给出EBL吸收的上限。对于已经被费米-LAT和切伦科夫望远镜在更高能量下探测到的耀变体,LAT-VHE组合观测可以对低红移EBL提出更严格的限制。上述过程也可以反过来:对于红移未知的源,给定的EBL模型和伽马射线谱可以导致源红移的上限。

英文摘要:

The Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) from the infrared (IR) through the ultraviolet (UV) is dominated by emission from stars, either directly or through absorption and reradiation by dust. It can thus give information on the star formation history of the universe. However, it is difficult to measure directly due to foreground radiation fields from the Galaxy and solar system. Gamma-rays from extragalactic sources at cosmological distances (blazars and gamma-ray bursts) interact with EBL photons creating electron-positron pairs, absorbing the gamma-rays. Given the intrinsic gamma-ray spectrum of a source and its redshift, the EBL can in principle be measured. However, the intrinsic gamma-ray spectra of blazars and GRBs can vary considerably from source to source and the from the same source over short timescales. A maximum intrinsic spectrum can be assumed from theoretical grounds, to give upper limits on the EBL absorption from blazars at low redshift with very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray observations with ground-based Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The Fermi-LAT observations of blazars and GRBs can probe EBL absorption at higher redshifts. The lower energy portion of the LAT spectrum of these sources is unattenuated by the EBL, so that extrapolating this to higher energies can give the maximum intrinsic spectrum for a source. Comparing this to the observed higher energy LAT spectrum will then give upper limits on the EBL absorption. For blazars which have been detected by both the Fermi-LAT and at higher energies by Cherenkov telescopes, combined LAT-VHE observations can put more stringent constraints on the low redshift EBL. These procedures above can also be reversed: for sources with an unknown redshift, a given EBL model and gamma-ray spectrum can lead to an upper limit on the source's redshift.

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