We present results of spectrometric studies based on the observations of very strong 3C 279 flares in high and very-high-energy bands and discuss their implications regarding the origin of radiation mechanisms. The FSRQ 3C 279 (z=0.536) is one of the most luminous gamma-ray emitting AGN. It shows variability on time scales down to minutes during strong flares detected by the Fermi-LAT. We have analyzed LAT and Swift-XRT data for the flaring periods in June 2015 and January 2018, when the flux above 100 MeV during hourly time intervals could exceed $3 \times 10^{-5}$ ph cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. The X-ray flux derived from Swift X-ray observations described by a very hard spectrum with photon index ~1.5 is typically explained by Inverse Compton scattering of low energy electrons and protons. Here we consider an alternative interpretation which describes the entire band from X-ray to very high energy as a results of synchrotron emission by ultra relativistic electrons or protons.
Origin of the high-energy spectral cutoff in gamma-ray pulsar halos
College of Physics, Sichuan University（四川大学物理学院）；State Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所粒子天体物理国家重点实验室）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；TIANFU Cosmic Ray Research Center（天府宇宙线研究中心）
The highly luminous and variable prompt emission in Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) arises in an ultra-relativistic outflow. The exact underlying radiative mechanism shaping its non-thermal spectrum is still uncertain, making it hard to determine the outflow's bulk Lorentz factor $Γ$. GRBs with spectral cutoff due to pair production ($γγ\to e^+e^-$) at energies $E_c\gtrsim10\;$MeV are extremely useful for inferring $Γ$. We find that when the emission region has a high enough compactness, then as it becomes optically thick to scattering, Compton downscattering by non-relativistic $e^\pm$-pairs can shif…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powered by ultra-relativistic jets. Usually a minimum value of the Lorentz factor of the relativistic bulk motion is obtained based on the argument that the observed high energy photons ($\gg {\rm MeV}$) can escape without suffering from absorption due to pair production. The exact value, rather than a lower limit, of the Lorentz factor can be obtained if the spectral cutoff due to such absorption is detected. With the good spectral coverage of the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on \textsl{Fermi}, measurements of such cutoff become possible, and two cases (GRB~090926A a…
We present a range of unbroken power-law fits to the astrophysical-neutrino spectrum consistent with the most recent published IceCube data at the 68\% confidence level. Assuming that the neutrinos originate in decays of pi mesons, we estimate accompanying gamma-ray fluxes for various distributions of sources, taking propagation effects into account. We then briefly discuss existing experimental results constraining PeV to EeV diffuse gamma-ray flux and their systematic uncertainties. Several scenarios are marginally consistent both with the KASKADE and CASA-MIA upper limits at (10^15-10^16) e…
This Letter presents the first results from the observations of LSI +61 303 using Large Area Telescope data from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope between 2008 August and 2009 March. Our results indicate variability that is consistent with the binary period, with the emission being modulated at 26.6 +/- 0.5 days. This constitutes the first detection of orbital periodicity in high-energy gamma rays (20 MeV-100 GeV, HE). The light curve is characterized by a broad peak after periastron, as well as a smaller peak just before apastron. The spectrum is best represented by a power law with an expo…
It is well known that, for bright gamma-ray pulsars with high statistics above a few GeV, the phase averaged spectral energy distribution (SED) is harder than a simple exponential cutoff above the break. We perform phase-resolved spectral analyses of bright gamma-ray pulsars and demonstrate that, even over narrow phase ranges, the SEDs of gamma-ray pulsars above the break energy are harder than a simple exponential cutoff. We argue within a radiation-reaction limited curvature framework that this is indicative of non-stationary emission or emission from multiple zones. Further, we address a co…
In this decade, GeV/TeV gamma-ray observations of several supernova remnants (SNRs) have implied that accelerated particles are escaping from their acceleration sites. However, when and how they escape from the SNR vicinities are yet to be understood. Recent studies have suggested that the particle escape might develop with thermal plasma ages of the SNRs. In this paper, we present a systematic study on time evolution of particle escape using thermal X-ray properties and gamma-ray spectra. We used 38 SNRs which associate with GeV/TeV gamma-ray emissions. We conducted spectral fittings on the g…
Ground-based gamma ray observations of the Galactic Center region have revealed a high energy gamma ray source spatially coincident with the gravitational centroid of our Galaxy. The pointlike emission detected by H.E.S.S. exhibits an energy cut-off at about 10 TeV. We identify the parameters of the best fit of the exponential and the super-exponential cutoff models to the spectrum of the pointlike source and find that super-exponential one provides a similar quality of the fit to the spectrum of the pointlike source as the best-fit exponential cutoff model, while a dark matter interpretation …
We report the discovery of gamma-ray emission from the Galactic globular cluster Terzan 5 using data taken with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, from 2008 August 8 to 2010 January 1. Terzan 5 is clearly detected in the 0.5-20 GeV band by Fermi at ~27σlevel. This makes Terzan 5 as the second gamma-ray emitting globular cluster seen by Fermi after 47 Tuc. The energy spectrum of Terzan 5 is best represented by an exponential cutoff power-law model, with a photon index of ~1.9 and a cutoff energy at ~3.8 GeV. By comparing to 47 Tuc, we suggest that the observed gamma-ray emission is associated…
Discrete treatment of inverse Compton scattering: implications on parameter estimation in gamma-ray astronomy
The School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University（西南交通大学物理科学与技术学院）；Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所粒子天体物理重点实验室）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Tianfu Cosmic Ray Research Center（天府宇宙线研究中心）
We explore the validity of the recently reported fundamental plane (FP) relation of gamma-ray pulsars using 190 pulsars included in the latest 4FGL-DR3 catalog. This sample number is more than twice as large as that of the original study. The FP relation incorporates 4 parameters, i.e., the spin-down power, $\dot{\mathcal{E}}$, the surface magnetic field, $B_{\star}$, the total gamma-ray luminosity, $L_γ$, and a spectral cutoff energy, $ε_{\rm cut}$. The derivation of $ε_{\rm cut}$ is the most intriguing one because $ε_{\rm cut}$ depends on the proper interpretation of the available phase-aver…
Lower limits on the energy cutoff for unidentified gamma-ray sources detected in the HESS galactic plane survey are derived. Additional public data from the VERITAS, HESS and Milagro experiments are used for MGRO J1908+06 to confirm the limit derived from the HESS galactic plane survey data and to enable further conclusions on the presence of spectral breaks. Five Pevatron candidates are identified in the HESS galactic plane survey. The cutoff of the gamma-ray spectrum for these sources is larger than 20 TeV at 90% confidence level. The gamma-ray sources MGRO J1908+06 and HESS J1641-463, found…
Gamma ray lines are expected to be emitted as part of the afterglow of supernova explosions, because radioactive decay of freshly synthesised nuclei occurs. Significant radioactive gamma ray line emission is expected from 56Ni and 44Ti decay on time scales of the initial explosion (56Ni, tau~days) and the young supernova remnant (44Ti,tau~90 years). Less specific, and rather informative for the supernova population as a whole, are lessons from longer lived isotopes such as 26Al and 60Fe. From isotopes of elements heavier than iron group elements, any interesting gamma-ray line emission is too …
Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars: Off-pulse Emission Characteristics, Phase-Resolved Pseudo-Luminosity--Cutoff Energy Correlation, and High-energy Pulsed Emission
Key Laboratory of Dark Matter and Space Astronomy, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院紫金山天文台暗物质与空间天文重点实验室）；School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学天文与空间科学学院）
The observation of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) with very-high-energy (VHE) gamma rays can provide understanding of the particle acceleration mechanisms in GRBs, and can also be used to probe the extra-galactic background light and place constraints on Lorentz invariance violation. We present prospects for GRB detection by the ground-based HAWC (High Altitude Water Cherenkov) gamma-ray observatory. We model the VHE spectrum of GRBs by extrapolating observations by Fermi LAT and other observatories to higher energies. Under the assumption that only e-pair production associated with extra-galactic ba…
The Lorentz factor of a relativistic jet and its evolution during the jet expansion are difficult to estimate, especially for the jets in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). However, it is related to the understanding of jet physics. Owing to the absorption of two-photon pair production ($γγ{\leftrightarrow}e^+e^-$), a high-energy spectral cutoff may appear in the radiation spectrum of GRBs. We search such kind of high-energy cutoff in GRB 160625B, which is one of the brightest bursts in recent years. It is found that the high-energy spectral cutoff is obvious for the first pulse in the second emission e…
We study the fluence distributions of over 3040 bursts from SGR 1806-20 and over 1963 bursts from SGR 1900+14 using the complete set of observations available from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer/Proportional Counter Array through March 2011. Cumulative event distributions are presented for both sources and are fitted with single and broken power laws as well as an exponential cutoff. The distributions are best fit by a broken power law with exponential cutoff, however the statistical significance of the cutoff is not high and the upper portion of the broken power law can be explained as the e…
Recent HESS observations of the ~200 pc scale diffuse gamma-ray emission from the central molecular zone (CMZ) suggest the presence of a PeV cosmic-ray accelerator (PeVatron) located in the inner 10 pc region of the Galactic Center. Interestingly, the gamma-ray spectrum of the point-like source (HESS J1745-290) in the Galactic Center shows a cutoff at ~10 TeV, implying a cutoff around 100 TeV in the cosmic-ray proton spectrum. Here we propose that the gamma-ray emission from the inner and the outer regions may be explained self-consistently by run-away protons from a single, yet fading acceler…
Based on more than seven years of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Pass 8 data, we report on a detailed analysis of the bright gamma-ray pulsar (PSR) J0007+7303. We confirm that PSR J0007+7303 is significantly detected as a point source also during the off-peak phases with a TS value of 262 ($\sim$ 16 $σ$). In the description of PSR J0007+7303 off-peak spectrum, a power law with an exponential cutoff at 2.7$\pm$1.2$\pm$1.3 GeV (the first/second uncertainties correspond to statistical/systematic errors) is preferred over a single power law at a level of 3.5 $σ$. The possible existence of a cuto…
The quasi-thermal components found in many Fermi gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) imply that the photosphere emission indeed contributes to the prompt emission of many GRBs. But whether the observed spectra empirically fitted by the Band function or cutoff power law, especially the spectral and peak energy ($E_{p}$) evolutions can be explained by the photosphere emission model alone needs further discussion. In this work, we investigate in detail the time-resolved spectra and $E_{p}$ evolutions of photospheric emission from a structured jet, with an inner-constant and outer-decreasing angular Lorentz f…
We report our analysis of the Fermi Large Area Telescope data for 39 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) listed in the second $γ$-ray pulsar catalog. Spectra of the pulsars are obtained. We fit the spectra with a function of a power law with exponential cutoff, and find the best-fit parameters of photon index $Γ= 1.54^{+0.10}_{-0.11}$ and cutoff energy $E_{c} = 3.70^{+0.95}_{-0.70}$ GeV. This spectral shape, which includes the intrinsic differences in the spectra of the MSPs, can be used for finding candidate MSPs and unidentified types of sources detected by Fermi at high Galactic latitudes. In one of…
The Fermi bubbles are two large structures in the gamma-ray sky extending to $55^\circ$ above and below the Galactic center. We analyze 50 months of Fermi Large Area Telescope data between 100 MeV and 500 GeV above $10^\circ$ in Galactic latitude to derive the spectrum and morphology of the Fermi bubbles. We thoroughly explore the systematic uncertainties that arise when modeling the Galactic diffuse emission through two separate approaches. The gamma-ray spectrum is well described by either a log parabola or a power law with an exponential cutoff. We exclude a simple power law with more than …
A recent analysis of the Fermi Large Area Telescope data provided evidence for a high-intensity emission of high-energy gamma rays with a E^-2 spectrum from two large areas, spanning 50° above and below the Galactic centre (the "Fermi bubbles"). A hadronic mechanism was proposed for this gamma-ray emission making the Fermi bubbles promising source candidates of high-energy neutrino emission. In this work Monte Carlo simulations regarding the detectability of high-energy neutrinos from the Fermi bubbles with the future multi-km^3 neutrino telescope KM3NeT in the Mediterranean Sea are presented.…
Context. More than one hundred GeV pulsars have been detected up to now by the LAT telescope on the Fermi gamma-ray observatory, showing peak energies around a few GeV. Current modelling proposes that the high energy emission comes from outer magnetospheric gaps, however radiation from the equatorial current sheet which separates the two magnetic hemispheres outside the light cylinder has also been investigated. Aims. In this paper we discuss the region right outside the light cylinder, or "near wind" zone. We investigate the possibility that synchrotron radiation emitted by thermal population…
The Fermi bubbles, two giant gamma-ray bubbles above and below the Galactic center (GC), are among the most important findings of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Because of the proximity, spatially resolved, multi-wavelength observations offer excellent opportunities to learn about the physical origin of the bubbles. One of the unique features of the observed bubbles is that their gamma-ray spectrum, including a high-energy cutoff at ~110 GeV and the overall shape of the spectrum, is nearly spatially uniform. The high-energy spectral cutoff is suggestive of a leptonic origin as it could b…
The spectral characteristics of the pulsed gamma-ray emission from outer-magnetospheric particle accelerators are investigated. Either positrons or electrons are accelerated outwards by the magnetic-field-aligned electric field to emit gamma-rays via curvature process. Since the particles move along relatively straight paths in the trailing side of a rotating magnetosphere, they attain higher Lorentz factors to emit more energetic gamma-rays than those in the leading side. It is first demonstrated that the cutoff energy of the curvature radiation evolves with the rotation phase owing to the va…
The dramatic increase in the number of known gamma-ray pulsars since the launch of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST) offers the first opportunity to study a population of these high-energy objects. This catalog summarizes 46 high-confidence pulsed detections using the first six months of data taken by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), Fermi's main instrument. Sixteen previously unknown pulsars were discovered by searching for pulsed signals at the positions of bright gamma-ray sources seen with the LAT, or at the positions of objects suspected to be neutron stars based on obse…
Aims: We investigate the behavior of the frequency-centered light curves expected within the standard model of Gamma Ray Bursts allowing the maximum electron energy to be a free parameter permitted to take low values. Methods: We solve the spatially averaged kinetic equations which describe the simultaneous evolution of particles and photons, obtaining the multi-wavelength spectra as a function of time. From these we construct the frequency-centered light curves giving emphasis in the X-ray and optical bands. Results: We show that in cases where the maximum electron energy takes low values, th…
We present the detection of pulsed gamma-ray emission from the Crab pulsar above 100 GeV with the VERITAS array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Gamma-ray emission at theses energies was not expected in pulsar models. The detection of pulsed emission above 100 GeV and the absence of an exponential cutoff makes it unlikely that curvature radiation is the primary production mechanism of gamma rays at these energies.
Knowledge about the Lorentz factor and its evolution of relativistic jets in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is crucial to understand their physics. An exact value of bulk Lorentz factor can be estimated based on a high-energy spectral cutoff, which may appear in GRBs' prompt emission owing to the absorption of photon-photon pair production. In this work, we focus on the investigation of the bulk Lorentz factor evolution of jets in an individual burst. Based on \textsl{Fermi} observations, we search for the bursts with multiple $γ$-ray pulses characterized by a high-energy spectral cutoff, and nine GR…
Collisionless entrainment of the surrounding matter imports the relativistic baryon component in the Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) fireball frame. We show that half the fireball energy can be transferred from radiation to the comoving hot motions of baryons under the photosphere. The yet baryon-poor fireball can reexpand to a very high Lorentz factor (VHLF) Γ~ 10^3-10^6 by its own relativistic collisionless pressure beyond the photosphere (so-called collisionless bulk acceleration), leading to internal and external shocks. A simple synchrotron emission from the VHLF internal shocks produces (i) the ex…
We analyze the prompt emission of GRB 100724B and GRB 160509A, two of the brightest Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) observed by Fermi at $\lesssim{\rm MeV}$ energies but surprisingly faint at $\gtrsim100\;$MeV energies. Time-resolved spectroscopy reveals a sharp high-energy cutoff at energies $E_c\sim20-60\;$MeV for GRB~100724B and $E_c\sim80-150\;$MeV for GRB~160509A. We first characterize phenomenologically the cutoff and its time evolution. We then fit the data to two models where the high-energy cutoff arises from intrinsic opacity to pair production within the source ($τ_{γγ}$): (i) a Band spectr…
The spectral components of the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) mainly consist of two possible origins: synchrotron (nonthermal) and photosphere (thermal). The typical spectral properties of GRBs can be modeled by a dominant nonthermal component (a Band-like function or cutoff power law), while some of them have an additional thermal component (a Planck-like function). In this paper, we investigate the effects of thermal components on the nonthermal spectral parameters. We focus on eight {\it Fermi} Gamma-ray Burst Monitor bursts of which the spectra deviate from a Band-only function…
The supernova remnant LMC N132D is a remarkably luminous gamma-ray emitter at $\sim$50 kpc with an age of $\sim$2500 years. It belongs to the small group of oxygen-rich SNRs, which includes Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and Puppis A. N132D is interacting with a nearby molecular cloud. By adding 102 hours of new observations with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) to the previously published data with exposure time of 150 hours, we achieve the significant detection of N132D at a 5.7$σ$ level in the very high energy (VHE) domain. The gamma-ray spectrum is compatible with a single power law ex…
The Fermi Bubbles are giant Galactic structures observed in both gamma-rays and microwaves. Recent studies have found support for the hypothesis that the gamma-ray and microwave emission can both be understood as arising from a hard cosmic-ray electron population within the volume of the Bubbles, via inverse Compton scattering and synchrotron radiation respectively. The relative rates of these processes are set by the relative energy density of the interstellar radiation field and the magnetic field within the Bubbles; consequently, under the hypothesis of a common origin, the combination of t…
The origin of sub-TeV gamma rays detected by the \textit{Fermi}-Large Area Telescope (LAT) from the \textit{Fermi} Bubbles (FBs) at the Galactic center is still uncertain. In a hadronic model, acceleration of protons and/or nuclei and their subsequent interactions with gas in the bubble volume can produce the observed gamma rays. Recently the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory reported an absence of gamma-ray excess from the Northern FB at $b\gtrsim 6^\circ$ Galactic latitude, which resulted in flux upper limits in the energy range of $1.2-126$ TeV. These upper limits are consist…
Pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) are among the most extreme particle accelerators in galaxies, are recognized as multi-TeV electron/positron sources, and are one of the dominant classes of Galactic gamma-ray sources. Vela X is a nearby PWN at 290 pc from the Earth with large apparent size ($>1^\circ$). The H.E.S.S. array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes has detected Vela X as one of the brightest known sources of TeV gamma rays. The bulk of the gamma-ray emission measured using H.E.S.S. coincides with an elongated structure known from X-ray observations and dubbed the cocoon, that seeming…
The Fermi bubbles (FBs) are large gamma-ray emitting lobes extending up to $55°$ in latitude above and below the Galactic center (GC). Although the FBs were discovered 8 years ago, their origin and the nature of the gamma-ray emission are still unresolved. Understanding the properties of the FBs near the Galactic plane may provide a clue to their origin. Previous analyses of the gamma-ray emission at the base of the FBs, what remains after subtraction of Galactic foregrounds, have shown an increased intensity compared to the FBs at high latitudes, a hard power-law spectrum without evidence of …
Probing the sensitivity of CTAO-N LSTs observations at large zenith angles to the multi-TeV gamma-ray emission from the inner 10 parsecs of the Galactic Center
In 2015 the Gamma-Ray Observation of Winter Thunderstorms (GROWTH) collaboration launched a mapping observation campaign for high-energy atmospheric phenomena related to thunderstorms and lightning discharges. This campaign has developed a detection network of gamma rays with up to 10 radiation monitors installed in Kanazawa and Komatsu cities, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, where low-charge-center winter thunderstorms frequently occur. During four winter seasons from October 2016 to April 2020, in total 70 gamma-ray glows, minute-lasting bursts of gamma rays originating from thunderclouds, were …
The Fermi Bubbles, which comprise two large and homogeneous regions of spectrally hard gamma-ray emission extending up to $55^{o}$ above and below the Galactic Center, were first noticed in GeV gamma-ray data from the Fermi Telescope in 2010. The mechanism or mechanisms which produce the observed hard spectrum are not understood. Although both hadronic and lep- tonic models can describe the spectrum of the bubbles, the leptonic model can also explain similar structures observed in microwave data from the WMAP and Planck satellites. Recent publications show that the spectrum of the Fermi Bubble…
The emission region of $\rm γ$-ray bursts (GRBs) is poorly constrained. The uncertainty on the size of the dissipation site spans over 4 orders of magnitude ($\rm 10^{12}-10^{17}$ cm) depending on the unknown energy composition of the GRB jets. The joint multi-band analysis from soft X-rays to high energies (up to $\rm \sim$ 1 GeV) of one of the most energetic and distant GRB 220101A (z = 4.618) allows us for an accurate distinction between prompt and early afterglow emissions. The enormous amount of energy released by GRB 220101A ($\rm E_{iso} \approx 3 \times10^{54}$ erg) and the spectral cu…
We present the first catalogs of the highest-energy (above 56 TeV and 100 TeV) gamma-ray sources seen by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. The wide field-of-view of HAWC naturally lends itself to unbiased all-sky surveys and newly developed event-by-event gamma-ray energy reconstruction algorithms have allowed unprecedented energy resolution. The sources presented here are the highest-energy sources ever detected. All are coincident with known lower-energy gamma-ray sources within our Galaxy. These objects may have implications for the sources of Galactic cosmic rays; since…
We present new calculations of the evolving UV background out to the epoch of cosmological reionization and make predictions for the amount of GeV gamma-ray attenuation by electron-positron pair production. Our results are based on recent semi-analytic models of galaxy formation, which provide predictions of the dust-extinguished UV radiation field due to starlight, and empirical estimates of the contribution due to quasars. We account for the reprocessing of ionizing photons by the intergalactic medium. We test whether our models can reproduce estimates of the ionizing background at high reds…
Sorted by the photon fluences of short Gamma-ray Bursts (SGRBs) detected by the Fermi- Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GBM), nine brightest bursts are selected to perform a comprehensive analysis. All GRB lightcurves are fitted well by 1 to 3 pulses that are modelled by fast-rising exponential decay profile (FRED), within which the resultant rising time is strongly positive-correlated with the full time width at half maxima (FWHM). A photon spectral model involving a cutoff power-law function and a standard blackbody function (CPL + BB) could reproduce the spectral energy distributions of these SGRBs…
We revisit the high-energy spectral cutoff originating from the electron-positron pair creation in the prompt phase of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with numerical and analytical calculations. We show that the conventional exponential and/or broken power law cutoff should be drastically modified to a shallower broken power-law in practical observations that integrate emissions from different internal shocks. Since the steepening is tiny for observations, this "smearing" effect can generally reduce the previous estimates of the Lorentz factor of the GRB outflows. We apply our formulation to GRB 08091…
Based on the Fermi observational data we reveal meaningful constraints for the dependence of the macroscopic conductivity $(σ)$ of dissipative pulsar magnetosphere models on the corresponding spin-down rate, $\dot{\mathcal{E}}$. Our models are refinements of the FIDO (Force-Free Inside, Dissipative Outside) models whose dissipative regions are restricted on the equatorial current-sheet outside the light-cylinder. Taking into account the observed cutoff-energies of all the Fermi-pulsars and assuming that a) the corresponding $γ-$ray pulsed emission is due to curvature radiation at the radiation…
The recent discovery of extragalactic PeV neutrinos opens a new window to the exploration of cosmic-ray accelerators. The observed PeV neutrino flux is close to the Waxman-Bahcall upper bound implying that gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) may be the source of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Starting with the assumption of the GRB-UHECR connection, we show using both analytical estimates and numerical simulations that the observed neutrinos can originate at the jet as a result of photopion interactions with the following implications: the neutrino spectra are predicted to have a cutoff at energy…
Geminga is the second brightest persistent source in the GeV gamma-ray sky. Discovered in 1975 by SAS-2 mission, it was identified as a pulsar only in the 90s, when ROSAT detected the 237 ms X-ray periodicity, that was later also found by EGRET in gamma rays. Even though Geminga has been one of the most intensively studied isolated neutron star during the last 30 years, its interest remains intact especially at gamma-ray energies, where instruments like the Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the Fermi mission will provide an unprecedented view of this pulsars. We will report on the preliminary …
NuSTAR observed the bright Compton-thin, narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy, NGC 5506, for about 56 ks. In agreement with past observations, the spectrum is well fit by a power law with Gamma~1.9, a distant reflection component and narrow ionized iron lines. A relativistically blurred reflection component is not required by the data. When an exponential high energy cutoff is added to the power law, a value of 720(+130,-190) keV (90% confidence level) is found. Even allowing for systematic uncertainties, we find a 3 sigma lower limit to the high-energy cutoff of 350 keV, the highest lower limit to th…
We present a study of the expectations for very-high-energy (VHE) to ultra-high-energy (UHE) gamma-ray and neutrino emission from interacting cosmic rays in our Galaxy as well as a comparison to the latest results for the Galactic UHE diffuse emission. We demonstrate the importance of properly accounting for both the mixed cosmic-ray composition and the gamma-ray absorption. We adopt the wounded-nucleon model of nucleus interactions and provide parameterisations of the resulting gamma-ray and neutrino production. Nucleon shielding due to clustering inside nuclei is shown to have a measurable e…
Maximum Energy of Particles Accelerated in Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow Shocks
Purdue University（普渡大学）；Universidad Nacional de Colombia（哥伦比亚国立大学）；The Open University of Israel（以色列开放大学）；Astrophysics Research Center of the Open University (ARCO), The Open University of Israel（以色列开放大学天体物理研究中心）；The George Washington University（乔治华盛顿大学）；KU Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学）；Columbia University（哥伦比亚大学）；Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute（纽约联邦研究院计算天体物理学中心）
Pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) are one of the most energetic galactic sources with bright emissions from radio waves to very high-energy gamma-rays. We perform wideband X-ray spectroscopy of four energetic PWNe, N157B, PSR J1813-1749, PSR J1400-6325, and G21.5-0.9, with the Suzaku, Chandra, NuSTAR, and Hitomi observatories. A significant spectral break or cutoff feature is found in the hard X-ray band for all the samples, except for N157B. The break energies in the broken power-law fitting are in the range of 4--14 keV, whereas the cutoff energies in the cutoff power-law fitting are at 22 keV or h…
Recent detections of GeV photons in a few GRBs by Fermi-LAT have led to strong constraints on the bulk Lorentz factor in GRB outflows. To avoid a large gamma-gamma optical depth, minimum values of the Lorentz factor have been estimated to be as high as 800-1200 in some bursts. Here we present a detailed calculation of the gamma-gamma optical depth taking into account both the geometry and the dynamics of the jet. In the framework of the internal shock model, we compute lightcurves in different energy bands and the corresponding spectrum and we show how the limits on the Lorentz factor can be s…
Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) have been firmly established as a class of gamma-ray emitters via the detection of pulsations above 0.1 GeV from eight MSPs by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Using thirteen months of LAT data significant gamma-ray pulsations at the radio period have been detected from the MSP PSR J0034-0534, making it the ninth clear MSP detection by the LAT. The gamma-ray light curve shows two peaks separated by 0.274$\pm$0.015 in phase which are very nearly aligned with the radio peaks, a phenomenon seen only in the Crab pulsar until now. The $\geq$0.1 GeV spectrum of this p…
Recently, it has been shown that electrons and positrons from dark matter (DM) annihilations provide an excellent fit to the Fermi, PAMELA, and HESS data. Using this DM model, which requires an enhancement of the annihilation cross section over its standard value to match the observations, we show that it immediately implies an observable level of gamma-ray emission for the Fermi telescope from nearby galaxy clusters such as Virgo and Fornax. We show that this DM model implies a peculiar feature from final state radiation that is a distinctive signature of DM. Using the EGRET upper limit on th…
