Sample records for gamma-ray repeater sgr

  1. Universal statistics of soft gamma-ray repeating (SGR) bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kondratyev, V. N.; Korovina, Yu. V.

    2018-01-01

    Soft gamma repeater (SGR) bursts are considered as a release of magnetic energy stored in the baryon degrees of freedom of the magnetar crust. It is shown that this interpretation allows all observations of these bursts to be systematized and universal statistical properties to be revealed and explained.

  2. An X-ray Pulsar with a Superstrong Magnetic Field in the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater SGR1806-20

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kouveliotou, C.; Dieters, S.; Strohmayer, T.; vanParadijs, J.; Fishman, G. J.; Meegan, C. A.; Hurley, K.; Kommers, J.; Smith, I.; Frail, D.; hide

    1998-01-01

    Soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) emit multiple, brief (approximately O.1 s) intense outbursts of low-energy gamma-rays. They are extremely rare; three are known in our galaxy and one in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Two SGRs are associated with young supernova remnants (SNRs), and therefore most probably with neutron stars, but it remains a puzzle why SGRs are so different from 'normal' radio pulsars. Here we report the discovery of pulsations in the persistent X-ray flux of SGR1806-20, with a period of 7.47 s and a spindown rate of 2.6 x 10(exp -3) s/yr. We argue that the spindown is due to magnetic dipole emission and find that the pulsar age and (dipolar) magnetic field strength are approximately 1500 years and 8 x 10(exp 14) gauss, respectively. Our observations demonstrate the existence of 'magnetars', neutron stars with magnetic fields about 100 times stronger than those of radio pulsars, and support earlier suggestions that SGR bursts are caused by neutron-star 'crust-quakes' produced by magnetic stresses. The 'magnetar' birth rate is about one per millenium, a substantial fraction of that of radio pulsars. Thus our results may explain why some SNRs have no radio pulsars.

  3. Hard Burst Emission from the Soft Gamma Repeater SGR 1900+14

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Woods, Peter M.; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; VanParadijs, Jan; Briggs, Michael S.; Hurley, Kevin; Gogus, Ersin; Preece, Robert D.; Giblin, Timothy W.; Thompson, Christopher; Duncan, Robert C.

    1999-01-01

    We present evidence for burst emission from SGR 1900 + 14 with a power-law high-energy spectrum extending beyond 500 keV. Unlike previous detections of high-energy photons during bursts from soft gamma repeaters (SGRs), these emissions are not associated with extraordinarily bright flares. Not only is the emission hard, but the spectra are better fitted by D. Band's gamma-ray burst (GRB) function rather than by the traditional optically thin thermal bremsstrahlung model. We find that the spectral evolution within these hard events obeys a hardness/intensity anticorrelation. Temporally, these events are distinct from typical SGR burst emissions in that they are longer (approximately 1 s) and have relatively smooth profiles. Despite a difference in peak luminosity of approximately > 10(exp 11) between these bursts from SGR 1900 + 14 and cosmological GRBs, there are striking temporal and spectral similarities between the two kinds of bursts, aside from spectral evolution. We outline an interpretation of these events in the context of the magnetar model.

  4. Multiwavelength Observations of the Soft Gamma Repeater SGR 1900+14 During Its 2001 April Activation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kouveliotou, C.; Tennant, A.; Woods, P. M.; Weisskopf, M. C.; Hurley, K.; Fender, R. P.; Garrington, S. T.; Patel, S. K.; Goegues, E.

    2001-01-01

    The soft gamma repeater SGR 1900+14 became active on 2001 April 18 after about two years of quiescence; it had remained at a very low state of activity since the fall of 1998, when it exhibited extraordinary flaring. We have observed the source in the gamma-rays and X-rays with Ulysses and Chandra and in the radio with MERLIN. We report here the confirmation of a two-component X-ray spectrum (power law and blackbody), indicating emission from the neutron star surface. We have determined that there is a dust halo, due to scattering in the interstellar medium, surrounding the source that extends up to approximately 100 arcsec from the center of SGR 1900+14.

  5. A giant gamma-ray flare from the magnetar SGR 1806-20.

    PubMed

    Palmer, D M; Barthelmy, S; Gehrels, N; Kippen, R M; Cayton, T; Kouveliotou, C; Eichler, D; Wijers, R A M J; Woods, P M; Granot, J; Lyubarsky, Y E; Ramirez-Ruiz, E; Barbier, L; Chester, M; Cummings, J; Fenimore, E E; Finger, M H; Gaensler, B M; Hullinger, D; Krimm, H; Markwardt, C B; Nousek, J A; Parsons, A; Patel, S; Sakamoto, T; Sato, G; Suzuki, M; Tueller, J

    2005-04-28

    Two classes of rotating neutron stars-soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars-are magnetars, whose X-ray emission is powered by a very strong magnetic field (B approximately 10(15) G). SGRs occasionally become 'active', producing many short X-ray bursts. Extremely rarely, an SGR emits a giant flare with a total energy about a thousand times higher than in a typical burst. Here we report that SGR 1806-20 emitted a giant flare on 27 December 2004. The total (isotropic) flare energy is 2 x 10(46) erg, which is about a hundred times higher than the other two previously observed giant flares. The energy release probably occurred during a catastrophic reconfiguration of the neutron star's magnetic field. If the event had occurred at a larger distance, but within 40 megaparsecs, it would have resembled a short, hard gamma-ray burst, suggesting that flares from extragalactic SGRs may form a subclass of such bursts.

  6. Multi-Wavelength Observations of the Soft Gamma Repeater SGR 1900+14 During its April 2001 Activation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kouveliotou, C.; Tennant, A. F.; Woods, P.; Hurley, K.; Fender, R. P.; Garrington, S. T.; Patel, S. K.; Gogus, E.; Whitaker, Ann F. (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    The soft-gamma repeater SGR became active on 18 April 2001 after about a year of quiescence; it had remained at a very low state of activity since the fall of 1998, when it exhibited extraordinary flaring. We have observed the source in the gamma and X-rays with \\ulysses and \\chandra, and in the radio with MERLIN. We report here the confirmation of a two component X-ray spectrum (power law $+$ blackbody), indicating emission from the neutron star surface. We have determined that there is a dust halo surrounding the source that extends up to $\\gtrsim100^{\\prime\\prime}$ from the SGR center, which is due to the scattering in the Interstellar Medium.

  7. SMM hard X-ray observations of the soft gamma-ray repeater 1806-20

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kouveliotou, C.; Norris, J. P.; Cline, T. L.; Dennis, B. R.; Desai, U. D.; Orwig, L. E.

    1987-01-01

    Six bursts from the soft gamma-ray repeater (SGR) 1806-20 have been recorded with the SMM Hard X-ray Burst Spectrometer during a highly active phase in 1983. Rise and decay times of less than 5 ns have been detected. Time profiles of these events indicate low-level emission prior to and after the main peaks. The results suggest that SGRs are distinguished from classical gamma-ray bursts by repetition, softer nonvarying spectra, short durations, simple temporal profiles, and a tendency for source locations to correlate with Population I objects. SGR characteristics differ from those of type I X-ray bursts, but they appear to have similarities with the type II bursts from the Rapid Burster.

  8. Understanding the X-ray spectrum of anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma-ray repeaters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guo, Yan-Jun; Dai, Shi; Li, Zhao-Sheng; Liu, Yuan; Tong, Hao; Xu, Ren-Xin

    2015-04-01

    Hard X-rays above 10 keV are detected from several anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs), and different models have been proposed to explain the physical origin within the frame of either a magnetar model or a fallback disk system. Using data from Suzaku and INTEGRAL, we study the soft and hard X-ray spectra of four AXPs/SGRs: 1RXS J170849-400910, 1E 1547.0-5408, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 0501+4516. It is found that the spectra could be well reproduced by the bulk-motion Comptonization (BMC) process as was first suggested by Trümper et al., showing that the accretion scenario could be compatible with X-ray emission from AXPs/SGRs. Simulated results from the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope using the BMC model show that the spectra would have discrepancies from the power-law, especially the cutoff at ˜200 keV. Thus future observations will allow researchers to distinguish different models of the hard X-ray emission and will help us understand the nature of AXPs/SGRs. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

  9. Unraveling the Cooling Trend of the Soft Gamma Repeater SGR 1627-41

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kouveliotou, C.; Eichler, D.; Woods, P. M.; Lyubarsky, Y.; Patel, S. K.; Gogus, E.; vanderKlis, M.; Tennant, A.; Wachter, S.; Hurley, K.

    2003-01-01

    SGR 1627-41 was discovered in 1998 after a single active episode that lasted approximately 6 weeks. We report here our monitoring results of the decay trend of the persistent X-ray luminosity of the source during the last 5 years. We find an initial temporal power-law decay with index 0.47, reaching a plateau that is followed by a sharp (factor of 10) flux decline approximately 800 days after the source activation. The source spectrum is best described during the entire period by a single power law with high absorption [N(sub H) = 9.0(7) x 10(exp 22) per square centimeter]; the spectral index, however, varies dramatically between 2.2 and 3.8 spanning the entire range for all known soft gamma repeater sources. We discuss the cooling behavior of the neutron star assuming a deep crustal heating initiated by the burst activity of the source during 1998.

  10. An exceptionally bright flare from SGR 1806-20 and the origins of short-duration gamma-ray bursts.

    PubMed

    Hurley, K; Boggs, S E; Smith, D M; Duncan, R C; Lin, R; Zoglauer, A; Krucker, S; Hurford, G; Hudson, H; Wigger, C; Hajdas, W; Thompson, C; Mitrofanov, I; Sanin, A; Boynton, W; Fellows, C; von Kienlin, A; Lichti, G; Rau, A; Cline, T

    2005-04-28

    Soft-gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are galactic X-ray stars that emit numerous short-duration (about 0.1 s) bursts of hard X-rays during sporadic active periods. They are thought to be magnetars: strongly magnetized neutron stars with emissions powered by the dissipation of magnetic energy. Here we report the detection of a long (380 s) giant flare from SGR 1806-20, which was much more luminous than any previous transient event observed in our Galaxy. (In the first 0.2 s, the flare released as much energy as the Sun radiates in a quarter of a million years.) Its power can be explained by a catastrophic instability involving global crust failure and magnetic reconnection on a magnetar, with possible large-scale untwisting of magnetic field lines outside the star. From a great distance this event would appear to be a short-duration, hard-spectrum cosmic gamma-ray burst. At least a significant fraction of the mysterious short-duration gamma-ray bursts may therefore come from extragalactic magnetars.

  11. Background Information: Magnetars, Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters and the Most Powerful Magnetic Fields in the Universe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    1998-08-01

    bags" containing the accumulated history of this bursting activity. The study of these plerionic supernova remnants (detailed below) gives us a new and different perspective on the magnetar phenomena. SGR 0526-66: The Famous March 5 1979 Burst SGR 0526-66 lays claim to having produced the brightest gamma-ray burst ever observed: the famous March 5 1979 burst. Owing to the large number of satellites which saw this burst (10 in total) an accurate position could be determined. This put SGR 0526-66 on the edge of the supernova remnant N49 in the Large Magellanic Cloud 180,000 light years from our Sun. This should have been sufficient to convince everyone that the burst and the supernova remnant were associated. However, in 1979 astronomers were working under the misconception that all gamma-ray bursts came from a local (500 light years) population of neutron stars. This new piece of the puzzle didn't fit. Real progress in this area had to wait until the mid-1980's when soft gamma-ray repeaters were recognized as a distinct class of high energy transient and then in the early 1990's when SGR 1806-20 was tied to its supernova remnant (see below). The significance of two other important clues also went unnoticed in the early 1980's. The first was the large offset in the location of SGR 0526-66 from the center of the supernova remnant (i.e. its birthplace) and the second was a compact X-ray source at this same location. These observations, combined with the known age of the supernova remnant (5000 years), require that the magnetar be moving at a high speed and depositing energy into its surroundings as it goes. SGR 1806-20: A Magnetar Powers a Nebula While SGR 1806-20 was the most prolific burster in the 1980's, its true location wasn't known until it was detected by the Japanese X-ray ASCA satellite in 1993, verifying an earlier claim that it was associated with the supernova remnant G10.0-0.3. SGR 1806-20 lies at the center of this egg-shaped supernova remnant whose radio

  12. SGR J1745-29: Swift Discovery and Monitoring of a New SGR Near Sgr A*

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kennea, Jamie A.; Burrows, David N.; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Palmer, David; Kaneko, Yuki; Evans, Phil; Degenaar, Nathalie; Reynolds, Mark; Miller, Jon M.; Wijnands, Rudy; hide

    2014-01-01

    Starting in 2013 February, Swift has been performing short daily monitoring observations of the G2 gas cloud near Sgr A* with the X-Ray Telescope to determine whether the cloud interaction leads to an increase in the flux from the Galactic center. On 2013 April 24 Swift detected an order of magnitude rise in the X-ray flux from the region near Sgr A*. Initially thought to be a flare from Sgr A*, detection of a short hard X-ray burst from the same region by the Burst Alert Telescope suggested that the flare was from an unresolved new Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR J1745-29. Here we present the discovery of SGR J1745-29 by Swift, including analysis of data before, during, and after the burst. We cover the entire light-curve of the SGR outburst so far, from discovery through to the source entering a Swift Sun constraint in November 2013. Thanks to the interest in G2 and its location near the Galactic Center, SGR J1745-29 has become one of the best monitoring SGRs in outburst yet seen.

  13. Search for soft gamma repeaters in the SMM/HXRBS data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kouveliotou, C.; Norris, J. P.; Wood, K. S.; Cline, T. L.; Dennis, B. R.; Desal, U. D.; Orwig, L. E.

    1992-01-01

    The triggered fast memory of the hard X-ray burst spectrometer (HXRBS) on board the SMM is used to describe the results of a search for short transients resembling soft gamma repeater (SGR) bursts. Memory data for a total of about 4000 burst triggers, out of which only a very few could be considered as valid SGR candidate events, are analyzed. The search methodology is outlined, the HXRBS exposure and sensitivity to SGR bursts are calculated, and the criteria which constrain the number of candidate events are described. An upper limit is given for the SGR source number density. This limit, combined with results from other relevant observations and the assumption of a neutron star origin, are applied to obtain a constraint on SGR-active lifetimes.

  14. Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer All-Sky Monitor Localization of SGR 1627-41

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, Donald A.; Bradt, Hale V.; Levine, Alan M.

    1999-07-01

    The fourth unambiguously identified soft gamma repeater (SGR), SGR 1627-41, was discovered with the BATSE instrument on 1998 June 15. Interplanetary Network (IPN) measurements and BATSE data constrained the location of this new SGR to a 6° segment of a narrow (19") annulus. We present two bursts from this source observed by the All-Sky Monitor (ASM) on the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer. We use the ASM data to further constrain the source location to a 5' long segment of the BATSE/IPN error box. The ASM/IPN error box lies within 0.3 arcmin of the supernova remnant G337.0-0.1. The probability that a supernova remnant would fall so close to the error box purely by chance is ~5%.

  15. A Deep Near-Infrared Survey of the N 49 Region around the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater 0526-66

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Klose, S.; Henden, A. A.; Geppert, U.; Greiner, J.; Guetter, H. H.; Hartmann, D. H.; Kouveliotou, C.; Luginbuhl, C. B.; Stecklurn, B.; Vrba, F. J.

    2004-01-01

    We report the results of a deep near-infrared survey of the vicinity of supernova remnant N49 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which contains the soft gamma-ray repeater (SGR) 0526-66. Two of the four confirmed SGRs are potentially associated with compact stellar clusters. We thus searched for a similar association of SGR0526-66, and find the unexplored young stellar cluster SL 463 at a projected distance of approx. 30 pc from the SGR. This constitutes the third cluster-SGR link, and lends support to scenarios in which SGR progenitors originate in young, embedded clusters. If real, the cluster-SGR association constrains the age and thus the initial mass of these stars. In addition, our high-resolution images of the super- nova remnant N49 reveal an area of excess K-band flux in the southeastern part of the SNR. This feature coincides with the maximum flux area at 8.28 microns as detected by the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX satellite), which we identify with IRAS 052594607.

  16. The Short Bursts in SGR 1806-20, 1E 1048-5937, and SGR 0501+4516

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qu, Zhijie; Li, Zhaosheng; Chen, Yupeng; Dai, Shi; Ji, Long; Xu, Renxin; Zhang, Shu

    2015-03-01

    We analyzed temporal and spectral properties, focusing on the short bursts, for three anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft gamma repeaters (SGRs), including SGR 1806-20, 1E 1048-5937 and SGR 0501+4516. Using the data from XMM-Newton, we located the short bursts by Bayesian blocks algorithm. The short bursts' duration distributions for three sources were fitted by two lognormal functions. The spectra of shorter bursts ($< 0.2~\\rm s$) and longer bursts ($\\geq 0.2~\\rm s$) can be well fitted in two blackbody components model or optically thin thermal bremsstrahlung model for SGR 0501+4516. We also found that there is a positive correlation between the burst luminosity and the persistent luminosity with a power law index $\\gamma = 1.23 \\pm 0.18 $. The energy ratio of this persistent emission to the time averaged short bursts is in the range of $10 - 10^3$, being comparable to the case in Type I X-ray burst.

  17. Large Torque Variations in Two Soft Gamma Repeaters

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Woods, Peter M.; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Gogus, Ersin; Finger, Mark H.; Swank, Jean; Markwardt, Craig B.; Hurley, Kevin; vanderKlis, Michiel

    2002-01-01

    We have monitored the pulse frequencies of the two soft gamma repeaters SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 through the beginning of year 2001 using primarily Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array observations. In both sources, we observe large changes in the spin-down torque up to a factor of approximately 4, which persist for several months. Using long-baseline phase-connected timing solutions as well as the overall frequency histories, we construct torque noise power spectra for each SGR (Soft Gamma Repeater). The power spectrum of each source is very red (power-law slope is approximately -3.5). The torque noise power levels are consistent with some accreting systems on timescales of approximately 1 yr, yet the full power spectrum is much steeper in frequency than any known accreting source. To the best of our knowledge, torque noise power spectra with a comparably steep frequency dependence have been seen only in young, glitching radio pulsars (e.g., Vela). The observed changes in spin-down rate do not correlate with burst activity; therefore, the physical mechanisms behind each phenomenon are also likely unrelated. Within the context of the magnetar model, seismic activity can not account for both the bursts and the long-term torque changes unless the seismically active regions are decoupled from one another.

  18. Evidence for a Sudden Magnetic Field Reconfiguration in Soft Gamma Repeater 1900+14

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Woods, Peter M.; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Gogus, Ersin; Finger, Mark H.; Swank, Jean; Smith, Don A.; Hurley, Kevin; Thompson, Christopher

    2001-01-01

    We report the detection of large flux changes in the persistent X-ray flux of soft gamma repeater (SGR) 1900 + 14 during its burst active episode in 1998. Most notably, we find a factor of approx. 700 increase in the nonburst X-ray flux following the August 27 flare, which decayed in time as a power law. Our measurements indicate that the pulse fraction remains constant throughout this decay. This suggests a global flux enhancement as a consequence of the August 27 flare rather than localized heating. While the persistent flux has since recovered to the preoutburst level, the pulse profile has not. The pulse shape changed to a near sinusoidal profile within the tail of the August 27 flare (in gamma-rays), and this effect has persisted for more than 1.5 years (in X-rays). The results presented here suggest that the magnetic field of the neutron star in SGR 1900 + 14 was significantly altered (perhaps globally) during the giant flare of August 27.

  19. The application of network synthesis to repeating classical gamma-ray bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hurley, K.; Kouveliotou, C.; Fishman, J.; Meegan, C.; Laros, J.; Klebesadel, R.

    1995-01-01

    It has been suggested that the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) gamma-ray burst catalog contains several groups of bursts clustered in space or in space and time, which provide evidence that a substantial fraction of the classical gamma-ray burst sources repeat. Because many of the bursts in these groups are weak, they are not directly detected by the Ulysses GRB experiment. We apply the network synthesis method to these events to test the repeating burst hypothesis. Although we find no evidence for repeating sources, the method must be applied under more general conditions before reaching any definite conclusions about the existence of classical gamma-ray burst repeating sources.

  20. Do gamma-ray burst sources repeat?

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Meegan, C. A.; Hartmann, D. H.; Brainerd, J. J.; Briggs, M.; Paciesas, W. S.; Pendleton, G.; Kouveliotou, C.; Fishman, G.; Blumenthal, G.; Brock, M.

    1994-01-01

    The demonstration of repeated gamma-ray bursts from an individual source would severely constrain burst source models. Recent reports of evidence for repetition in the first BATSE burst catalog have generated renewed interest in this issue. Here, we analyze the angular distribution of 585 bursts of the second BATSE catalog (Meegan et al. 1994). We search for evidence of burst recurrence using the nearest and farthest neighbor statistic ad the two-point angular correlation function. We find the data to be consistent with the hypothesis that burst sources do not repeat; however, a repeater fraction of up to about 20% of the bursts cannot be excluded.

  1. Unraveling the Cooling Trend of the Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR162-41

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kouveliotou, C.; Eichler, D.; Woods, P. M.; Lybarsky, Y.; Patel, S. K.; Gogus, E.; vanderKlis, M.; Tennant, A.; Wachter, S.

    2003-01-01

    SGR 1627-41 was discovered in 1998 after a single active episode which lasted approx. 6 weeks. We report here our monitoring results of the decay trend of the persistent X-ray luminosity of the source during the last 5 years. We find an initial temporal power law decay with index 0.47, reaching a piateau which is followed by a sharp (factor of ten) flux decline approx. 800 days after the source activation. The source spectrum is best described during the entire period by a single power law with high absorption (N(sub H) = 9.0(7) x 10(exp 22)/sq cm); the spectral index, however, varies dramatically between 2.2-3.8 spanning the entire range for all known SGR sources. We discuss the cooling behavior of the neutron star assuming a deep crustal heating initiated by the burst activity of the source during 1998.

  2. Repeated irradiations with gamma-rays at a Dose of 0.5 Gy may exacerbate asthma.

    PubMed

    Fang, Su-ping; Tago, Fumitoshi; Tanaka, Takashi; Simura, Noriko; Muto, Yasuko; Goto, Resuke; Kojima, Shuji

    2005-06-01

    We previously showed that 0.5 Gy whole-body gamma-ray irradiation with a single or small number of repeated exposures inhibits tumor growth in mice, via elevation of the IFN-gamma/IL-4 ratio concomitantly with a decrease in the percentage of B cells. Here we examined whether repeated 0.5 Gy gamma-rays irradiation can improve asthma in an OVA-induced asthmatic mouse model. We found that repeated irradiation (10 times) with 0.5 Gy of gamma-rays significantly increased total IgE in comparison with the disease-control group. The levels of IL-4 and IL-5 were also significantly higher in the gamma-ray-irradiated group, while that of IFN-gamma was significantly lower, resulting in a further decrease of the IFN-gamma/IL-4 ratio from the normal value. These results indicate that the repeated irradiation with gamma-rays may exacerbate asthma, and may have opposite effects on different immune reactions unlike the irradiation with a single or small number of repeated exposures.

  3. ROSAT X-Ray Observation of the Second Error Box for SGR 1900+14

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Li, P.; Hurley, K.; Vrba, F.; Kouveliotou, C.; Meegan, C. A.; Fishman, G. J.; Kulkarni, S.; Frail, D.

    1997-01-01

    The positions of the two error boxes for the soft gamma repeater (SGR) 1900+14 were determined by the "network synthesis" method, which employs observations by the Ulysses gamma-ray burst and CGRO BATSE instruments. The location of the first error box has been observed at optical, infrared, and X-ray wavelengths, resulting in the discovery of a ROSAT X-ray point source and a curious double infrared source. We have recently used the ROSAT HRI to observe the second error box to complete the counterpart search. A total of six X-ray sources were identified within the field of view. None of them falls within the network synthesis error box, and a 3 sigma upper limit to any X-ray counterpart was estimated to be 6.35 x 10(exp -14) ergs/sq cm/s. The closest source is approximately 3 min. away, and has an estimated unabsorbed flux of 1.5 x 10(exp -12) ergs/sq cm/s. Unlike the first error box, there is no supernova remnant near the second error box. The closest one, G43.9+1.6, lies approximately 2.dg6 away. For these reasons, we believe that the first error box is more likely to be the correct one.

  4. Large Torque Variations in Two Soft Gamma Repeaters

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Woods, Peter M.; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Gogus, Ersin; Finger, Mark H.; Swank, Jean; Markwardt, Craig B.; Hurley, Kevin; vanderKlis, Michiel; Six, N. Frank (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    We have monitored the pulse frequencies of the two soft gamma repeaters SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 through the beginning of year 2001 using primarily Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array observations. In both sources, we observe large changes in the spin-down torque up to a factor of approximately 4, which persist for several months. Using long baseline phase-connected timing solutions as well as the overall frequency histories, we construct torque noise power spectra for each SGR. The power spectrum of each source is very red (power-law slope approximately -3.5). These power spectra are consistent in normalization with some accreting systems, yet much steeper in slope than any known accreting source. To the best of our knowledge, torque noise power spectra with a comparably steep frequency dependence have only been seen in young, glitching radio pulsars (e.g. Vela). The observed changes in spin-down rate do not correlate with burst activity, therefore, the physical mechanisms behind each phenomenon are also likely unrelated. Within the context of the magnetar model, seismic activity cannot account for both the bursts and the long-term torque changes unless the seismically active regions are decoupled from one another.

  5. Do gamma-ray burst sources repeat?

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Meegan, Charles A.; Hartmann, Dieter H.; Brainerd, J. J.; Briggs, Michael S.; Paciesas, William S.; Pendleton, Geoffrey; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Fishman, Gerald; Blumenthal, George; Brock, Martin

    1995-01-01

    The demonstration of repeated gamma-ray bursts from an individual source would severely constrain burst source models. Recent reports (Quashnock and Lamb, 1993; Wang and Lingenfelter, 1993) of evidence for repetition in the first BATSE burst catalog have generated renewed interest in this issue. Here, we analyze the angular distribution of 585 bursts of the second BATSE catalog (Meegan et al., 1994). We search for evidence of burst recurrence using the nearest and farthest neighbor statistic and the two-point angular correlation function. We find the data to be consistent with the hypothesis that burst sources do not repeat; however, a repeater fraction of up to about 20% of the observed bursts cannot be excluded.

  6. Central Engine Memory of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Bin-Bin; Zhang, Bing; Castro-Tirado, Alberto J.

    2016-04-01

    Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are bursts of γ-rays generated from relativistic jets launched from catastrophic events such as massive star core collapse or binary compact star coalescence. Previous studies suggested that GRB emission is erratic, with no noticeable memory in the central engine. Here we report a discovery that similar light curve patterns exist within individual bursts for at least some GRBs. Applying the Dynamic Time Warping method, we show that similarity of light curve patterns between pulses of a single burst or between the light curves of a GRB and its X-ray flare can be identified. This suggests that the central engine of at least some GRBs carries “memory” of its activities. We also show that the same technique can identify memory-like emission episodes in the flaring emission in soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs), which are believed to be Galactic, highly magnetized neutron stars named magnetars. Such a phenomenon challenges the standard black hole central engine models for GRBs, and suggest a common physical mechanism behind GRBs and SGRs, which points toward a magnetar central engine of GRBs.

  7. SGR J1550-5418 Bursts Detected with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor during Its Most Prolific Activity

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    vanderHorst, A. J.; Kouveliotou, C.; Gorgone, N. M.; Kaneko, Y.; Baring, M. G.; Guiriec, S.; Gogus, E,; Granot, J.; Watts, A. L.; Lin, L.; hide

    2012-01-01

    We have performed detailed temporal and time-integrated spectral analysis of 286 bursts from SGR J1550-5418 detected with the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) in 2009 January, resulting in the largest uniform sample of temporal and spectral properties of SGR J1550-5418 bursts. We have used the combination of broadband and high time-resolution data provided with GBM to perform statistical studies for the source properties.We determine the durations, emission times, duty cycles, and rise times for all bursts, and find that they are typical of SGR bursts. We explore various models in our spectral analysis, and conclude that the spectra of SGR J15505418 bursts in the 8-200 keV band are equally well described by optically thin thermal bremsstrahlung (OTTB), a power law (PL) with an exponential cutoff (Comptonized model), and two blackbody (BB) functions (BB+BB). In the spectral fits with the Comptonized model, we find a mean PL index of -0.92, close to the OTTB index of -1. We show that there is an anti-correlation between the Comptonized E(sub peak) and the burst fluence and average flux. For the BB+BBfits, we find that the fluences and emission areas of the two BB functions are correlated. The low-temperature BB has an emission area comparable to the neutron star surface area, independent of the temperature, while the high temperature BB has a much smaller area and shows an anti-correlation between emission area and temperature.We compare the properties of these bursts with bursts observed from other SGR sources during extreme activations, and discuss the implications of our results in the context of magnetar burst models.

  8. CENTRAL ENGINE MEMORY OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTS AND SOFT GAMMA-RAY REPEATERS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zhang, Bin-Bin; Castro-Tirado, Alberto J.; Zhang, Bing, E-mail: zhang.grb@gmail.com

    Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are bursts of γ-rays generated from relativistic jets launched from catastrophic events such as massive star core collapse or binary compact star coalescence. Previous studies suggested that GRB emission is erratic, with no noticeable memory in the central engine. Here we report a discovery that similar light curve patterns exist within individual bursts for at least some GRBs. Applying the Dynamic Time Warping method, we show that similarity of light curve patterns between pulses of a single burst or between the light curves of a GRB and its X-ray flare can be identified. This suggests that themore » central engine of at least some GRBs carries “memory” of its activities. We also show that the same technique can identify memory-like emission episodes in the flaring emission in soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs), which are believed to be Galactic, highly magnetized neutron stars named magnetars. Such a phenomenon challenges the standard black hole central engine models for GRBs, and suggest a common physical mechanism behind GRBs and SGRs, which points toward a magnetar central engine of GRBs.« less

  9. Nature versus Nurture: The Origin of Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters and Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marsden, D.; Lingenfelter, R. E.; Rothschild, R. E.; Higdon, J. C.

    2001-03-01

    Soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are young and radio-quiet X-ray pulsars that have been rapidly spun-down to slow spin periods clustered in the range 5-12 s. Most of these unusual pulsars also appear to be associated with supernova shell remnants (SNRs) with typical ages less than 30 kyr. By examining the sizes of these remnants versus their ages, we demonstrate that the interstellar media that surrounded the SGR and AXP progenitors and their SNRs were unusually dense compared to the environments around most young radio pulsars and SNRs. We explore the implications of this evidence on magnetar and propeller-based models for the rapid spin-down of SGRs and AXPs. We find that evidence of dense environments is not consistent with the magnetar model unless a causal link can be shown between the development of magnetars and the external interstellar medium. Propeller-driven spin-down by fossil accretion disks for SGRs and AXPs appears to be consistent with dense environments since the environment can facilitate the formation of such a disk. This may occur in two ways: (1) formation of a ``pushback'' disk from the innermost ejecta pushed back by prompt reverse shocks from supernova remnant interactions with massive progenitor wind material stalled in dense surrounding gas or (2) acquisition of disks by a high-velocity neutron stars, which may be able to capture sufficient amounts of comoving outflowing ejecta slowed by the prompt reverse shocks in dense environments.

  10. TEV GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATIONS OF THE GALACTIC CENTER RIDGE BY VERITAS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Archer, A.; Buckley, J. H.; Bugaev, V.

    2016-04-20

    The Galactic Center ridge has been observed extensively in the past by both GeV and TeV gamma-ray instruments revealing a wealth of structure, including a diffuse component and the point sources G0.9+0.1 (a composite supernova remnant) and Sgr A* (believed to be associated with the supermassive black hole located at the center of our Galaxy). Previous very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray observations with the H.E.S.S. experiment have also detected an extended TeV gamma-ray component along the Galactic plane in the >300 GeV gamma-ray regime. Here we report on observations of the Galactic Center ridge from 2010 to 2014 by themore » VERITAS telescope array in the >2 TeV energy range. From these observations we (1) provide improved measurements of the differential energy spectrum for Sgr A* in the >2 TeV gamma-ray regime, (2) provide a detection in the >2 TeV gamma-ray emission from the composite SNR G0.9+0.1 and an improved determination of its multi-TeV gamma-ray energy spectrum, and (3) report on the detection of VER J1746-289, a localized enhancement of >2 TeV gamma-ray emission along the Galactic plane.« less

  11. Statistical Properties of SGR J1550-5418 Bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gorgone, Nicholas M.

    2010-01-01

    Magnetars are slowly rotating neutron stars with extreme magnetic fields, over 10(exp 15) Gauss. Only few have been discovered in the last 30 years. These sources are dormant most of their lifetimes and become randomly active emitting multiple soft gamma-ray bursts. We present here our results on the temporal analysis of 300 bursts from Soft Gamma Repeater SGR J1550-5418 recorded with the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) onboard the Fermi Observatory during its activation on January 22-29, 2009. We employed an un-triggered burst search in the energy range 8-100keV to collect all events from the source, besides the ones that triggered GBM. For the entire sample of bursts we determined their durations, rise and decay times. We study here the statistical properties of these characteristics and discuss how these may help us better understand the physical characteristics of the magnetar model.

  12. Fragments of the past activity of Sgr A* inferred from X-ray echoes in Sgr C

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chuard, D.; Terrier, R.; Goldwurm, A.; Soldi, S.; Clavel, M.; Morris, M.; Ponti, G.; Walls, M.; Chernyakova, M.

    2017-10-01

    Giant molecular clouds populating the central molecular zone have a high enough column density to reflect X-rays coming from strong compact sources in their neighbourhood, including possible powerful outbursts from the Galactic supermassive black hole Sgr A*. We study this reflected emission in observations of the molecular complex Sgr C made with the X-ray observatories XMM-Newton and Chandra between 2000 and 2014. We show that this complex exhibits clear variability in both space and time, which strongly favours the reflection scenario, the most likely illuminating source being Sgr A*. By comparing data to Monte-Carlo simulated reflection spectra, we are able to put the best constraints to date on the line-of-sight positions of the main bright clumps of the molecular complex. Ultimately, extending this approach by the inclusion of other molecular complexes allows us to partially reconstruct the past lightcurve of the Galactic supermassive black hole.

  13. High-Energy X-rays from J174545.5-285829, the Cannonball: a Candidate Pulsar Wind Nebula Associated with Sgr a East

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nynka, Melania; Hailey, Charles J.; Mori, Kaya; Baganoff, Frederick K.; Bauer, Franz E.; Boggs, Steven E.; Craig, William W.; Christensen, Finn E.; Gotthelf, Eric V.; Harrison, Fiona A.; hide

    2013-01-01

    We report the unambiguous detection of non-thermal X-ray emission up to 30 keV from the Cannonball, a few arcsecond long diffuse X-ray feature near the Galactic Center, using the NuSTAR X-ray observatory. The Cannonball is a high-velocity (v(proj) approximately 500 km s(exp -1)) pulsar candidate with a cometary pulsar wind nebula (PWN) located approximately 2' north-east from Sgr A*, just outside the radio shell of the supernova remnant Sagittarius A (Sgr A) East. Its non-thermal X-ray spectrum, measured up to 30 keV, is well characterized by a Gamma is approximately 1.6 power law, typical of a PWN, and has an X-ray luminosity of L(3-30 keV) = 1.3 × 10(exp 34) erg s(exp -1). The spectral and spatial results derived from X-ray and radio data strongly suggest a runaway neutron star born in the Sgr A East supernova event. We do not find any pulsed signal from the Cannonball. The NuSTAR observations allow us to deduce the PWN magnetic field and show that it is consistent with the lower limit obtained from radio observations.

  14. The rotation-powered nature of some soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Coelho, Jaziel G.; Cáceres, D. L.; de Lima, R. C. R.; Malheiro, M.; Rueda, J. A.; Ruffini, R.

    2017-03-01

    Context. Soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are slow rotating isolated pulsars whose energy reservoir is still matter of debate. Adopting neutron star (NS) fiducial parameters; mass M = 1.4 M⊙, radius R = 10 km, and moment of inertia, I = 1045 g cm2, the rotational energy loss, Ėrot, is lower than the observed luminosity (dominated by the X-rays) LX for many of the sources. Aims: We investigate the possibility that some members of this family could be canonical rotation-powered pulsars using realistic NS structure parameters instead of fiducial values. Methods: We compute the NS mass, radius, moment of inertia and angular momentum from numerical integration of the axisymmetric general relativistic equations of equilibrium. We then compute the entire range of allowed values of the rotational energy loss, Ėrot, for the observed values of rotation period P and spin-down rate Ṗ. We also estimate the surface magnetic field using a general relativistic model of a rotating magnetic dipole. Results: We show that realistic NS parameters lowers the estimated value of the magnetic field and radiation efficiency, LX/Ėrot, with respect to estimates based on fiducial NS parameters. We show that nine SGRs/AXPs can be described as canonical pulsars driven by the NS rotational energy, for LX computed in the soft (2-10 keV) X-ray band. We compute the range of NS masses for which LX/Ėrot< 1. We discuss the observed hard X-ray emission in three sources of the group of nine potentially rotation-powered NSs. This additional hard X-ray component dominates over the soft one leading to LX/Ėrot > 1 in two of them. Conclusions: We show that 9 SGRs/AXPs can be rotation-powered NSs if we analyze their X-ray luminosity in the soft 2-10 keV band. Interestingly, four of them show radio emission and six have been associated with supernova remnants (including Swift J1834.9-0846 the first SGR observed with a surrounding wind nebula). These observations give

  15. Rapid Optical Follow-up Observations of SGR Events with ROTSE-I

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akerlof, C.; Balsano, R.; Barthelmy, S.; Bloch, J.; Butterworth, P.; Casperson, D.; Cline, T.; Fletcher, S.; Gisler, G.; Hills, J.; Kehoe, R.; Lee, B.; Marshall, S.; McKay, T.; Pawl, A.; Priedhorsky, W.; Seldomridge, N.; Szymanski, J.; Wren, J.

    2000-10-01

    In order to observe nearly simultaneous emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) receives triggers via the GRB Coordinates Network (GCN). Since beginning operations in 1998 March, ROTSE has also taken useful data for 10 SGR events: eight from SGR 1900+14 and two from SGR 1806-20. We have searched for new or variable sources in the error regions of these SGRs, and no optical counterparts were observed. Limits are in the range mROTSE~12.5-15.5 during the period 20 s to 1 hr after the observed SGR events.

  16. Rapid optical follow-up observations of SGR events with ROTSE-I

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Balsano, R.; Akerlof, C.; Barthelmy, S.; Bloch, J.; Butterworth, P.; Casperson, D.; Cline, T.; Fletcher, S.; Gisler, G.; Hills, J.; Kehoe, R.; Lee, B.; Marshall, S.; McKay, T.; Pawl, A.; Priedhorsky, W.; Seldomridge, N.; Szymanski, J.; Wren, J.

    2000-09-01

    The primary mission of the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) is to search for contemporaneous optical emission from GRBs. Among the triggers ROTSE receives via the GRB Coordinates Network (GCN), there are a number from Soft-Gamma Repeater (SGR) events. Since beginning operations in March 1998, ROTSE-I has triggered on 16 observable SGR events. Ten of these events had useful data, eight events from SGR 1900+14 and two events from SGR 1806-20. The error regions for these SGRs are a small fraction of the ROTSE 16°×16° field of view and have been searched for new or variable objects. Limits on optical transient counterparts are in the range mROTSE~12.5-15.5 during the period 10 seconds to 1 hour after the observed SGR events. .

  17. High-Energy X-Ray Detection of G359.89-0.08 (SGR A-E): Magnetic Flux Tube Emission Powered by Cosmic Rays?

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zhang, Shuo; Hailey, Charles J.; Baganoff, Frederick K.; Bauer, Franz E.; Boggs, Steven E.; Craig, William W.; Christensen, Finn E.; Gotthelf, Eric V.; Harrison, Fiona A.; Mori, Kaya; hide

    2014-01-01

    We report the first detection of high-energy X-ray (E (is) greater than 10 keV) emission from the Galactic center non-thermal filament G359.89-0.08 (Sgr A-E) using data acquired with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). The bright filament was detected up to approximately 50 keV during a NuSTAR Galactic center monitoring campaign. The featureless power-law spectrum with a photon index gamma approximately equals 2.3 confirms a non-thermal emission mechanism. The observed flux in the 3-79 keV band is F(sub X) = (2.0 +/- 0.1) × 10(exp -12)erg cm(-2) s(-1) , corresponding to an unabsorbed X-ray luminosity L(sub X) = (2.6+/-0.8)×10(exp 34) erg s(-1) assuming a distance of 8.0 kpc. Based on theoretical predictions and observations, we conclude that Sgr A-E is unlikely to be a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) or supernova remnant-molecular cloud (SNR-MC) interaction, as previously hypothesized. Instead, the emission could be due to a magnetic flux tube which traps TeV electrons. We propose two possible TeV electron sources: old PWNe (up to (is) approximately 100 kyr) with low surface brightness and radii up to (is) approximately 30 pc or MCs illuminated by cosmic rays (CRs) from CR accelerators such as SNRs or Sgr A*.

  18. Glimpses of the past activity of Sgr A★ inferred from X-ray echoes in Sgr C

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chuard, D.; Terrier, R.; Goldwurm, A.; Clavel, M.; Soldi, S.; Morris, M. R.; Ponti, G.; Walls, M.; Chernyakova, M.

    2018-02-01

    Context. For a decade now, evidence has accumulated that giant molecular clouds located within the central molecular zone of our Galaxy reflect X-rays coming from past outbursts of the Galactic supermassive black hole. However, the number of illuminating events as well as their ages and durations are still unresolved questions. Aims: We aim to reconstruct parts of the history of the supermassive black hole Sgr A★ by studying this reflection phenomenon in the molecular complex Sgr C and by determining the line-of-sight positions of its main bright substructures. Methods: Using observations made with the X-ray observatories XMM-Newton and Chandra and between 2000 and 2014, we investigated the variability of the reflected emission, which consists of a Fe Kα line at 6.4 keV and a Compton continuum. We carried out an imaging and a spectral analysis. We also used a Monte Carlo model of the reflected spectra to constrain the line-of-sight positions of the brightest clumps, and hence to assign an approximate date to the associated illuminating events. Results: We show that the Fe Kα emission from Sgr C exhibits significant variability in both space and time, which confirms its reflection origin. The most likely illuminating source is Sgr A★. On the one hand, we report two distinct variability timescales, as one clump undergoes a sudden rise and fall in about 2005, while two others vary smoothly throughout the whole 2000-2014 period. On the other hand, by fitting the Monte Carlo model to the data, we are able to place tight constraints on the 3D positions of the clumps. These two independent approaches provide a consistent picture of the past activity of Sgr A★, since the two slowly varying clumps are located on the same wavefront, while the third (rapidly varying) clump corresponds to a different wavefront, that is, to a different illuminating event. Conclusions: This work shows that Sgr A★ experienced at least two powerful outbursts in the past 300 yrs, and for

  19. A Comprehensive Study of Short Bursts from SGR1806-20 and SGR1900+14 Detected by HETE-2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nakagawa, Yujin E.; Yoshida, Atsumasa; Hurley, Kevin; Atteia, Jean-Luc; Maetou, Miki; Tamagawa, Toru; Suzuki, Motoko; Yamazaki, Tohru; Tanaka, Kaoru; Kawai, Nobuyuki; Shirasaki, Yuji; Pelangeon, Alexandre; Matsuoka, Masaru; Vanderspek, Roland; Crew, Geoff B.; Villasenor, Joel S.; Sato, Rie; Sugita, Satoshi; Kotoku, Jun'ichi; Arimoto, Makoto; Pizzichini, Graziella; Doty, John P.; Ricker, George R.

    2007-06-01

    Temporal and spectral studies of short bursts (≲ a few hundred milliseconds) are presented for the soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) 1806-20 and 1900+14 using the HETE-2 samples. In five years from 2001 to 2005, HETE-2 localized 50 bursts from SGR1806-20 and 5 bursts from SGR1900+14. The cumulative number-intensity distribution of SGR1806-20 in the active year 2004 is well described by a power-law model with an index of -1.1±0.6. It is consistent with previous studies, but burst data taken in other years clearly give a steeper distribution. This may suggest that more energetic bursts could occur more frequently in periods of greater activity. From the data, the spectral evolution during bursts with a time scale of ≳ 20ms does not seem to be common in the HETE-2 sample. The spectra of all short bursts are well reproduced by a two blackbody function with temperatures of ˜ 4 and ˜ 11keV. From a timing analysis to the SGR1806-20 data, a time lag of 2.2±0.4ms is found between the 30-100keV and 2-10keV radiation bands. This may imply (1) a very rapid spectral softening and energy reinjection, (2) diffused (elongated) emission plasma along the magnetic field lines in pseudo-equilibrium with multi-temperatures, or (3) a separate (located at ≲ 700km) emission region of a softer component (say, ˜ 4keV), which could be reprocessed X-rays by higher energy (≳ 11keV) photons from an emission region near the stellar surface.

  20. Observations of Soft Gamma Repeaters

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kouveliotou, Chryssa

    2004-01-01

    Magnetars (Soft Gamma Repeaters and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars) are a subclass of neutron stars characterized by their recurrent X-ray bursts. While in an active (bursting) state (lasting anywhere between days and years), they are emit&ng hundreds of predominantly soft (kT=30 kev), short (0.1-100 ms long) events. Their quiescent source x-ray light ewes exhibit puhlions rotational period rate changes (spin-down) indicate that their magnetic fields are extremely high, of the order of 10^14- 10^l5 G. Such high B-field objects, dubbed "magnetars", had been predicted to exist in 1992, but the first concrete observational evidence were obtained in 1998 for two of these sources. I will discuss here the history of Soft Gamma Repeaters, and their spectral, timing and flux characteristics both in the persistent and their burst emission.

  1. X-ray Weekly Monitoring of the Galactic Center Sgr A* with Suzaku

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maeda, Yoshitomo; Nobukawa, Masayoshi; Hayashi, Takayuki; Iizuka, Ryo; Saitoh, Takayuki; Murakami, Hiroshi

    A small gas cloud, G2, is on an orbit almost straight into the supermassive blackhole Sgr A* by spring 2014. This event gives us a rare opportunity to test the mass feeding onto the blackhole by a gas. To catch a possible rise of the mass accretion from the cloud, we have been performing the bi-week monitoring of Sgr A* in autumn and spring in the 2013 fiscal year. The key feature of Suzaku is the high-sensitivity wide-band X-ray spectroscopy all in one observatory. It is characterized by a large effective area combined with low background and good energy resolution, in particular a good line spread function in the low-energy range. Since the desired flare events associated with the G2 approach is a transient event, the large effective area is critical and powerful tools to hunt them. The first monitoring in 2013 autumn was successfully made. The X-rays from Sgr A* and its nearby emission were clearly resolved from the bright transient source AX J1745.6-2901. No very large flare from Sgr A*was found during the monitoring. We also may report the X-ray properties of two serendipitous sources, the neutron star binary AX J1745.6-2901 and a magnetar SGR J1745-29.

  2. RXTE All-Sky Monitor Localization of SGR 1627-41

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, D. A.; Bradt, H. V.; Levine, A. M.

    1999-09-01

    The fourth unambiguously identified Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR), SGR 1627--41, was discovered with the BATSE instrument on 1998 June 15 (Kouveliotou et al. 1998). Interplanetary Network (IPN) measurements and BATSE data constrained the location of this new SGR to a 6(deg) segment of a narrow (19('') ) annulus (Hurley et al. 1999; Woods et al. 1998). We report on two bursts from this source observed by the All-Sky Monitor (ASM) on RXTE. We use the ASM data to further constrain the source location to a 5(') long segment of the BATSE/IPN error box. The ASM/IPN error box lies within 0.3(') of the supernova remnant (SNR) G337.0--0.1. The probability that a SNR would fall so close to the error box purely by chance is ~ 5%.

  3. Broadband Spectral Investigations of SGR J1550-5418 Bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lin, Lin; Goegues, Ersin; Baring, Matthew G.; Granot, Jonathan; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Kaneko, Yuki; van der Horst, Alexander; Gruber, David; von Kienlin, Andreas; Younes, George; hide

    2012-01-01

    We present the results of our broadband spectral analysis of 42 SGR J1550-5418 bursts simultaneously detected with the Swift/X-ray Telescope (XRT) and the Fermi/Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM), during the 2009 January active episode of the source. The unique spectral and temporal capabilities of the XRT windowed timing mode have allowed us to extend the GBM spectral coverage for these events down to the X-ray domain (0.5-10 keV). Our earlier analysis of the GBM data found that the SGR J1550-5418 burst spectra were described equally well with either a Comptonized model or with two blackbody functions; the two models were statistically indistinguishable. Our new broadband (0.5-200 keV) spectral fits show that, on average, the burst spectra are better described with two blackbody functions than with the Comptonized model. Thus, our joint XRT-GBM analysis clearly shows for the first time that the SGR J1550-5418 burst spectra might naturally be expected to exhibit a more truly thermalized character, such as a two-blackbody or even a multi-blackbody signal. Using the Swift and RXTE timing ephemeris for SGR J1550-5418 we construct the distribution of the XRT burst counts with spin phase and find that it is not correlated with the persistent X-ray emission pulse phase from SGR J1550-5418. These results indicate that the burst emitting sites on the neutron star need not to be co-located with hot spots emitting the bulk of the persistent X-ray emission. Finally, we show that there is a significant pulse phase dependence of the XRT burst counts, likely demonstrating that the surface magnetic field of SGR J1550-5418 is not uniform over the emission zones, since it is anticipated that regions with stronger surface magnetic field could trigger bursts more efficiently.

  4. How Soft Gamma Repeaters Might Make Fast Radio Bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Katz, J. I.

    2016-08-01

    There are several phenomenological similarities between soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and fast radio bursts (FRBs), including duty factors, timescales, and repetition. The sudden release of magnetic energy in a neutron star magnetosphere, as in popular models of SGRs, can meet the energy requirements of FRBs, but requires both the presence of magnetospheric plasma, in order for dissipation to occur in a transparent region, and a mechanism for releasing much of that energy quickly. FRB sources and SGRs are distinguished by long-lived (up to thousands of years) current-carrying coronal arches remaining from the formation of the young neutron star, and their decay ends the phase of SGR/AXP/FRB activity even though “magnetar” fields may persist. Runaway increases in resistance when the current density exceeds a threshold, releases magnetostatic energy in a sudden burst, and produces high brightness GHz emission of FRB by a coherent process. SGRs are produced when released energy thermalizes as an equlibrium pair plasma. The failures of some alternative FRB models and the non-detection of SGR 1806-20 at radio frequencies are discussed in the appendices.

  5. X-ray and gamma-ray emission of Sagittarius A* as a wind-accreting black hole

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mastichiadis, A.; Ozernoy, L. M.

    1994-01-01

    If, as many believe, Sgr A* is a massive black hole at the Galactic center, one should expect it to be a source of X-ray and gamma-ray activity, behaving basically as a scaled-down active galactic nucleus. An unavoidable source of accretion is the wind from IRS 16, a nearby group of hot, massive stars. Since the density and velocity of the accreting matter are known from observations, the accretion rate is basically a function of the putative black hole mass, M(sub h), only; this value represents a reliable lower limit to a real rate, given the other possible sources of accreting matter. Based on this and on the theories about shock acceleration in active galactic nuclei, we have estimated the expected production of relativistic particles and their hard radiation. These values turn out to be a function of M(sub h) as well. Comparing our results with available X-ray and gamma-ray observations which show Sgr A* to have a relatively low activity level, we conclude tentatively that the putative black hole in the Galactic center cannot have a mass greater than approximately 6 x 10(exp 3) solar mass. This conclusion is consistent with the upper limits to the black hole mass found by different methods earlier, although much more work is needed to make calculations of shock acceleration around black holes more reliable.

  6. An Expanding Radio Nebula Produced by a Giant Flare from the Magnetar SGR 1806-20

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gaensler, B. M.; Kouveliotou, C.; Gelfand, J. D.; Taylor, G. B.; Eichler, D.; Wijers, R. A. M. J.; Granot, J.; Ramirez-Ruiz, E.; Lyubarsky, Y. E.; Hunstead, R. W.

    2005-01-01

    Soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) are "magnetars", a small class of slowly spinning neutron stars with extreme surface magnetic fields, B approx. 10(sup 15) gauss. On 2004 December 27, a giant flare was detected from the magnetar SGR 1806-20, the third such event ever recorded. This burst of energy, which resulted in the highest flux of gamma-rays ever measured from a celestial object, was detected by a variety of instruments and even caused an ionospheric disturbance in the Earth's upper atmosphere recorded around the globe. Here we report the detection of a very bright but rapidly-fading radio source at the position of SGR 1806-20 following this outburst. From day 6 to day 19 after the flare, we see a resolved, linearly polarized, radio nebula, expanding at a velocity of approximately 0.3c. To create this nebula, at least 4 x 10(exp 43) ergs of energy must have been emitted by the giant flare in the form of magnetic fields and relativistic particles. The steep decline of the radio flux may indicate episodic particle acceleration followed by adiabatic expansion, as could occur if the ejecta have energized a thin shell surrounding a preexisting cavity.

  7. MODELING THE GAMMA-RAY EMISSION IN THE GALACTIC CENTER WITH A FADING COSMIC-RAY ACCELERATOR

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Liu, Ruo-Yu; Wang, Xiang-Yu; Prosekin, Anton

    2016-12-20

    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 accelerator. In this model, gamma-rays frommore » the CMZ region are produced by protons injected in the past, while gamma-rays from the inner region are produced by protons injected more recently. We suggest that the blast wave formed in a tidal disruption event (TDE) caused by the supermassive black hole (Sgr A*) could serve as such a fading accelerator. With typical parameters of the TDE blast wave, gamma-ray spectra of both the CMZ region and HESS J1745-290 can be reproduced simultaneously. Meanwhile, we find that the cosmic-ray energy density profile in the CMZ region may also be reproduced in the fading accelerator model when appropriate combinations of the particle injection history and the diffusion coefficient of cosmic rays are adopted.« less

  8. Unveiling the Nature of Soft Gamma Repeaters and Magnetars: Scientists Measure the Most Powerful Magnet Known

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Swank, Jean (Technical Monitor); Parke, William

    2002-01-01

    This newsletter from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) announces measurements of the magnetic field of a magnetar. The magnetic field was approx. 10(exp 15) gauss, up to 10 times more powerful than previous estimates. The newsletter also describes how the star's magnetic field slows its rotation, and how starquakes emit protons, which are trapped in this neutron star's magnetic field, and make it a soft gamma repeater (SGR).

  9. Simultaneous X-Ray, Gamma-Ray, and Radio Observations of the Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scholz, P.; Bogdanov, S.; Hessels, J. W. T.; Lynch, R. S.; Spitler, L. G.; Bassa, C. G.; Bower, G. C.; Burke-Spolaor, S.; Butler, B. J.; Chatterjee, S.; Cordes, J. M.; Gourdji, K.; Kaspi, V. M.; Law, C. J.; Marcote, B.; McLaughlin, M. A.; Michilli, D.; Paragi, Z.; Ransom, S. M.; Seymour, A.; Tendulkar, S. P.; Wharton, R. S.

    2017-09-01

    We undertook coordinated campaigns with the Green Bank, Effelsberg, and Arecibo radio telescopes during Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton observations of the repeating fast radio burst FRB 121102 to search for simultaneous radio and X-ray bursts. We find 12 radio bursts from FRB 121102 during 70 ks total of X-ray observations. We detect no X-ray photons at the times of radio bursts from FRB 121102 and further detect no X-ray bursts above the measured background at any time. We place a 5σ upper limit of 3 × 10‑11 erg cm‑2 on the 0.5–10 keV fluence for X-ray bursts at the time of radio bursts for durations < 700 ms, which corresponds to a burst energy of 4 × 1045 erg at the measured distance of FRB 121102. We also place limits on the 0.5–10 keV fluence of 5 × 10‑10 and 1 × 10‑9 erg cm‑2 for bursts emitted at any time during the XMM-Newton and Chandra observations, respectively, assuming a typical X-ray burst duration of 5 ms. We analyze data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Gamma-ray Burst Monitor and place a 5σ upper limit on the 10–100 keV fluence of 4 × 10‑9 erg cm‑2 (5 × 1047 erg at the distance of FRB 121102) for gamma-ray bursts at the time of radio bursts. We also present a deep search for a persistent X-ray source using all of the X-ray observations taken to date and place a 5σ upper limit on the 0.5–10 keV flux of 4 × 10‑15 erg s‑1 cm‑2 (3 × 1041 erg s‑1 at the distance of FRB 121102). We discuss these non-detections in the context of the host environment of FRB 121102 and of possible sources of fast radio bursts in general.

  10. HOW SOFT GAMMA REPEATERS MIGHT MAKE FAST RADIO BURSTS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Katz, J. I., E-mail: katz@wuphys.wustl.edu

    2016-08-01

    There are several phenomenological similarities between soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and fast radio bursts (FRBs), including duty factors, timescales, and repetition. The sudden release of magnetic energy in a neutron star magnetosphere, as in popular models of SGRs, can meet the energy requirements of FRBs, but requires both the presence of magnetospheric plasma, in order for dissipation to occur in a transparent region, and a mechanism for releasing much of that energy quickly. FRB sources and SGRs are distinguished by long-lived (up to thousands of years) current-carrying coronal arches remaining from the formation of the young neutron star, and theirmore » decay ends the phase of SGR/AXP/FRB activity even though “magnetar” fields may persist. Runaway increases in resistance when the current density exceeds a threshold, releases magnetostatic energy in a sudden burst, and produces high brightness GHz emission of FRB by a coherent process. SGRs are produced when released energy thermalizes as an equlibrium pair plasma. The failures of some alternative FRB models and the non-detection of SGR 1806-20 at radio frequencies are discussed in the appendices.« less

  11. Polarization and long-term variability of Sgr A* X-ray echo

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Churazov, E.; Khabibullin, I.; Ponti, G.; Sunyaev, R.

    2017-06-01

    We use a model of the molecular gas distribution within ˜100 pc from the centre of the Milky Way (Kruijssen, Dale & Longmore) to simulate time evolution and polarization properties of the reflected X-ray emission, associated with the past outbursts from Sgr A*. While this model is too simple to describe the complexity of the true gas distribution, it illustrates the importance and power of long-term observations of the reflected emission. We show that the variable part of X-ray emission observed by Chandra and XMM-Newton from prominent molecular clouds is well described by a pure reflection model, providing strong support of the reflection scenario. While the identification of Sgr A* as a primary source for this reflected emission is already a very appealing hypothesis, a decisive test of this model can be provided by future X-ray polarimetric observations, which will allow placing constraints on the location of the primary source. In addition, X-ray polarimeters (like, e.g. XIPE) have sufficient sensitivity to constrain the line-of-sight positions of molecular complexes, removing major uncertainty in the model.

  12. The effect of a gamma ray flare on Schumann resonances

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nickolaenko, A. P.; Kudintseva, I. G.; Pechony, O.; Hayakawa, M.; Hobara, Y.; Tanaka, Y. T.

    2012-09-01

    We describe the ionospheric modification by the SGR 1806-20 gamma flare (27 December 2004) seen in the global electromagnetic (Schumann) resonance. The gamma rays lowered the ionosphere over the dayside of the globe and modified the Schumann resonance spectra. We present the extremely low frequency (ELF) data monitored at the Moshiri observatory, Japan (44.365° N, 142.24° E). Records are compared with the expected modifications, which facilitate detection of the simultaneous abrupt change in the dynamic resonance pattern of the experimental record. The gamma flare modified the current of the global electric circuit and thus caused the "parametric" ELF transient. Model results are compared with observations enabling evaluation of changes in the global electric circuit.

  13. Identification of the Infrared Counterpart of SGR 1935+2154 with the Hubble Space Telescope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Levan, Andrew; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Fruchter, Andrew

    2018-02-01

    We present deep Hubble Space Telescope observations of a new magnetar source, the soft gamma-repeater SGR 1935+2154, discovered by Swift. We obtained three epochs of observations: while the source was active in 2015 March, during a quiescent period in 2015 August, and during a further active phase in 2016 May. Close to the center of the X-ray error region identified by Chandra, we find a faint (F140W(AB) = 25.3) source, which fades by a factor of ∼2 over the course of 5 months between the first two epochs of observations, before rebrightening during the second active period. If this source is indeed the counterpart to SGR 1935+2154, then it is among the faintest yet located for a magnetar. Our observations are spaced over 1.3 years and enable us to place limits on the source velocity of μ = (60 ± 40) km s‑1 kpc‑1 observations on timescales of a decade can hence probe proper motion limits smaller than the velocities observed for the majority of pulsars. The comparison of the optical/IR and X-ray light curves of the source suggests that emission in the two regimes is associated but not directly correlated, offering support for a magnetospheric versus a fallback disk origin.

  14. An expanding radio nebula produced by a giant flare from the magnetar SGR 1806-20.

    PubMed

    Gaensler, B M; Kouveliotou, C; Gelfand, J D; Taylor, G B; Eichler, D; Wijers, R A M J; Granot, J; Ramirez-Ruiz, E; Lyubarsky, Y E; Hunstead, R W; Campbell-Wilson, D; van der Horst, A J; McLaughlin, M A; Fender, R P; Garrett, M A; Newton-McGee, K J; Palmer, D M; Gehrels, N; Woods, P M

    2005-04-28

    Soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are 'magnetars', a small class of slowly spinning neutron stars with extreme surface magnetic fields, B approximately 10(15) gauss (refs 1 , 2 -3). On 27 December 2004, a giant flare was detected from the magnetar SGR 1806-20 (ref. 2), only the third such event recorded. This burst of energy was detected by a variety of instruments and even caused an ionospheric disturbance in the Earth's upper atmosphere that was recorded around the globe. Here we report the detection of a fading radio afterglow produced by this outburst, with a luminosity 500 times larger than the only other detection of a similar source. From day 6 to day 19 after the flare from SGR 1806-20, a resolved, linearly polarized, radio nebula was seen, expanding at approximately a quarter of the speed of light. To create this nebula, at least 4 x 10(43) ergs of energy must have been emitted by the giant flare in the form of magnetic fields and relativistic particles.

  15. Watching a Black Hole Feed: Sgr A* in the X-ray and Infrared

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fazio, Giovanni

    2017-09-01

    Black hole accretion drives extreme astrophysical phenomena in the universe. Sgr A*, the nearest supermassive black hole, is highly variable, but sparse data and short observations preclude determination of its emission physics. Despite enormous advances in accretion models in recent years, even the radiation mechanisms of Sgr A* are still unknown. Because the needed information is encoded in the time-dependent relationship between X-ray and IR emission, we propose four new epochs of Chandra monitoring with Spitzer at 4.5 microns. This will double the exposure time for X-ray flares where the NIR state is known, moving us out of the realm of small-number statistics and enabling diagnostics of the true X-ray/IR relationship. This will be the final chance for Chandra+Spitzer observations.

  16. Imprints of superfluidity on magnetoelastic quasiperiodic oscillations of soft gamma-ray repeaters.

    PubMed

    Gabler, Michael; Cerdá-Durán, Pablo; Stergioulas, Nikolaos; Font, José A; Müller, Ewald

    2013-11-22

    Our numerical simulations show that axisymmetric, torsional, magnetoelastic oscillations of magnetars with a superfluid core can explain the whole range of observed quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) in the giant flares of soft gamma-ray repeaters. There exist constant phase QPOs at f is < or approximately equal to 150 Hz and resonantly excited high-frequency QPOs (f>500 Hz), in good agreement with observations. The range of magnetic field strengths required to match the observed QPO frequencies agrees with that from spin-down estimates. These results suggest that there is at least one superfluid species in magnetar cores.

  17. DISCOVERY OF A TRANSIENT GAMMA-RAY COUNTERPART TO FRB 131104

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    DeLaunay, J. J.; Murase, K.; Mészáros, P.

    We report our discovery in Swift satellite data of a transient gamma-ray counterpart (3.2 σ confidence) to the fast radio burst (FRB) FRB 131104, the first such counterpart to any FRB. The transient has a duration T {sub 90} ≳ 100 s and a fluence S{sub γ} ≈ 4 × 10{sup −6} erg cm{sup −2}, increasing the energy budget for this event by more than a billion times; at the nominal z ≈ 0.55 redshift implied by its dispersion measure, the burst’s gamma-ray energy output is E{sub γ} ≈ 5 × 10{sup 51} erg. The observed radio to gamma-ray fluencemore » ratio for FRB 131104 is consistent with a lower limit we derive from Swift observations of another FRB, which is not detected in gamma-rays, and with an upper limit previously derived for the brightest gamma-ray flare from SGR 1806−20, which was not detected in the radio. X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical observations beginning two days after the FRB do not reveal any associated afterglow, supernova, or transient; Swift observations exclude association with the brightest 65% of Swift gamma-ray burst (GRB) X-ray afterglows, while leaving the possibility of an associated supernova at much more than 10% the FRB’s nominal distance, D ≳ 320 Mpc, largely unconstrained. Transient high-luminosity gamma-ray emission arises most naturally in a relativistic outflow or shock breakout, such as, for example, from magnetar flares, GRBs, relativistic supernovae, and some types of galactic nuclear activity. Our discovery thus bolsters the case for an extragalactic origin for some FRBs and suggests that future rapid-response observations might identify long-lived counterparts, resolving the nature of these mysterious phenomena and realizing their promise as probes of cosmology and fundamental physics.« less

  18. The 2001 April Burst Activation of SGR 1900-14: Pulse Properties and Torque

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Woods, P. M.; Kouveliotou, C.; Goegues, E.; Finger, M. H.; Feroci, M.; Mereghetti, S.; Swank, J. H.; Hurley, K.; Heise, J.; Smith D.

    2003-01-01

    We report on observations of SGR 1900+14 made with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and BeppoSAXduring the 2001 April burst activation of the source. Using these data, we measure the spin-down torque on the star and confirm earlier findings that the torque and burst activity are not directly correlated. We compare the X-ray pulse profile to the gamma-ray profile during the April 18 intermediate flare and show that (1) their shapes are similar and (1) the gamma-ray profile aligns closely in phase with the X-ray pulsations. The good phase alignment of the gamma-ray and X-ray profiles suggests that there was no rapid spin-down following this flare of the magnitude inferred for the August 27 giant flare. We discuss how these observations further constrain magnetic field reconfiguration models for the large flares of SGRs.

  19. A new model for soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous x-ray pulsars using quark stars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Niebergal, Brian Phillip

    2007-05-01

    If indeed the strange quark matter (SQM) hypothesis is true, then it is highly probable that some stars exist with an interior composed entirely of deconfined quarks. In this thesis the consequences of this SQM hypothesis are explored in the context of strange quark stars (QSs), and the manner in which they manifest themselves, namely Soft-Gamma ray Repeaters (SGRs) and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs). Discussed in this thesis is the effect of the highly superconducting SQM, which is the formation of an Abrikosov lattice occupying the entire QS, and the result of spin-down on this lattice due to magnetic braking. By including a degenerate shell or torus surrounding the QS in this model, created during the quark-nova, SGRs and AXPs can be linked into a single classification and every observation of SGRs/AXPs to date can be explained.

  20. The Vital Infrared to X-ray Link in the Sgr A* Accretion Flow

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fazio, Giovanni; Ashby, Matthew; Baganoff, Frederick; Becklin, Eric; Boyce, Hope; Carey, Sean; Gammie, Charles; Ghez, Andrea; Glaccum, William; Gurwell, Mark; Haggard, Daryl; Herrero-Illana, Ruben; Hora, Joseph; Ingalls, James; Lowrance, Patrick; Markoff, Sera; Marrone, Daniel; Morris, Mark; Narayan, Ramesh; Neilsen, Joseph; Ponti, Gabriele; Smith, Howard; Willner, Steven; Witzel, Gunther

    2018-05-01

    Black hole accretion drives extreme astrophysical phenomena in the universe. Sgr A*, the radiating counterpart of the nearest supermassive black hole, is highly variable, but sparse data and short observations have left its emission physics in question. Despite enormous advances in accretion models, physical description of the interacting radiation mechanisms is incomplete. The X-ray emission mechanism in particular remains unknown. Because the necessary information is contained in the time-dependent relation between X-ray and infrared emission, we have begun monitoring Sgr A* simultaneously with Chandra in X-rays and with Spitzer in the infrared. Defining the X-ray to infrared flux density ratio will allow the entire energy distribution to be understood. We therefore request two new 24-hour epochs of Spitzer monitoring at 4.5 microns simultaneous with Chandra time already approved. This will increase the exposure time for X-ray flares where the NIR state is known, moving us out of the realm of small-number statistics and enabling diagnostics of the true X-ray/IR ratio. Under current NASA plans, this will be the last chance for these valuable Spitzer+Chandra observations.

  1. The 3 megasecond Chandra campaign on Sgr A*: a census of x-ray flaring activity from the galactic center

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Neilsen, Joey

    Over the last decade, X-ray observations of Sgr A* have revealed a black hole in a deep sleep, punctuated roughly once per day by brief flares. The extreme X-ray faintness of this supermassive black hole has been a long-standing puzzle in black hole accretion. To study the accretion processes in the Galactic Center, Chandra (in concert with numerous ground- and space-based observatories) undertook a 3 Ms campaign on Sgr A* in 2012. With its excellent observing cadence, sensitivity, and spectral resolution, this Chandra X-ray Visionary Project (XVP) provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the behavior of our closest supermassive black hole. We present a progress report from our ongoing study of X-ray flares, including the brightest flare ever seen from Sgr A*. Focusing on the statistics of the flares, the quiescent emission, and the relationship between the X-ray and the infrared, we discuss the physical implications of X-ray variability in the Galactic Center.

  2. The 3 Megasecond Chandra Campaign on Sgr A*: A Census of X-ray Flaring Activity from the Galactic Center

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Neilsen, Joseph; Nowak, Michael; Gammie, Charles F.; Dexter, Jason; Markoff, Sera; Haggard, Daryl; Nayakshin, Sergei; Wang, Q. Daniel; Grosso, N.; Porquet, D.; Tomsick, John; Degenaar, Nathalie; Fragile, P. Christopher; Houck, John C.; Wijnands, Rudy; Miller, Jon M.; Baganoff, Frederick K.

    2014-08-01

    Over the last decade, X-ray observations of Sgr A* have revealed a black hole in a deep sleep, punctuated roughly once per day by brief ares. The extreme X-ray faintness of this supermassive black hole has been a long-standing puzzle in black hole accretion. To study the accretion processes in the Galactic Center, Chandra (in concert with numerous ground- and space-based observatories) undertook a 3 Ms campaign on Sgr A* in 2012. With its excellent observing cadence, sensitivity, and spectral resolution, this Chandra X-ray Visionary Project (XVP) provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the behavior of our closest supermassive black hole. We present a progress report from our ongoing study of X-ray flares, including one of the brightest flares ever seen from Sgr A*. Focusing on the statistics of the flares, the quiescent emission, and the relationship between the X-ray and the infrared, we discuss the physical implications of X-ray variability in the Galactic Center.

  3. The 3 Ms Chandra campaign on Sgr A*: a census of X-ray flaring activity from the Galactic center

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Neilsen, J.; Nowak, M. A.; Gammie, C.; Dexter, J.; Markoff, S.; Haggard, D.; Nayakshin, S.; Wang, Q. D.; Grosso, N.; Porquet, D.; Tomsick, J. A.; Degenaar, N.; Fragile, P. C.; Houck, J. C.; Wijnands, R.; Miller, J. M.; Baganoff, F. K.

    2014-05-01

    Over the last decade, X-ray observations of Sgr A* have revealed a black hole in a deep sleep, punctuated roughly once per day by brief flares. The extreme X-ray faintness of this supermassive black hole has been a long-standing puzzle in black hole accretion. To study the accretion processes in the Galactic center, Chandra (in concert with numerous ground- and space-based observatories) undertook a 3 Ms campaign on Sgr A* in 2012. With its excellent observing cadence, sensitivity, and spectral resolution, this Chandra X-ray Visionary Project (XVP) provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the behavior of the closest supermassive black hole. We present a progress report from our ongoing study of X-ray flares, including the brightest flare ever seen from Sgr A*. Focusing on the statistics of the flares and the quiescent emission, we discuss the physical implications of X-ray variability in the Galactic center.

  4. Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer: Mission Design for Rapid, Accurate Location of Gamma-ray Bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bundas, David J.

    2004-01-01

    The Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer is a NASA Mid-sized Explorer (MIDEX) with the primary mission of determining the origins of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). It will be the first mission to autonomously respond to newly-discovered GRBs and provide immediate follow-up with narrow field instruments capable of multi-wavelength (UV, Optical, X-ray) observations. The characteristics of GRBs that are the key mission design drivers, are their non-repeating and brief duration bursts of multi-wavelength photons. In addition, rapid notification of the location and characteristics of the GRBs to ground-and-space-based observatories drive the end-to-end data analysis and distribution requirements.

  5. Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer: Mission Design for Rapid, Accurate Location of Gamma-ray Bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bundas, David J.

    2005-01-01

    The Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer is a NASA Mid-sized Explorer (MIDEX) with the primary mission of determining the origins of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). It will be the first mission to autonomously respond to newly-discovered GRBs and provide immediate follow-up with narrow field instruments capable of multi-wavelength (UT, Optical, X-ray) observations. The characteristics of GRBs that are the key mission design drivers, are their non-repeating and brief duration bursts of multi-wavelength photons. In addition, rapid notification of the location and characteristics of the GRBs to ground-and-space-based observatories drive the end-to-end data analysis and distribution requirements.

  6. X-ray flare properties of Sgr A*

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Daniel; Yuan, Qiang

    2016-04-01

    Daily X-ray flaring represents an enigmatic phenomenon of Sgr A* --- the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy. We report results from a systematic X-ray study of this phenomenon, based on extensive Chandra observations obtained from 1999 to 2012, totaling about 4.5 Ms. We detect flares, using a combination of the maximum likelihood and Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods, which allow for a direct accounting for the pile-up effect in the modeling of the flare lightcurves and an optimal use of the data, as well as the measurements of flare parameters, including their uncertainties. A total of 82 flares are detected. About one third of them are relatively faint, which were not detected previously. The observation-to-observation variation of the quiescent emission has an average root-mean-square of 6%-14%, including the Poisson statistical fluctuation of faint flares below our detection limits. We find no significant long-term variation in the quiescent emission and the flare rate over the 14 years. In particular, we see no evidence of changing quiescent emission and flare rate around the pericenter passage of the S2 star around 2002. We show clear evidence of a short-term clustering for the flares on time scale of 20-70 ks. We will also report new results on the spectral and lightcurve properties of the flares, as well as their fluence-duration relation after carefully accounting for the detection incompleteness and bias. Finally, we will use these results to constrain the origin and emission mechanism of the flares, which further helps to establish Sgr A* as a unique laboratory to understand the astrophysics of prevailing low-luminosity black holes in the Universe.

  7. The 2001 April Burst Activation of SGR 1900+14: Pulse Properties and Torque

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Woods, P. M.; Kouveliotou, C.; Goegues, E.; Finger, M. H.; Feroci, M.; Mereghetti, S.; Swank, J. H.; Hurley, K.; Heise, J.; Smith, D.; hide

    2002-01-01

    We report on observations of SGR 1900+14 made with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and BeppoSAX during the April 2001 burst activation of the source. Using these data, we measure the spindown torque on the star and confirm earlier findings that the torque and burst activity are not directly correlated. We compare the X-ray pulse profile to the gamma-ray profile during the April 18 intermediate flare and show that (i) their shapes are similar and (ii) the gamma-ray profile aligns closely in phase with the X-ray pulsations. The good phase alignment of the gamma-ray and X-ray profiles suggests that there was no rapid spindown following this flare, in contrast to the August 27 giant flare. The absence of rapid spindown in the hours following the April 18 flare suggests that there was no significant outflow of material as was believed to be present following the August 27 flare. Finally, we discuss how these observations further constrain magnetic field reconfiguration models for the large flares of SGRs.

  8. Unidentified Gamma-Ray Sources: Hunting Gamma-Ray Blazars

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Massaro, F.; D'Abrusco, R.; Tosti, G.

    2012-04-02

    One of the main scientific objectives of the ongoing Fermi mission is unveiling the nature of the unidentified {gamma}-ray sources (UGSs). Despite the large improvements of Fermi in the localization of {gamma}-ray sources with respect to the past {gamma}-ray missions, about one third of the Fermi-detected objects are still not associated to low energy counterparts. Recently, using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) survey, we discovered that blazars, the rarest class of Active Galactic Nuclei and the largest population of {gamma}-ray sources, can be recognized and separated from other extragalactic sources on the basis of their infrared (IR) colors. Basedmore » on this result, we designed an association method for the {gamma}-ray sources to recognize if there is a blazar candidate within the positional uncertainty region of a generic {gamma}-ray source. With this new IR diagnostic tool, we searched for {gamma}-ray blazar candidates associated to the UGS sample of the second Fermi {gamma}-ray catalog (2FGL). We found that our method associates at least one {gamma}-ray blazar candidate as a counterpart each of 156 out of 313 UGSs analyzed. These new low-energy candidates have the same IR properties as the blazars associated to {gamma}-ray sources in the 2FGL catalog.« less

  9. UNIDENTIFIED {gamma}-RAY SOURCES: HUNTING {gamma}-RAY BLAZARS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Massaro, F.; Ajello, M.; D'Abrusco, R.

    2012-06-10

    One of the main scientific objectives of the ongoing Fermi mission is unveiling the nature of unidentified {gamma}-ray sources (UGSs). Despite the major improvements of Fermi in the localization of {gamma}-ray sources with respect to the past {gamma}-ray missions, about one-third of the Fermi-detected objects are still not associated with low-energy counterparts. Recently, using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer survey, we discovered that blazars, the rarest class of active galactic nuclei and the largest population of {gamma}-ray sources, can be recognized and separated from other extragalactic sources on the basis of their infrared (IR) colors. Based on this result, wemore » designed an association method for the {gamma}-ray sources to recognize if there is a blazar candidate within the positional uncertainty region of a generic {gamma}-ray source. With this new IR diagnostic tool, we searched for {gamma}-ray blazar candidates associated with the UGS sample of the second Fermi {gamma}-ray LAT catalog (2FGL). We found that our method associates at least one {gamma}-ray blazar candidate as a counterpart to each of 156 out of 313 UGSs analyzed. These new low-energy candidates have the same IR properties as the blazars associated with {gamma}-ray sources in the 2FGL catalog.« less

  10. Gamma-ray emission from internal shocks in novae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Martin, P.; Dubus, G.; Jean, P.; Tatischeff, V.; Dosne, C.

    2018-04-01

    Context. Gamma-ray emission at energies ≥100 MeV has been detected from nine novae using the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), and can be explained by particle acceleration at shocks in these systems. Eight out of these nine objects are classical novae in which interaction of the ejecta with a tenuous circumbinary material is not expected to generate detectable gamma-ray emission. Aim. We examine whether particle acceleration at internal shocks can account for the gamma-ray emission from these novae. The shocks result from the interaction of a fast wind radiatively-driven by nuclear burning on the white dwarf with material ejected in the initial runaway stage of the nova outburst. Methods: We present a one-dimensional model for the dynamics of a forward and reverse shock system in a nova ejecta, and for the associated time-dependent particle acceleration and high-energy gamma-ray emission. Non-thermal proton and electron spectra are calculated by solving a time-dependent transport equation for particle injection, acceleration, losses, and escape from the shock region. The predicted emission is compared to LAT observations of V407 Cyg, V1324 Sco, V959 Mon, V339 Del, V1369 Cen, and V5668 Sgr. Results: The ≥100 MeV gamma-ray emission arises predominantly from particles accelerated up to 100 GeV at the reverse shock and undergoing hadronic interactions in the dense cooling layer downstream of the shock. The emission rises within days after the onset of the wind, quickly reaches a maximum, and its subsequent decrease reflects mostly the time evolution of the wind properties. Comparison to gamma-ray data points to a typical scenario where an ejecta of mass 10-5-10-4 M⊙ expands in a homologous way with a maximum velocity of 1000-2000 km s-1, followed within a day by a wind with a velocity <2000 km s-1 and a mass-loss rate of 10-4-10-3 M⊙ yr-1 declining over a time scale of a few days. Because of the large uncertainties in the measurements, many parameters of the

  11. Use of spectral gamma ray as a lithology guide for fault rocks: A case study from the Wenchuan Earthquake Fault Scientific Drilling project Borehole 4 (WFSD-4).

    PubMed

    Amara Konaté, Ahmed; Pan, Heping; Ma, Huolin; Qin, Zhen; Guo, Bo; Yevenyo Ziggah, Yao; Kounga, Claude Ernest Moussounda; Khan, Nasir; Tounkara, Fodé

    2017-10-01

    The main purpose of the Wenchuan Earthquake Fault Scientific drilling project (WFSD) was to produce an in-depth borehole into the Yingxiu-Beichuan (YBF) and Anxian-Guanxian faults in order to gain a much better understanding of the physical and chemical properties as well as the mechanical faulting involved. Five boreholes, namely WFSD-1, WFSD-2, WFSD-3P, WFSD-3 and WFSD-4, were drilled during the project entirety. This study, therefore, presents first-hand WFSD-4 data on the lithology (original rocks) and fault rocks that have been obtained from the WFSD project. In an attempt to determine the physical properties and the clay minerals of the lithology and fault rocks, this study analyzed the spectral gamma ray logs (Total gamma ray, Potassium, Thorium and Uranium) recorded in WFSD-4 borehole on the Northern segment of the YBF. The obtained results are presented as cross-plots and statistical multi log analysis. Both lithology and fault rocks show a variability of spectral gamma ray (SGR) logs responses and clay minerals. This study has shown the capabilities of the SGR logs for well-logging of earthquake faults and proves that SGR logs together with others logs in combination with drill hole core description is a useful method of lithology and fault rocks characterization. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars as highly magnetized white dwarfs

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mukhopadhyay, Banibrata; Rao, A.R., E-mail: bm@physics.iisc.ernet.in, E-mail: arrao@tifr.res.in

    We explore the possibility that soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are powered by highly magnetized white dwarfs (B-WDs). We take a sample of SGRs and AXPs and provide the possible parameter space in mass, radius, and surface magnetic field based on their observed properties (period and its derivative) and the assumption that these sources obey the mass-radius relation derived for the B-WDs. The radius and magnetic field of B-WDs are adequate to explain energies in SGRs/AXPs as the rotationally powered energy. In addition, B-WDs also adequately explain the perplexing radio transient GCRT J1745-3009 as a whitemore » dwarf pulsar. Note that the radius and magnetic fields of B-WDs are neither extreme (unlike of highly magnetized neutron stars) nor ordinary (unlike of magnetized white dwarfs, yet following the Chandrasekhar's mass-radius relation (C-WDs)). In order to explain SGRs/AXPs, while the highly magnetized neutron stars require an extra, observationally not well established yet, source of energy, the C-WDs predict large ultra-violet luminosity which is observationally constrained from a strict upper limit. Finally, we provide a set of basic differences between the magnetar and B-WD hypotheses for SGRs/AXPs.« less

  13. Very high-energy gamma rays from gamma-ray bursts.

    PubMed

    Chadwick, Paula M

    2007-05-15

    Very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy has undergone a transformation in the last few years, with telescopes of unprecedented sensitivity having greatly expanded the source catalogue. Such progress makes the detection of a gamma-ray burst at the highest energies much more likely than previously. This paper describes the facilities currently operating and their chances for detecting gamma-ray bursts, and reviews predictions for VHE gamma-ray emission from gamma-ray bursts. Results to date are summarized.

  14. The Outburst Decay of the Low Magnetic Field Magnetar SGR 0418+5729

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rea, N.; Israel, G. L.; Pons, J. A.; Turolla, R.; Viganò, D.; Zane, S.; Esposito, P.; Perna, R.; Papitto, A.; Terreran, G.; Tiengo, A.; Salvetti, D.; Girart, J. M.; Palau, Aina; Possenti, A.; Burgay, M.; Göğüş, E.; Caliandro, G. A.; Kouveliotou, C.; Götz, D.; Mignani, R. P.; Ratti, E.; Stella, L.

    2013-06-01

    We report on the long-term X-ray monitoring of the outburst decay of the low magnetic field magnetar SGR 0418+5729 using all the available X-ray data obtained with RXTE, Swift, Chandra, and XMM-Newton observations from the discovery of the source in 2009 June up to 2012 August. The timing analysis allowed us to obtain the first measurement of the period derivative of SGR 0418+5729: \\dot{P}=4(1)\\times 10^{-15} s s-1, significant at a ~3.5σ confidence level. This leads to a surface dipolar magnetic field of B dip ~= 6 × 1012 G. This measurement confirms SGR 0418+5729 as the lowest magnetic field magnetar. Following the flux and spectral evolution from the beginning of the outburst up to ~1200 days, we observe a gradual cooling of the tiny hot spot responsible for the X-ray emission, from a temperature of ~0.9 to 0.3 keV. Simultaneously, the X-ray flux decreased by about three orders of magnitude: from about 1.4 × 10-11 to 1.2 × 10-14 erg s-1 cm-2. Deep radio, millimeter, optical, and gamma-ray observations did not detect the source counterpart, implying stringent limits on its multi-band emission, as well as constraints on the presence of a fossil disk. By modeling the magneto-thermal secular evolution of SGR 0418+5729, we infer a realistic age of ~550 kyr, and a dipolar magnetic field at birth of ~1014 G. The outburst characteristics suggest the presence of a thin twisted bundle with a small heated spot at its base. The bundle untwisted in the first few months following the outburst, while the hot spot decreases in temperature and size. We estimate the outburst rate of low magnetic field magnetars to be about one per year per galaxy, and we briefly discuss the consequences of such a result in several other astrophysical contexts.

  15. Discovery of Fast X-ray Oscillations During the 1998 Giant Flare from SGR 1900+14

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Strohmayer, T.; Watts, A.

    2005-01-01

    We report the discovery of complex high frequency variability during the August 27, 1998 giant flare from SGR 1900+14 using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We detect an approx. equals 84 Hz oscillation (QPO) during a 1 s interval beginning approximately 1 min after the initial hard spike. The amplitude is energy dependent, reaching a maximum of 26% (rms) for photons above 30 keV, and is not detected below 11 keV, with a 90% confidence upper limit of 14% (rms). Remarkably, additional QPOs are detected in the average power spectrum of data segments centered on the rotational phase at which the 84 Hz signal was detected. Two signals, at 53.5 and 155.1 Hz, are strongly detected, while a third feature at 28 Hz is found with lower significance. These QPOs are not detected at other rotational phases. The phenomenology seen in the SGR 1900+14 flare is similar to that of QPOs recently reported by Israel et al. (2005) from the December 27, 2004 flare from SGR 1806-20, suggesting they may have a common origin, perhaps torsional vibrations of the neutron star crust. Indeed, an association of the four frequencies (in increasing order) found in SGR 1900+14 with l = 2, 4, 7, and 13 toroidal modes appears plausible. We discuss our findings in the context of this model and show that if the stars have similar masses then the magnetic field in SGR 1806-20 must be about twice as large as in SGR 1900+14, broadly consistent with estimates from pulse timing.

  16. A 149 min periodicity underlies the X-ray flaring of Sgr A*

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leibowitz, Elia

    2018-03-01

    In a paper in 2017, I have shown that 39 large X-ray flares of Sgr A* that were recorded by Chandra observatory in the year 2012 are concentrated preferably around tick marks of an equi-distance grid on the time axis. The period of this grid as found in that paper is 0.1033 d. In this work I show that the effect can be found among all the large X-ray flares recorded by Chandra and XMM - Newton along 15 yr. The mid-points of all the 71 large flares recorded between years 2000 and 2014 are also tightly grouped around tick marks of a grid with this period, or more likely, 0.1032 d. This result is obtained with a confidence level of at least 3.27σ and very likely of 4.62σ. I find also a possible hint that a similar grid is underlying IR flares of the object. I suggest that the pacemaker in the occurrences of the large X-ray flares of Sgr A* is a mass of the order of a low-mass star or a small planet, in a slightly eccentric Keplerian orbit around the SMBH at the centre of the Galaxy. The radius of this orbit is about 6.6 Schwarzschild radii of the BH.

  17. Spectral formation in a radiative shock: application to anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma-ray repeaters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kylafis, N. D.; Trümper, J. E.; Ertan, Ü.

    2014-02-01

    Context. In the fallback disk model for the persistent emission of anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs), the hard X-ray emission arises from bulk- and thermal Comptonization of bremsstrahlung photons, which are generated in the accretion column. The relatively low X-ray luminosity of these sources implies a moderate transverse optical depth to electron scattering, with photons executing a small number of shock crossings before escaping sideways. Aims: We explore the range of spectral shapes that can be obtained with this model and characterize the most important parameter dependencies. Methods: We use a Monte Carlo code to study the crisscrossing of photons in a radiative shock in an accretion column and compute the resulting spectrum. Results: As expected, high-energy power-law X-ray spectra are produced in radiative shocks with photon-number spectral index Γ ≳ 0.5. We find that the required transverse optical depth is 1 ≲ τ⊥ ≲ 7. Such spectra are observed in low-luminosity X-ray pulsars. Conclusions: We demonstrate here with a simple model that Compton upscattering in the radiative shock in the accretion column can produce hard X-ray spectra similar to those seen in the persistent and transient emission of AXPs and SGRs. In particular, one can obtain a high-energy power-law spectrum, with photon-number spectral-index Γ ~ 1 and a cutoff at 100 - 200 keV, with a transverse Thomson optical depth of ~5, which is shown to be typical in AXPs/SGRs.

  18. Flux Relaxation after Two Outbursts of the Magnetar SGR 1627–41 and Possible Hard X-Ray Emission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    An, Hongjun; Cumming, Andrew; Kaspi, Victoria M.

    2018-05-01

    We report on the long-term flux relaxation of the magnetar SGR 1627‑41 after its 2008 outburst, and evidence for hard X-ray excess measured with NuSTAR. We use new observations made with Chandra and XMM-Newton, and an archival NuSTAR observation, which add flux measurements at ∼2000 days into quiescence after the 2008 outburst. We find that the source flux has further declined since the last measurement made in 2011, ∼1000 days after the outburst in 2008. This trend is similar to the relaxation after the source’s 1998 outburst. We use crustal cooling models to reproduce the flux relaxation; if the whole surface of the star is heated in the outbursts, the modeling suggests that the 2008 outburst of SGR 1627‑41 deposited energy into the inner crust and that the core temperature of SGR 1627‑41 is low (T c ≲ 108 K), as previously suggested. On the other hand, if only a small fraction of the surface is heated or the temperature in the crust reached the melting temperature, relaxation at early times requires another emission mechanism. Finally, we report on evidence for hard X-ray emission in SGR 1627‑41 that follows the observational correlation suggested by Kaspi & Boydstun in magnetars.

  19. SGR-like behaviour of the repeating FRB 121102

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, F. Y.; Yu, H.

    2017-03-01

    Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration radio signals occurring at cosmological distances. However the physical model of FRBs is mystery, many models have been proposed. Here we study the frequency distributions of peak flux, fluence, duration and waiting time for the repeating FRB 121102. The cumulative distributions of peak flux, fluence and duration show power-law forms. The waiting time distribution also shows power-law distribution, and is consistent with a non-stationary Poisson process. These distributions are similar as those of soft gamma repeaters (SGRs). We also use the statistical results to test the proposed models for FRBs. These distributions are consistent with the predictions from avalanche models of slowly driven nonlinear dissipative systems.

  20. Gamma-ray burst constraints on the galactic frequency of extrasolar Oort Clouds

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Shull, J. Michael; Stern, S. Alan

    1995-01-01

    With the strong Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory/Burst and Transient Source Experiment (CGRO/BATSE) evidence that most gamma-ray bursts do not come from galactic neutron stars, models involving the accretion of a comet onto a neutron star (NS) no longer appear to be strong contenders for explaining the majority of bursts. If this is the case, then it is worth asking whether the lack of an observed galactic gamma-ray burst population provides a useful constraint on the number of comets and comet clouds in the galaxy. Owing to the previously unrecognized structural weakness of cometary nuclei, we find the capture cross sections for comet-NS events to be much higher than previously published estimates, with tidal breakup at distances R(sub b) approx. equals 4 x 10(exp 10) cm from the NS. As a result, impacts of comets onto field NSs penetrating the Oort Clouds of other stars are found to dominate all other galactic NS-comet capture rates by a factor of 100. This in turn predicts that if comet clouds are common, there should be a significant population of repeater sources with (1) a galactic distribution, (2) space-correlated repetition, and (3) a wide range of peak luminosities and luminosity time histories. If all main sequence stars have Oort Clouds like our own, we predict approximately 4000 such repeater sources in the Milky Way at any time, each repeating on time scales of months to years. Based on estimates of the sensitivity of the CGRO/BATSE instrument and assuming isotropic gamma-ray beaming from such events, we estimate that a population of approximately 20-200 of these galactic NS-Oort Cloud gamma-ray repeater sources should be detectable by CGRO. In addition, if giant planet formation is common in the galaxy, we estimate that the accretion of isolated comets injected to the interstellar medium by giant planet formation should produce an additional source of galactic, nonrepeating, events. Comparing these estimates to the 3-4 soft gamma-ray repeater sources

  1. New shield for gamma-ray spectrometry

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Brar, S. S.; Gustafson, P. F.; Nelson, D. M.

    1969-01-01

    Gamma-ray shield that can be evacuated, refilled with a clean gas, and pressurized for exclusion of airborne radioactive contaminants effectively lowers background noise. Under working conditions, repeated evacuation and filling procedures have not adversely affected the sensitivity and resolution of the crystal detector.

  2. SGR-like behaviour of the repeating FRB 121102

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, F.Y.; Yu, H., E-mail: fayinwang@nju.edu.cn, E-mail: yuhai@smail.nju.edu.cn

    2017-03-01

    Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration radio signals occurring at cosmological distances. However the physical model of FRBs is mystery, many models have been proposed. Here we study the frequency distributions of peak flux, fluence, duration and waiting time for the repeating FRB 121102. The cumulative distributions of peak flux, fluence and duration show power-law forms. The waiting time distribution also shows power-law distribution, and is consistent with a non-stationary Poisson process. These distributions are similar as those of soft gamma repeaters (SGRs). We also use the statistical results to test the proposed models for FRBs. These distributions are consistentmore » with the predictions from avalanche models of slowly driven nonlinear dissipative systems.« less

  3. The SSS classical nova V5116 Sgr

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sala, G.; Ness, J.; Greiner, J.; Hernanz, M.

    2017-10-01

    XMM-Newton observed the nova V5116 Sgr during its supersoft phase (SSS). V5116 Sgr showed a decrease of the flux by a factor around 8 during 2/3 of the orbital period. The broad band EPIC spectra remain unchanged during the different flux phases, suggesting an occultation of the central source in a high inclination system. While the global SED does not change significantly, the RGS spectrum is changing between the high and the low flux phases. The non-occultation phase shows a typical white dwarf atmosphere spectrum, dominated by absorption lines. During the low flux periods an extra component of emission lines is superimposed to the soft X-ray continuum. This supports the picture of V5116 Sgr as the clearest example of a system switching between the SSa class of SSS novae, with spectra dominated by absorption lines, and the SSe class, showing an emission lines component. In addition, the simultaneous OM images allow us to find a phase solution for the X-ray light-curve. A thick rim of the accretion disk as the one developed for the SSSs CAL 87, RX J0019.8, and RX J0513.9 could provide a plausible model both for the optical and the X-ray light curve of V5116 Sgr.

  4. Detection of Spectral Evolution in the Bursts Emitted During the 2008-2009 Active Episode of SGR J1550 - 5418

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    von Kienlin, Andreas; Gruber, David; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Granot, Jonathan; Baring, Matthew G.; Gogus, Ersin; Huppenkothen, Daniela; Kaneko, Yuki; Lin, Lin; Watts, Anna L.; hide

    2012-01-01

    In early October 2008, the Soft Gamma Repeater SGRJ1550 - 5418 (1E1547.0 - 5408, AXJ155052 - 5418, PSR J1550 - 5418) became active, emitting a series of bursts which triggered the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) after which a second especially intense activity period commenced in 2009 January and a third, less active period was detected in 2009 March-April. Here we analyze the GBM data of all the bursts from the first and last active episodes. We performed temporal and spectral analysis for all events and found that their temporal characteristics are very similar to the ones of other SGR bursts, as well the ones reported for the bursts of the main episode (average burst durations 170ms). In addition, we used our sample of bursts to quantify the systematic uncertainties of the GBM location algorithm for soft gamma-ray transients to less than or equal to 8 degrees. Our spectral analysis indicates significant spectral evolution between the first and last set of events. Although the 2008 October events are best fit with a single blackbody function, for the 2009 bursts an Optically Thin Thermal Bremsstrahlung (OTTB) is clearly preferred. We attribute this evolution to changes in the magnetic field topology of the source, possibly due to effects following the very energetic main bursting episode.

  5. Extended VHE γ-ray emission towards SGR1806-20 and stellar cluster C1 1806-20

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rowell, Gavin; de Naurois, Mathieu; Ataï, Arache Djannati; Gallant, Yves; H.E.S.S. Collaboration

    2012-12-01

    We report the discovery, with the H.E.S.S. telescopes, of steady and extended VHE γ-ray emission towards the magnetar candidate SGR 1806-20 and parent stellar cluster C1 1806-20. Preliminary analysis suggests the VHE γ-ray flux of this source, designated HESS J1808-204 is a few×10-13 ph cm-2 s-1 TeV-1 at 1 TeV with a power-law photon spectral index Γ = 2.4+/-0.2. The instrinsic extension and orientation matches that of the synchrotron radio nebula G10.0-0.3 which may be powered by the luminous blue variable star LBV 1806-20, a prominent member of the C1 1806-20 cluster. From the energetics of the combined VHE, X-ray, and nearby Fermi-LAT GeV emission, magnetar magnetic energy may be a dominant source of energy over spin-down power, should SGR 1806-20 power the source. Alternatively, C1 1806-20 and/or LBV 1806-20 by itself, via stellar winds, could supply sufficient energy.

  6. Cosmic Gamma-Rays

    Science.gov Websites

    [Argonne Logo] [DOE Logo] Cosmic Gamma-Rays Home Publications Talks People Students Argonne > ; HEP > Cosmic Gamma-Rays Projects VERITAS Past Projects TrICE What's New CTA Cosmic Gamma-Rays The

  7. Gamma-ray burst constraints on the galactic frequency of extra-solar Oort clouds

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Shull, J. Michael; Stern, S. Alan

    1994-01-01

    With the strong CGRO/BATSE evidence that most gamma-ray bursts do not come from galactic neutron stars, models involving the accretion of a comet onto a neutron star (NS) no longer appear to be strong contenders for explaining the majority of bursts. If this is the case, then it is worth asking whether the lack of an observed galactic gamma-ray burst population provides a useful constraint on the number of comets and comet clouds in the galaxy. Owing to the previously unrecognized structural weakness of cometary nuclei, we find the capture cross sections for comet-NS events to be much higher than previously published estimates, with tidal breakup at distances R(sub b) approximately equals to 4 x 10(exp 10) cm from the NS. As a result, impacts of comets onto field NS's penetrating the Oort Clouds of other stars are found to dominate all other galactic NS-comet capture rates by a factor of 100. This in turn predicts that if comet clouds are common, there should be a significant population of repeater sources with (1) a galactic distribution, (2) space-correlated repetition, and (3) a wide range of peak luminosities and luminosity time histories. If all main sequences stars have Oort Clouds like our own, we predict approximately 4000 such repeater sources in the Milky Way at any time, each repeating on timescales of months to years. Based on estimates of the sensitivity of the CGRO/BATSE instrument and assuming isotropic gamma-ray beaming from such events, we estimate that a population of approximately 20-200 of these galactic NS-Oort Cloud gamma-ray repeater sources should be detectable by CGRO. In addition, if giant planet formation is common in the galaxy, we estimate that the accretion of isolated comets injected to the interstellar medium by giant planet formation should produce an additional source of galactic, nonrepeating events. Comparing these estimates to the three to four soft gamma-ray repeater sources detected by BATSE, one is forced to conclude that (1

  8. Sneaky Gamma-Rays: Using Gravitational Lensing to Avoid Gamma-Gamma-Absorption

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boettcher, Markus; Barnacka, Anna

    2014-08-01

    It has recently been suggested that gravitational lensing studies of gamma-ray blazars might be a promising avenue to probe the location of the gamma-ray emitting region in blazars. Motivated by these prospects, we have investigated potential gamma-gamma absorption signatures of intervening lenses in the very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from lensedblazars. We considered intervening galaxies and individual stars within these galaxies. We find that the collective radiation field of galaxies acting as sources of macrolensing are not expected to lead to significant gamma-gamma absorption. Individual stars within intervening galaxies could, in principle, cause a significant opacity to gamma-gamma absorption for VHE gamma-rays if the impact parameter (the distance of closest approach of the gamma-ray to the center of the star) is small enough. However, we find that the curvature of the photon path due to gravitational lensing will cause gamma-ray photons to maintain a sufficiently large distance from such stars to avoid significant gamma-gamma absorption. This re-inforces the prospect of gravitational-lensing studies of gamma-ray blazars without interference due to gamma-gamma absorption due to the lensing objects.

  9. Fourth Workshop on Science with the New Generation of High Energy Gamma-ray Experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Massai, Marco Maria; Omodei, Nicola; Spandre, Gloria

    calibration unit beam test / L. Baldini, J. Bregeon, C. Sgrò. ARGO-YBJ experiment: the scalar mode technique / I. James. on behalf of ARGO-YBJ collaboration. Analysis of pulsars in LAT data challenge 2: a population point of view / M. Razzano. Search of optimized cuts for gamma-ray pulsar detection with GLAST-LAT instrument / A. Calandro, N. Biglietto, P. Spinelli. Gamma-ray burst physics with GLAST / N. Omodei. The global fit approach to time-resolved spectroscopy GRBs / A. Chernenko.

  10. Limits on the High-Energy Gamma and Neutrino Fluxes from the SGR 1806-20 Giant Flare of 27 December 2004 with the AMANDA-II Detector

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Achterberg, A.; Duvoort, M. R.; Heise, J.

    2006-12-01

    On 27 December 2004, a giant {gamma} flare from the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater 1806-20 saturated many satellite gamma-ray detectors, being the brightest transient event ever observed in the Galaxy. AMANDA-II was used to search for down-going muons indicative of high-energy gammas and/or neutrinos from this object. The data revealed no significant signal, so upper limits (at 90% C.L.) on the normalization constant were set: 0.05(0.5) TeV{sup -1} m{sup -2} s{sup -1} for {gamma}=-1.47 (-2) in the gamma flux and 0.4(6.1) TeV{sup -1} m{sup -2} s{sup -1} for {gamma}=-1.47 (-2) in the high-energy neutrino flux.

  11. The gamma-ray observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1991-01-01

    An overview is given of the Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) mission. Detection of gamma rays and gamma ray sources, operations using the Space Shuttle, and instruments aboard the GRO, including the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), the Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (OSSE), the Imaging Compton Telescope (COMPTEL), and the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) are among the topics surveyed.

  12. A Radio Continuum and Polarization Study of SNR G57.2+0.8 Associated with Magnetar SGR 1935+2154

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kothes, R.; Sun, X.; Gaensler, B.; Reich, W.

    2018-01-01

    We present a radio continuum and linear polarization study of the Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) G57.2+0.8, which may host the recently discovered magnetar SGR 1935+2154. The radio SNR shows the typical radio continuum spectrum of a mature supernova remnant with a spectral index of α =-0.55+/- 0.02 and moderate polarized intensity. Magnetic field vectors indicate a tangential magnetic field, expected for an evolved SNR, in one part of the SNR, and a radial magnetic field in the other. The latter can be explained by an overlapping arc-like feature, perhaps a pulsar wind nebula, emanating from the magnetar. The presence of a pulsar wind nebula is supported by the low average braking index of 1.2, which we extrapolated for the magnetar, and the detection of diffuse X-ray emission around it. We found a distance of 12.5 kpc for the SNR, which identifies G57.2+0.8 as a resident of the Outer spiral arm of the Milky Way. The SNR has a radius of about 20 pc and could be as old as 41,000 yr. The SNR has already entered the radiative or pressure-driven snowplow phase of its evolution. We compare independently determined characteristics like age and distance for both the SNR and the soft gamma repeater SGR 1935+2154, and conclude that they are physically related.

  13. Gamma ray transients

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cline, Thomas L.

    1987-01-01

    The discovery of cosmic gamma ray bursts was made with systems designed at Los Alamos Laboratory for the detection of nuclear explosions beyond the atmosphere. HELIOS-2 was the first gamma ray burst instrument launched; its initial results in 1976, seemed to deepen the mystery around gamma ray transients. Interplanetary spacecraft data were reviewed in terms of explaining the behavior and source of the transients.

  14. Improved Limits on Gamma-Ray Burst Repetition from BATSE

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tegmark, Max; Hartmann, Dieter H.; Briggs, Michael S.; Hakkila, Jon; Meegan, Charles A.

    1996-01-01

    We tighten previous upper limits on gamma-ray burst repetition by analyzing the angular power spectrum of the BATSE 3B catalog of 1122 bursts. At 95% confidence, we find that no more than 2% of all observed bursts can be labeled as repeaters, even if no sources are observed to repeat more than once. If a fraction f of all observed bursts can be labeled as repeaters that are observed to burst upsilon times each, then all models with (upsilon - 1)f greater than or equal to 0.05 are ruled out at 99% confidence, as compared to the best previous 99% limit (upsilon - 1)f greater than or equal to 0.27. At 95% confidence, our new limit is (upsilon - 1)f greater than or equal to 0.02. Thus, even a cluster of six events from a single source would have caused excess power above that present in the 3B catalog. We conclude that the current BATSE data are consistent with no repetition of classical gamma-ray bursts and that any repeater model is severely constrained by the near-perfect isotropy of their angular distribution.

  15. Improved Limits on Gamma-Ray Burst Repetition from BATSE

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tegmark, Max; Hartmann, Dieter H.; Briggs, Michael S.; Meegan, Charles A.; Hakkila, Jon

    1996-01-01

    We tighten previous upper limits on gamma-ray burst repetition by analyzing the angular power spectrum of the BATSE 3B catalog of 1122 bursts. At 95% confidence, we find that no more than 2% of all observed bursts can be labeled as repeaters, even if no sources are observed to repeat more than once. If a fraction f of all observed bursts can be labeled as repeaters that are observed to burst nu times each, then all models with (nu - 1)f greater than or equal to 0.05 are ruled out at 99% confidence, as compared to the best previous 99% limit (nu - 1)f greater than or equal to 0.27. At 95% confidence, our new limit is (nu - 1)f greater than or equal to 0.02. Thus, even a cluster of six events from a single source would have caused excess power above that present in the 3B catalog. We conclude that the current BATSE data are consistent with no repetition of classical gamma-ray bursts and that any repeater model is severely constrained by the near-perfect isotropy of their angular dis- tribution.

  16. X-ray and gamma ray astronomy detectors

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Decher, Rudolf; Ramsey, Brian D.; Austin, Robert

    1994-01-01

    X-ray and gamma ray astronomy was made possible by the advent of space flight. Discovery and early observations of celestial x-rays and gamma rays, dating back almost 40 years, were first done with high altitude rockets, followed by Earth-orbiting satellites> once it became possible to carry detectors above the Earth's atmosphere, a new view of the universe in the high-energy part of the electromagnetic spectrum evolved. Many of the detector concepts used for x-ray and gamma ray astronomy were derived from radiation measuring instruments used in atomic physics, nuclear physics, and other fields. However, these instruments, when used in x-ray and gamma ray astronomy, have to meet unique and demanding requirements related to their operation in space and the need to detect and measure extremely weak radiation fluxes from celestial x-ray and gamma ray sources. Their design for x-ray and gamma ray astronomy has, therefore, become a rather specialized and rapidly advancing field in which improved sensitivity, higher energy and spatial resolution, wider spectral coverage, and enhanced imaging capabilities are all sought. This text is intended as an introduction to x-ray and gamma ray astronomy instruments. It provides an overview of detector design and technology and is aimed at scientists, engineers, and technical personnel and managers associated with this field. The discussion is limited to basic principles and design concepts and provides examples of applications in past, present, and future space flight missions.

  17. An XMM-Newton Study of 9SGR and the Lagoon Nebula

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rauw, G.; Blomme, R.; Waldron, W. L.; Naze, Y.; Harries, T. J.; Chapman, J. M.; Corcoran, M. F.; Detal, A.; Gosset, E.

    2001-01-01

    We report preliminary results of an XMM-Newton observation of the 04 V star 9 Sgr (= HD 164794). 9 Sgr is one of a few single OB stars that display a non-thermal radio emission attributed to synchrotron emission by relativistic electrons. Inverse Compton scattering of photospheric UV photons by these relativistic electrons is a priori expected to generate a non-thermal power-law tail in the X-ray spectrum. Our EPIC and RGS spectra of 9 Sgr suggest a more complex situation than expected from this 'simple' theoretical picture. Furthermore, soft-band EPIC images of the region around 9 Sgr reveal a number of point sources inside the Lagoon Nebula (M8). Most of these sources have optical counterparts inside the very young open cluster NGC 6530 and several X-ray sources are associated with low and intermediate mass pre-main sequence stars. Finally, we also detect (probably) diffuse X-ray emission from the Hourglass Region that might reveal a hot bubble blown by the stellar wind of Herschel 36, the ionizing star of the HG region.

  18. Basics of Gamma Ray Detection

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Stinnett, Jacob; Venkataraman, Ram

    The objective of this training is to explain the origin of x-rays and gamma rays, gamma ray interactions with matter, detectors and electronics used in gamma ray-spectrometry, and features of a gamma-ray spectrum for nuclear material that is safeguarded.

  19. Implications of Gamma-Ray Transparency Constraints in Blazars: Minimum Distances and Gamma-Ray Collimation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Becker, Peter A.; Kafatos, Menas

    1995-01-01

    We develop a general expression for the gamma - gamma absorption coefficient, alpha(sub gamma(gamma)) for gamma-rays propagating in an arbitrary direction at an arbitrary point in space above an X-ray-emitting accretion disk. The X-ray intensity is assumed to vary as a power law in energy and radius between the outer disk radius, R(sub 0), and the inner radius, R(sub ms) which is the radius of marginal stability for a Schwarzschild black hole. We use our result for alpha(sub gamma(gamma)) to calculate the gamma - gamma optical depth, tau(sub gamma(gamma)) for gamma - rays created at height z and propagating at angle Phi relative to the disk axis, and we show that for Phi = 0 and z greater than or approx equal to R(sub 0), tau(sub gamma(gamma)) proportional to Epsilon(sup alpha)z(sup -2(alpha) - 3), where alpha is the X-ray spectral index and Epsilon is the gamma - ray energy. As an application, we use our formalism to compute the minimum distance between the central black hole and the site of production of the gamma-rays detected by EGRET during the 1991 June flare of 3C 279. In order to obtain an upper limit, we assume that all of the X-rays observed contemporaneously by Ginga were emitted by the disk. Our results suggest that the observed gamma - rays may have originated within less than or approx equal to 45 GM/sq c from a black hole of mass greater than or approx equal to 10(exp 9) solar mass, perhaps in active plasma located above the central funnel of the accretion disk. This raises the possibility of establishing a direct connection between the production of the observed gamma - rays and the accretion of material onto the black hole. We also consider the variation of the optical depth as a function of the angle of propagation Phi. Our results indicate that the "focusing" of the gamma - rays along the disk axis due to pair production is strong enough to explain the observed degree of alignment in blazar sources. If the gamma - rays are produced isotropically

  20. Method of incident low-energy gamma-ray direction reconstruction in the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray space telescope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kheymits, M. D.; Leonov, A. A.; Zverev, V. G.; Galper, A. M.; Arkhangelskaya, I. V.; Arkhangelskiy, A. I.; Suchkov, S. I.; Topchiev, N. P.; Yurkin, Yu T.; Bakaldin, A. V.; Dalkarov, O. D.

    2016-02-01

    The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray space-based telescope has as its main goals to measure cosmic γ-ray fluxes and the electron-positron cosmic-ray component produced, theoretically, in dark-matter-particles decay or annihilation processes, to search for discrete γ-ray sources and study them in detail, to examine the energy spectra of diffuse γ-rays — both galactic and extragalactic — and to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and γ-rays from the active Sun. Scientific goals of GAMMA-400 telescope require fine angular resolution. The telescope is of a pair-production type. In the converter-tracker, the incident gamma-ray photon converts into electron-positron pair in the tungsten layer and then the tracks are detected by silicon- strip position-sensitive detectors. Multiple scattering processes become a significant obstacle in the incident-gamma direction reconstruction for energies below several gigaelectronvolts. The method of utilising this process to improve the resolution is proposed in the presented work.

  1. Gamma Ray Astronomy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wu, S. T.

    2000-01-01

    The project has progressed successfully during this period of performance. The highlights of the Gamma Ray Astronomy teams efforts are: (1) Support daily BATSE data operations, including receipt, archival and dissemination of data, quick-look science analysis, rapid gamma-ray burst and transient monitoring and response efforts, instrument state-of-health monitoring, and instrument commanding and configuration; (2) On-going scientific analysis, including production and maintenance of gamma-ray burst, pulsed source and occultation source catalogs, gamma-ray burst spectroscopy, studies of the properties of pulsars and black holes, and long-term monitoring of hard x-ray sources; (3) Maintenance and continuous improvement of BATSE instrument response and calibration data bases; (4) Investigation of the use of solid state detectors for eventual application and instrument to perform all sky monitoring of X-Ray and Gamma sources with high sensitivity; and (5) Support of BATSE outreach activities, including seminars, colloquia and World Wide Web pages. The highlights of this efforts can be summarized in the publications and presentation list.

  2. ALMA and VLA observations of emission from the environment of Sgr A*

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yusef-Zadeh, F.; Schödel, R.; Wardle, M.; Bushouse, H.; Cotton, W.; Royster, M. J.; Kunneriath, D.; Roberts, D. A.; Gallego-Cano, E.

    2017-10-01

    We present 44 and 226 GHz observations of the Galactic Centre within 20 arcsec of Sgr A*. Millimetre continuum emission at 226 GHz is detected from eight stars that have previously been identified at near-IR and radio wavelengths. We also detect a 5.8 mJy source at 226 GHz coincident with the magnetar SGR J1745-29 located 2.39 arcsec SE of Sgr A* and identify a new 2.5 arcsec × 1.5 arcsec halo of mm emission centred on Sgr A*. The X-ray emission from this halo has been detected previously and is interpreted in terms of a radiatively inefficient accretion flow. The mm halo surrounds an EW linear feature that appears to arise from Sgr A* and coincides with the diffuse X-ray emission and a minimum in the near-IR extinction. We argue that the millimetre emission is produced by synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons in equipartition with an ˜1.5 mG magnetic field. The origin of this is unclear but its coexistence with hot gas supports scenarios in which the gas is produced by the interaction of winds either from the fast moving S-stars, the photoevaporation of low-mass YSO discs or by a jet-driven outflow from Sgr A*. The spatial anti-correlation of the X-ray, radio and mm emission from the halo and the low near-IR extinction provides a compelling evidence of an outflow sweeping up the interstellar material, creating a dust cavity within 2 arcsec of Sgr A*. Finally, the radio and mm counterparts to eight near-IR identified stars within ˜10 arcsec of Sgr A* provide accurate astrometry to determine the positional shift between the peak emission at 44 and 226 GHz.

  3. Gamma ray camera

    DOEpatents

    Perez-Mendez, Victor

    1997-01-01

    A gamma ray camera for detecting rays emanating from a radiation source such as an isotope. The gamma ray camera includes a sensor array formed of a visible light crystal for converting incident gamma rays to a plurality of corresponding visible light photons, and a photosensor array responsive to the visible light photons in order to form an electronic image of the radiation therefrom. The photosensor array is adapted to record an integrated amount of charge proportional to the incident gamma rays closest to it, and includes a transparent metallic layer, photodiode consisting of a p-i-n structure formed on one side of the transparent metallic layer, and comprising an upper p-type layer, an intermediate layer and a lower n-type layer. In the preferred mode, the scintillator crystal is composed essentially of a cesium iodide (CsI) crystal preferably doped with a predetermined amount impurity, and the p-type upper intermediate layers and said n-type layer are essentially composed of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). The gamma ray camera further includes a collimator interposed between the radiation source and the sensor array, and a readout circuit formed on one side of the photosensor array.

  4. The Gamma-ray Sky with Fermi

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, David

    2012-01-01

    Gamma rays reveal extreme, nonthermal conditions in the Universe. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has been exploring the gamma-ray sky for more than four years, enabling a search for powerful transients like gamma-ray bursts, novae, solar flares, and flaring active galactic nuclei, as well as long-term studies including pulsars, binary systems, supernova remnants, and searches for predicted sources of gamma rays such as dark matter annihilation. Some results include a stringent limit on Lorentz invariance derived from a gamma-ray burst, unexpected gamma-ray variability from the Crab Nebula, a huge gamma-ray structure associated with the center of our galaxy, surprising behavior from some gamma-ray binary systems, and a possible constraint on some WIMP models for dark matter.

  5. Future Hard X-ray and Gamma-Ray Missions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krawczynski, Henric; Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) Gamma Ray Science Interest Group (GammaSIG) Team

    2017-01-01

    With four major NASA and ESA hard X-ray and gamma-ray missions in orbit (Swift, NuSTAR, INTEGRAL, and Fermi) hard X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy is making major contributions to our understanding of the cosmos. In this talk, I will summarize the current and upcoming activities of the Physics of the Cosmos Gamma Ray Science Interest Group and highlight a few of the future hard X-ray and gamma-ray mission discussed by the community. HK thanks NASA for the support through the awards NNX14AD19G and NNX16AC42G and for PCOS travel support.

  6. Gamma ray camera

    DOEpatents

    Perez-Mendez, V.

    1997-01-21

    A gamma ray camera is disclosed for detecting rays emanating from a radiation source such as an isotope. The gamma ray camera includes a sensor array formed of a visible light crystal for converting incident gamma rays to a plurality of corresponding visible light photons, and a photosensor array responsive to the visible light photons in order to form an electronic image of the radiation therefrom. The photosensor array is adapted to record an integrated amount of charge proportional to the incident gamma rays closest to it, and includes a transparent metallic layer, photodiode consisting of a p-i-n structure formed on one side of the transparent metallic layer, and comprising an upper p-type layer, an intermediate layer and a lower n-type layer. In the preferred mode, the scintillator crystal is composed essentially of a cesium iodide (CsI) crystal preferably doped with a predetermined amount impurity, and the p-type upper intermediate layers and said n-type layer are essentially composed of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). The gamma ray camera further includes a collimator interposed between the radiation source and the sensor array, and a readout circuit formed on one side of the photosensor array. 6 figs.

  7. A Study of Nonthermal X-Ray and Radio Emission from the O Star 9 Sgr

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Waldron, Wayne L.; Corcoran, Michael F.; Drake, Stephen A.

    1999-01-01

    The observed X-ray and highly variable nonthermal radio emission from OB stars has eluded explanation for more than 18 years. The most favorable model of X-ray production in these stars (shocks) predicts both nonthermal radio and X-ray emission. The nonthermal X-ray emission should occur above 2 keV and the variability of this X-ray component should also be comparable to the observed radio variability. To test this scenario, we proposed an ASC/VLA monitoring program to observe the OB star, 9 Sgr, a well known nonthermal, variable radio source and a strong X-ray source. We requested 625 ks ASCA observations with a temporal spacing of approximately 4 days which corresponds to the time required for a density disturbance to propagate to the 6 cm radio free-free photosphere. The X-ray observations were coordinated with 5 multi-wavelength VLA observations. These observations represent the first systematic attempt to investigate the relationship between the X-ray and radio emission in OB stars.

  8. Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGFs)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fishman, Gerald J.

    2010-01-01

    This slide presentation reviews the observation of Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes (TGFs) by Gamma-Ray Telescopes. These were: (1) BATSE /Compton Observatory, (2) Solar Spectroscopic Imager, (3) AGILE Gamma-ray Telescope, and (4) Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. It contains charts which display the counts over time, a map or the TGFs observed by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). and a map showing the latitude and longitude of 85 of the TGFs observed by the Fermi GBM.

  9. Dust Radiative Transfer Modeling of the Infrared Ring around the Magnetar SGR 1900+14

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Natale, G.; Rea, N.; Torres, D. F.

    2017-03-01

    A peculiar infrared ring-like structure was discovered by Spitzer around the strongly magnetized neutron star SGR 1900+14. This infrared (IR) structure was suggested to be due to a dust-free cavity, produced by the Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters (SGRs) Giant Flare occurring in 1998, and kept illuminated by surrounding stars. Using a 3D dust radiative transfer code, we aimed to reproduce the emission morphology and the integrated emission flux of this structure assuming different spatial distributions and densities for the dust, and different positions for the illuminating stars. We found that a dust-free ellipsoidal cavity can reproduce the shape, flux, and spectrummore » of the ring-like IR emission, provided that the illuminating stars are inside the cavity and that the interstellar medium has high gas density ( n {sub H} ∼ 1000 cm{sup −3}). We further constrain the emitting region to have a sharp inner boundary and to be significantly extended in the radial direction, possibly even just a cavity in a smooth molecular cloud. We discuss possible scenarios for the formation of the dustless cavity and the particular geometry that allows it to be IR-bright.« less

  10. Gamma-ray astrophysics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stecker, F. W. (Editor); Trombka, J. I. (Editor)

    1973-01-01

    Conference papers on gamma ray astrophysics are summarized. Data cover the energy region from about 0.3 MeV to a few hundred GeV and theoretical models of production mechanisms that give rise to both galactic and extragalactic gamma rays.

  11. The Gamma-ray Universe through Fermi

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, David J.

    2012-01-01

    Gamma rays, the most powerful form of light, reveal extreme conditions in the Universe. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and its smaller cousin AGILE have been exploring the gamma-ray sky for several years, enabling a search for powerful transients like gamma-ray bursts, novae, solar flares, and flaring active galactic nuclei, as well as long-term studies including pulsars, binary systems, supernova remnants, and searches for predicted sources of gamma rays such as dark matter annihilation. Some results include a stringent limit on Lorentz invariance derived from a gamma-ray burst, unexpected gamma-ray variability from the Crab Nebula, a huge ga.nuna-ray structure associated with the center of our galaxy, surprising behavior from some gamma-ray binary systems, and a possible constraint on some WIMP models for dark matter.

  12. Gamma-ray astronomy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ramaty, R.; Lingenfelter, R. E.

    1982-01-01

    Cosmic gamma rays, the physical processes responsible for their production and the astrophysical sites from which they were seen are reported. The bulk of the observed gamma ray emission is in the photon energy range from about 0.1 MeV to 1 GeV, where observations are carried out above the atmosphere. There are also, however, gamma ray observations at higher energies obtained by detecting the Cerenkov light produced by the high energy photons in the atmosphere. Gamma ray emission was observed from sources as close as the Sun and the Moon and as distant as the quasar 3C273, as well as from various other galactic and extragalactic sites. The radiation processes also range from the well understood, e.g. energetic particle interactions with matter, to the still incompletely researched, such as radiation transfer in optically thick electron positron plasmas in intense neutron star magnetic fields.

  13. Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer: Mission Design for Rapid, Accurate Location of Gamma-ray Bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bundas, David J.

    2004-01-01

    The Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer is a NASA Mid-sized Explorer (MIDEX) with the primary mission of determining the origins of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). It will be the first mission to autonomously respond to newly-discovered GRBs and provide immediate follow-up narrow field instruments capable of multi-wavelength (UV, Optical, X-ray) observations. The characteristics of GRBs that are the key mission design drivers, are their non-repeating and brief duration bursts of multi-wavelength photons. In addition, rapid notification of the location and characteristics of the GRBs to ground-and-space- based observatories drive the end-to-end data analysis and distribution requirements. The Swift mission is managed by the GSFC, and includes an international team of contributors that each bring their unique perspective that have proven invaluable to the mission. The spacecraft bus, provided by Spectrum Astro, Inc. was procured through a Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) contract by the GSFC. There are three instruments: the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) provided by the GSFC; the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) provided by a team led by the Pennsylvania State University (PSU); and the Ultra-Violet Optical Telescope (UVOT), again managed by PSU. The Mission Operations Center (MOC) was developed by and is located at PSU. Science archiving and data analysis centers are located at the GSFC, in the UK and in Italy.

  14. Topics in gamma ray astronomy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ramaty, R.; Lingenfelter, R. E.

    1986-01-01

    Observations of gamma rays from solar flares, gamma ray bursts, the Galactic center, galactic nucleosynthesis, SS433, and Cygnus X-3, and their effects on astrophysical problems are discussed. It is observed that gamma ray spectra from solar flares are applicable to the study of particle acceleration and confinement and the determination of chemical abundances in the solar atmosphere. The gamma ray lines from the compact galactic object SS433 are utilized to examine the acceleration of jets, and analysis of the gamma ray lines of Cygnus X-3 reveal that particles can be accelerated in compact sources to ultrahigh energies.

  15. A Three Parsec-Scale Jet-Driven Outflow from Sgr A

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yusef-Zadeh, F.; Arendt, R.; Bushouse, H.; Cotton, W.; Haggard, D.; Pound, M. W.; Roberts, D. A.; Royster, M.; Wardle, M.

    2012-01-01

    The compact radio source Sgr A* is coincident with a 4x 10(exp 6) solar Mass black hole at the dynamical center of the Galaxy and is surrounded by dense orbiting ionized and molecular gas. We present high resolution radio continuum images of the central 3' and report a faint continuous linear structure centered on Sgr A*. This feature is rotated by 28 deg in PA with respect to the Galactic plane. A number of weak blobs of radio emission with X-ray counterparts are detected along the axis of the linear structure. In addition, the continuous linear feature appears to be terminated symmetrically by two linearly polarized structures at 8.4 GHz, approx 75" from Sgr A*. The linear structure is best characterized by a mildly relativistic jet-driven outflow from Sgr A*, and an outflow rate 10(exp 6) solar M / yr. The near and far-sides of the jet are interacting with orbiting ionized and molecular gas over the last 1-3 hundred years and are responsible for the origin of a 2" hole, the "minicavity", where disturbed kinematics, enhanced FeII/III line emission, and diffuse X-ray gas have been detected. The estimated kinetic luminosity of the outflow is approx 1.2 X 10(exp 41) erg/s which can produce the Galactic center X-ray flash that has recently been identified

  16. Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1991-01-01

    This photograph shows the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (GRO) being deployed by the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-37 mission in April 1991. The GRO reentered Earth atmosphere and ended its successful mission in June 2000. For nearly 9 years, the GRO Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), designed and built by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), kept an unblinking watch on the universe to alert scientists to the invisible, mysterious gamma-ray bursts that had puzzled them for decades. By studying gamma-rays from objects like black holes, pulsars, quasars, neutron stars, and other exotic objects, scientists could discover clues to the birth, evolution, and death of stars, galaxies, and the universe. The gamma-ray instrument was one of four major science instruments aboard the Compton. It consisted of eight detectors, or modules, located at each corner of the rectangular satellite to simultaneously scan the entire universe for bursts of gamma-rays ranging in duration from fractions of a second to minutes. In January 1999, the instrument, via the Internet, cued a computer-controlled telescope at Las Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, within 20 seconds of registering a burst. With this capability, the gamma-ray experiment came to serve as a gamma-ray burst alert for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and major gound-based observatories around the world. Thirty-seven universities, observatories, and NASA centers in 19 states, and 11 more institutions in Europe and Russia, participated in the BATSE science program.

  17. Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1991-01-01

    This photograph shows the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory being released from the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-35 mission in April 1991. The GRO reentered the Earth's atmosphere and ended its successful mission in June 2000. For nearly 9 years, GRO's Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), designed and built by the Marshall Space Flight Center, kept an unblinking watch on the universe to alert scientist to the invisible, mysterious gamma-ray bursts that had puzzled them for decades. By studying gamma-rays from objects like black holes, pulsars, quasars, neutron stars, and other exotic objects, scientists could discover clues to the birth, evolution, and death of star, galaxies, and the universe. The gamma-ray instrument was one of four major science instruments aboard the Compton. It consisted of eight detectors, or modules, located at each corner of the rectangular satellite to simultaneously scan the entire universe for bursts of gamma-rays ranging in duration from fractions of a second to minutes. In January 1999, the instrument, via the Internet, cued a computer-controlled telescope at Las Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, within 20 seconds of registering a burst. With this capability, the gamma-ray experiment came to serve as a gamma-ray burst alert for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and major gound-based observatories around the world. Thirty-seven universities, observatories, and NASA centers in 19 states, and 11 more institutions in Europe and Russia, participated in BATSE's science program.

  18. Gamma rays from Centaurus A

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gupta, Nayantara, E-mail: nayan@phy.iitb.ac.in

    2008-06-15

    Centaurus A, the cosmic ray accelerator a few Mpc away from us, is possibly one of the nearest sources of extremely high energy cosmic rays. We investigate whether the gamma ray data currently available from Centaurus A in the GeV-TeV energy band can be explained with only proton-proton interactions. We show that for a single power law proton spectrum, mechanisms of {gamma}-ray production other than proton-proton interactions are needed inside this radio-galaxy to explain the gamma ray flux observed by EGRET, upper limits from HESS/CANGAROO-III and the correlated extremely energetic cosmic ray events observed by the Pierre Auger experiment. Inmore » future, with better {gamma}-ray data, and simultaneous observation with {gamma}-ray and cosmic ray detectors, it will be possible to carry out such studies on different sources in more detail.« less

  19. Future prospects for gamma-ray

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fichtel, C.

    1980-01-01

    Astrophysical phenomena discussed are: the very energetic and nuclear processes associated with compact objects; astrophysical nucleo-synthesis; solar particle acceleration; the chemical composition of the planets and other bodies of the solar system; the structure of our galaxy; the origin and dynamic pressure effects of the cosmic rays; the high energy particles and energetic processes in other galaxies, especially active ones; and the degree of matter antimater symmetry of the universe. The gamma ray results of GAMMA-I, the gamma ray observatory, the gamma ray burst network, solar polar, and very high energy gamma ray telescopes on the ground provide justification for more sophisticated telescopes.

  20. Gamma ray astrophysics to the year 2000. Report of the NASA Gamma Ray Program Working Group

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1988-01-01

    Important developments in gamma-ray astrophysics up to energies of 100 GeV during the last decade are reviewed. Also, the report seeks to define the major current scientific goals of the field and proposes a vigorous program to pursue them, extending to the year 2000. The goals of gamma-ray astronomy include the study of gamma rays which provide the most direct means of studying many important problems in high energy astrophysics including explosive nucleosynthesis, accelerated particle interactions and sources, and high-energy processes around compact objects. The current research program in gamma-ray astronomy in the U.S. including the space program, balloon program and foreign programs in gamma-ray astronomy is described. The high priority recommendations for future study include an Explorer-class high resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy mission and a Get Away Special cannister (GAS-can) or Scout class multiwavelength experiment for the study of gamma-ray bursts. Continuing programs include an extended Gamma Ray Observatory mission, continuation of the vigorous program of balloon observations of the nearby Supernova 1987A, augmentation of the balloon program to provide for new instruments and rapid scientific results, and continuation of support for theoretical research. Long term recommendations include new space missions using advanced detectors to better study gamma-ray sources, the development of these detectors, continued study for the assembly of large detectors in space, collaboration with the gamma-ray astronomy missions initiated by other countries, and consideration of the Space Station attached payloads for gamma-ray experiments.

  1. Gamma ray detector shield

    DOEpatents

    Ohlinger, R.D.; Humphrey, H.W.

    1985-08-26

    A gamma ray detector shield comprised of a rigid, lead, cylindrical-shaped vessel having upper and lower portions with an pneumatically driven, sliding top assembly. Disposed inside the lead shield is a gamma ray scintillation crystal detector. Access to the gamma detector is through the sliding top assembly.

  2. A systematic Chandra study of Sgr A⋆ - I. X-ray flare detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yuan, Qiang; Wang, Q. Daniel

    2016-02-01

    Daily X-ray flaring represents an enigmatic phenomenon of Sagittarius A⋆ (Sgr A⋆) - the supermassive black hole at the centre of our Galaxy. We report initial results from a systematic X-ray study of this phenomenon, based on extensive Chandra observations obtained from 1999 to 2012, totalling about 4.5 Ms. We detect flares, using a combination of the maximum likelihood and Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods, which allow for a direct accounting for the pileup effect in the modelling of the flare light curves and an optimal use of the data, as well as the measurements of flare parameters, including their uncertainties. A total of 82 flares are detected. About one third of them are relatively faint, which were not detected previously. The observation-to-observation variation of the quiescent emission has an average root-mean-square of 6-14 per cent, including the Poisson statistical fluctuation of faint flares below our detection limits. We find no significant long-term variation in the quiescent emission and the flare rate over the 14 years. In particular, we see no evidence of changing quiescent emission and flare rate around the pericentre passage of the S2 star around 2002. We show clear evidence of a short-term clustering for the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer - Spectroscopy array/high energy transmission gratings 0th-order flares on time-scale of 20-70 ks. We further conduct detailed simulations to characterize the detection incompleteness and bias, which is critical to a comprehensive follow-up statistical analysis of flare properties. These studies together will help to establish Sgr A⋆ as a unique laboratory to understand the astrophysics of prevailing low-luminosity black holes in the Universe.

  3. Gamma-Ray Bursts: An Overview

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fishman, Gerald J.

    1995-01-01

    A history and overview of the observed properties of gamma-ray bursts are presented. The phenomenon of gamma-ray bursts is without precedent in astronomy, having no observed property that would be a direct indicator of their distance and no counterpart object in another wavelength region. Their brief, random appearance only in the gamma-ray region has made their study difficult. The observed time profiles, spectral properties, and durations of gamma-ray bursts cover a wide range. All proposed models for their origin must be considered speculative. It is humbling to think that even after 25 years since their discovery, the distance scale of gamma-ray bursts is still very much debatable.

  4. High energy gamma ray astronomy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fichtel, Carl E.

    1987-01-01

    High energy gamma ray astronomy has evolved with the space age. Nonexistent twenty-five years ago, there is now a general sketch of the gamma ray sky which should develop into a detailed picture with the results expected to be forthcoming over the next decade. The galactic plane is the dominant feature of the gamma ray sky, the longitude and latitude distribution being generally correlated with galactic structural features including the spiral arms. Two molecular clouds were already seen. Two of the three strongest gamma ray sources are pulsars. The highly variable X-ray source Cygnus X-3 was seen at one time, but not another in the 100 MeV region, and it was also observed at very high energies. Beyond the Milky Way Galaxy, there is seen a diffuse radiation, whose origin remains uncertain, as well as at least one quasar, 3C 273. Looking to the future, the satellite opportunities for high energy gamma ray astronomy in the near term are the GAMMA-I planned to be launched in late 1987 and the Gamma Ray Observatory, scheduled for launch in 1990. The Gamma Ray Observatory will carry a total of four instruments covering the entire energy range from 30,000 eV to 3 x 10 to the 10th eV with over an order of magnitude increase in sensitivity relative to previous satellite instruments.

  5. Gamma-sky.net: Portal to the gamma-ray sky

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Voruganti, Arjun; Deil, Christoph; Donath, Axel; King, Johannes

    2017-01-01

    http://gamma-sky.net is a novel interactive website designed for exploring the gamma-ray sky. The Map View portion of the site is powered by the Aladin Lite sky atlas, providing a scalable survey image tesselated onto a three-dimensional sphere. The map allows for interactive pan and zoom navigation as well as search queries by sky position or object name. The default image overlay shows the gamma-ray sky observed by the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray space telescope. Other survey images (e.g. Planck microwave images in low/high frequency bands, ROSAT X-ray image) are available for comparison with the gamma-ray data. Sources from major gamma-ray source catalogs of interest (Fermi-LAT 2FHL, 3FGL and a TeV source catalog) are overlaid over the sky map as markers. Clicking on a given source shows basic information in a popup, and detailed pages for every source are available via the Catalog View component of the website, including information such as source classification, spectrum and light-curve plots, and literature references. We intend for gamma-sky.net to be applicable for both professional astronomers as well as the general public. The website started in early June 2016 and is being developed as an open-source, open data project on GitHub (https://github.com/gammapy/gamma-sky). We plan to extend it to display more gamma-ray and multi-wavelength data. Feedback and contributions are very welcome!

  6. Optical Spectroscopy of the Classical Novae V339 Del (2013) and V5668 Sgr (2015 No. 2)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wagner, R. Mark; Woodward, Charles E.; Starrfield, Sumner; Ilyin, Ilya; Strassmeier, Klaus G.; Page, Kim; Osborne, Julian P.; Beardmore, Andrew P.

    2016-01-01

    We report the results of optical spectroscopy of the gamma-ray classical novae V339 Del (2013) and V5668 Sgr (PNV J18365700-2855420/Nova Sgr 2015 No. 2) supplemented by UV and X-ray observations obtained with Swift. Our spectra were obtained with the Steward Observatory Bok 2.3 m telescope (+B&C), the MDM 2.4 m Hiltner telescope (+OSMOS), the 6.5 m MMT (+BlueChannel), and the 2 x 8.4 m Large Binocular Telescope (+MODS1 and PEPSI) between 2013 August and 2015 September. The PEPSI spectra cover all or part of the 384-907 nm spectral region at a resolution of up to 270,000 (1 km/s). This is the highest resolution available on any 8-10 m class telescope. V339 Del was discovered on 2015 August 14.58 by Itagaki at V about 6.8. This nova reached a peak magnitude of about 4.3 making it one of the brightest novae of this century. Because of its exceptional brightness it has been observed at a variety of wavelengths and by a host of observatories both on the ground and in space. V5668 Sgr was discovered on 2015 March 15.634 by Seach at a magnitude of 6.0. It subsequently reached a maximum brightness of about 4.0 in late March. High resolution PEPSI spectra obtained in early April show dramatic variations in the multi-component P Cygni-type line profiles. V5668 Sgr was observed to form dust in June thereafter fading to about 13th magnitude. Our recent observations show that it has now evolved into the nebular phase. SS acknowledges partial support from NSF and NASA grants to ASU. CEW acknowledges support from NASA.

  7. Space instrumentation for gamma-ray astronomy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Teegarden, B. J.

    1999-02-01

    The decade of the 1990s has witnessed a renaissance in the field of gamma-ray astronomy. The seminal event was the launch of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) in April 1991. There have been a flood of major discoveries from CGRO including breakthroughs in gamma-ray bursts, annihilation radiation, and blazars. The Italian SAX satellite was launched in April 1996. Although not primarily a gamma-ray mission, it has added a new dimension to our understanding of gamma-ray bursts. Along with these new discoveries a firm groundwork has been laid for missions and new technology development that should maintain a healthy and vigorous field throughout most of the next decade. These include the ESA INTEGRAL mission (INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, to be launched in mid-2001) and the NASA GLAST mission (Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope) with a likely launch in the middle of the next decade. These two missions will extend the observational capabilities well beyond those of CGRO. New technologies (to gamma-ray astronomy), such as cooled germanium detectors, silicon strip detectors, and CdTe detectors are planned for these new missions. Additional promising new technologies such as CdZnTe strip detectors, scintillator fibers, and a gamma-ray lens for future gamma-ray astronomy missions are under development in laboratories around the world.

  8. Characterization of non-CG genomic hypomethylation associated with gamma-ray-induced suppression of CMT3 transcription in Arabidopsis thaliana.

    PubMed

    Kim, Ji Eun; Lee, Min Hee; Cho, Eun Ju; Kim, Ji Hong; Chung, Byung Yeoup; Kim, Jin-Hong

    2013-12-01

    Ionizing radiation causes various epigenetic changes, as well as a variety of DNA lesions such as strand breaks, cross-links, oxidative damages, etc., in genomes. However, radiation-induced epigenetic changes have rarely been substantiated in plant genomes. The current study investigates whether DNA methylation of Arabidopsis thaliana genome is altered by gamma rays. We found that genomic DNA methylation decreased in wild-type plants with increasing doses of gamma rays (5, 50 and 200 Gy). Irradiation with 200 Gy significantly increased the expression of transcriptionally inactive centromeric 180-bp (CEN) and transcriptionally silent information (TSI) repeats. This increase suggested that there was a substantial release of transcriptional gene silencing by gamma rays, probably by induction of DNA hypomethylation. High expression of the DNA demethylase ROS1 and low expression of the DNA methyltransferase CMT3 supported this hypothesis. Moreover, Southern blot analysis following digestion of genomic DNA with methylation-sensitive enzymes revealed that the DNA hypomethylation occured preferentially at CHG or CHH sites rather than CG sites, depending on the radiation dose. Unlike CEN and TSI repeats, the number of Ta3, AtSN1 and FWA repeats decreased in transcription but increased in non-CG methylation. In addition, the cmt3-11 mutant showed neither DNA hypomethylation nor transcriptional activation of silenced repeats upon gamma irradiation. Furthermore, profiles of genome-wide transcriptomes in response to gamma rays differed between the wild-type and cmt3-11 mutant. These results suggest that gamma irradiation induced DNA hypomethylation preferentially at non-CG sites of transcriptionally inactive repeats in a locus-specific manner, which depends on CMT3 activity.

  9. The Gamma-Ray Imager GRI

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wunderer, Cornelia B.; GRI Collaboration

    2006-09-01

    Observations of the gamma-ray sky reveal the most powerful sources and the most violent events in the Universe. While at lower wavebands the observed emission is generally dominated by thermal processes, the gamma-ray sky provides us with a view on the non-thermal Universe. Here particles are accelerated to extreme relativistic energies by mechanisms which are still poorly understood, and nuclear reactions are synthesizing the basic constituents of our world. Cosmic accelerators and cosmic explosions are the major science themes that are addressed in the gamma-ray regime. With the INTEGRAL observatory, ESA has provided a unique tool to the astronomical community revealing hundreds of sources, new classes of objects, extraordinary views of antimatter annihilation in our Galaxy, and fingerprints of recent nucleosynthesis processes. While INTEGRAL provides the global overview over the soft gamma-ray sky, there is a growing need to perform deeper, more focused investigations of gamma-ray sources. In soft X-rays a comparable step was taken going from the Einstein and the EXOSAT satellites to the Chandra and XMM/Newton observatories. Technological advances in the past years in the domain of gamma-ray focusing using Laue diffraction and multilayer coated mirror techniques have paved the way towards a gamma-ray mission, providing major improvements compared to past missions regarding sensitivity and angular resolution. Such a future Gamma-Ray Imager will allow to study particle acceleration processes and explosion physics in unprecedented detail, providing essential clues on the innermost nature of the most violent and most energetic processes in the Universe.

  10. Gamma Ray Pulsars: Multiwavelength Observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, David J.

    2004-01-01

    High-energy gamma rays are a valuable tool for studying particle acceleration and radiation in the magnetospheres of energetic pulsars. The seven or more pulsars seen by instruments on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) show that: the light curves usually have double-peak structures (suggesting a broad cone of emission); gamma rays are frequently the dominant component of the radiated power; and all the spectra show evidence of a high-energy turnover. For all the known gamma-ray pulsars, multiwavelength observations and theoretical models based on such observations offer the prospect of gaining a broad understanding of these rotating neutron stars. The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), now in planning for a launch in 2006, will provide a major advance in sensitivity, energy range, and sky coverage.

  11. Implications for the Origin of GRB 051103 from LIGO Observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bizouard, M. A.; Dietz, A.; Guidi, G. M.; Was, M.; Camp, J. B.; Cannizzo, J.; Stroeer, A. S.; Blackburn, L.

    2012-01-01

    We present the results of a LIGO search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with GRB 051103, a short-duration hard-spectrum gamma-ray burst whose electromagnetically determined sky position is coincident with the spiral galaxy M81, which is 3.6Mpc from Earth. Possible progenitors for short-hard GRBs include compact object mergers and soft gamma repeater (SGR) giant flares. A merger progenitor would produce a characteristic GW signal that should be detectable at the distance of M81, while GW emission from an SGR is not expected to be detectable at that distance. We found no evidence of a GW signal associated with GRB 051103. Assuming weakly beamed gamma-ray emission with a jet semi-angle of 30. we exclude a binary neutron star merger in M81 as the progenitor with a confidence of 98%. Neutron star-black hole mergers are excluded with > 99% confidence. If the event occurred in M81 our findings support the hypothesis that GRB 051103 was due to an SGR giant flare, making it the most distant extragalactic magnetar observed to date.

  12. Gamma ray pulsars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Oegelman, H.; Ayasli, S.; Hacinliyan, A.

    1976-01-01

    Recent data from the high energy gamma ray experiment have revealed the existence of four pulsars emitting photons above 35 MeV. An attempt is made to explain the gamma ray emission from these pulsars in terms of an electron-photon cascade that develops in the magnetosphere of the pulsar. Although there is very little material above the surface of the pulsar, the very intense magnetic fields correspond to many radiation lengths which cause electrons to emit photons via magnetic bremsstrahlung and these photons to pair produce. The cascade develops until the mean photon energy drops below the pair production threshold which happens to be in the gamma ray range; at this stage the photons break out from the source.

  13. Real time method and computer system for identifying radioactive materials from HPGe gamma-ray spectroscopy

    DOEpatents

    Rowland, Mark S.; Howard, Douglas E.; Wong, James L.; Jessup, James L.; Bianchini, Greg M.; Miller, Wayne O.

    2007-10-23

    A real-time method and computer system for identifying radioactive materials which collects gamma count rates from a HPGe gamma-radiation detector to produce a high-resolution gamma-ray energy spectrum. A library of nuclear material definitions ("library definitions") is provided, with each uniquely associated with a nuclide or isotope material and each comprising at least one logic condition associated with a spectral parameter of a gamma-ray energy spectrum. The method determines whether the spectral parameters of said high-resolution gamma-ray energy spectrum satisfy all the logic conditions of any one of the library definitions, and subsequently uniquely identifies the material type as that nuclide or isotope material associated with the satisfied library definition. The method is iteratively repeated to update the spectrum and identification in real time.

  14. Gamma-Ray Astronomy Technology Needs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gehrels, N.; Cannizzo, J. K.

    2012-01-01

    In recent decades gamma-ray observations have become a valuable tool for studying the universe. Progress made in diverse 8re1lS such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), nucleosynthesis, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) has complimented and enriched our astrophysical understanding in many ways. We present an overview of current and future planned space y-ray missions and discussion technology needs for- the next generation of space gamma-ray instruments.

  15. Search for gamma-ray emission from Galactic novae with the Fermi -LAT

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Franckowiak, A.; Jean, P.; Wood, M.; Cheung, C. C.; Buson, S.

    2018-02-01

    Context. A number of novae have been found to emit high-energy gamma rays (>100 MeV). However, the origin of this emission is not yet understood. We report on the search for gamma-ray emission from 75 optically detected Galactic novae in the first 7.4 years of operation of the Fermi Large Area Telescope using the Pass 8 data set. Aims: We compile an optical nova catalog including light curves from various resources and estimate the optical peak time and optical peak magnitude in order to search for gamma-ray emission to determine whether all novae are gamma-ray emitters. Methods: We repeated the analysis of the six novae previously identified as gamma-ray sources and developed a unified analysis strategy that we then applied to all novae in our catalog. We searched for emission in a 15 day time window in two-day steps ranging from 20 days before to 20 days after the optical peak time. We performed a population study with Monte Carlo simulations to set constraints on the properties of the gamma-ray emission of novae. Results: Two new novae candidates have been found at 2σ global significance. Although these two novae candidates were not detected at a significant level individually, taking them together with the other non-detected novae, we found a sub-threshold nova population with a cumulative 3σ significance. We report the measured gamma-ray flux for detected sources and flux upper limits for novae without significant detection. Our results can be reproduced by several gamma-ray emissivity models (e.g., a power-law distribution with a slope of 2), while a constant emissivity model (i.e., assuming novae are standard candles) can be rejected.

  16. Search for gamma-ray emission from Galactic novae with the Fermi-LAT

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Franckowiak, A.; Jean, P.; Wood, M.

    Context. A number of novae have been found to emit high-energy gamma rays (>100 MeV). However, the origin of this emission is not yet understood. We report on the search for gamma-ray emission from 75 optically detected Galactic novae in the first 7.4 years of operation of the Fermi Large Area Telescope using the Pass 8 data set. Aims. We compile an optical nova catalog including light curves from various resources and estimate the optical peak time and optical peak magnitude in order to search for gamma-ray emission to determine whether all novae are gamma-ray emitters. Methods. We repeated themore » analysis of the six novae previously identified as gamma-ray sources and developed a unified analysis strategy that we then applied to all novae in our catalog. We searched for emission in a 15 day time window in two-day steps ranging from 20 days before to 20 days after the optical peak time. We performed a population study with Monte Carlo simulations to set constraints on the properties of the gamma-ray emission of novae. Results. Two new novae candidates have been found at ~ 2σ global significance. Although these two novae candidates were not detected at a significant level individually, taking them together with the other non-detected novae, we found a sub-threshold nova population with a cumulative 3σ significance. We report the measured gamma-ray flux for detected sources and flux upper limits for novae without significant detection. Lastly, our results can be reproduced by several gamma-ray emissivity models (e.g., a power-law distribution with a slope of 2), while a constant emissivity model (i.e., assuming novae are standard candles) can be rejected.« less

  17. Search for gamma-ray emission from Galactic novae with the Fermi-LAT

    DOE PAGES

    Franckowiak, A.; Jean, P.; Wood, M.; ...

    2018-02-05

    Context. A number of novae have been found to emit high-energy gamma rays (>100 MeV). However, the origin of this emission is not yet understood. We report on the search for gamma-ray emission from 75 optically detected Galactic novae in the first 7.4 years of operation of the Fermi Large Area Telescope using the Pass 8 data set. Aims. We compile an optical nova catalog including light curves from various resources and estimate the optical peak time and optical peak magnitude in order to search for gamma-ray emission to determine whether all novae are gamma-ray emitters. Methods. We repeated themore » analysis of the six novae previously identified as gamma-ray sources and developed a unified analysis strategy that we then applied to all novae in our catalog. We searched for emission in a 15 day time window in two-day steps ranging from 20 days before to 20 days after the optical peak time. We performed a population study with Monte Carlo simulations to set constraints on the properties of the gamma-ray emission of novae. Results. Two new novae candidates have been found at ~ 2σ global significance. Although these two novae candidates were not detected at a significant level individually, taking them together with the other non-detected novae, we found a sub-threshold nova population with a cumulative 3σ significance. We report the measured gamma-ray flux for detected sources and flux upper limits for novae without significant detection. Lastly, our results can be reproduced by several gamma-ray emissivity models (e.g., a power-law distribution with a slope of 2), while a constant emissivity model (i.e., assuming novae are standard candles) can be rejected.« less

  18. The Andromeda galaxy in gamma-rays

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Oezel, M. E.; Berkhuijsen, E. M.

    1987-01-01

    Implications of high-energy gamma-ray observations of the Andromeda galaxy with the next generation of satellites Gamma-1 and GRO are discussed in the context of the origin of cosmic rays and gamma-ray processes. The present estimate of the total gamma-ray flux of this galaxy at energies above 100 MeV is a factor of about three less than previous estimates.

  19. Gamma-ray burster recurrence timescales

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schaefer, B. E.; Cline, T. L.

    1984-01-01

    Three optical transients have been found which are associated with gamma-ray bursters (GRBs). The deduced recurrence timescale for these optical transients (tau sub opt) will depend on the minimum brightness for which a flash would be detected. A detailed analysis using all available data of tau sub opt as a function of E(gamma)/E(opt) is given. For flashes similar to those found in the Harvard archives, the best estimate of tau sub opt is 0.74 years, with a 99% confidence interval from 0.23 years to 4.7 years. It is currently unclear whether the optical transients from GRBs also give rise to gamma-ray events. One way to test this association is to measure the recurrence timescale of gamma-ray events tau sub gamma. A total of 210 gamma-ray error boxes were examined and it was found that the number of observed overlaps is not significantly different from the number expected from chance coincidence. This observation can be used to place limits on tau sub gamma for an assumed luminosity function. It was found that tau sub gamma is approx. 10 yr if bursts are monoenergetic. However, if GRBs have a power law luminosity function with a wide dynamic range, then the limit is tau sub gamma 0.5 yr. Hence, the gamma-ray data do not require tau sub gamma and tau sub opt to be different.

  20. GRI: The Gamma-Ray Imager mission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knödlseder, J.; Gri Consortium

    Observations of the gamma-ray sky reveal the most powerful sources and the most violent events in the Universe While at lower wavebands the observed emission is generally dominated by thermal processes the gamma-ray sky provides us with a view on the non-thermal Universe Here particles are accelerated to extreme relativistic energies by mechanisms which are still poorly understood and nuclear reactions are synthesizing the basic constituents of our world Cosmic accelerators and cosmic explosions are the major science themes that are addressed in the gamma-ray regime With the INTEGRAL observatory ESA has provided a unique tool to the astronomical community and has put Europe in the lead in the field of gamma-ray astronomy INTEGRAL provides an unprecedented survey of the soft gamma-ray sky revealing hundreds of sources new classes of objects extraordinary views of antimatter annihilation in our Galaxy and fingerprints of recent nucleosynthesis processes While INTEGRAL has provided the global overview over the soft gamma-ray sky there is a growing need to perform deeper more focused investigations of gamma-ray sources In soft X-rays a comparable step was taken going from the Einstein satellite to the XMM Newton observatory Technological advances in the past years in the domain of gamma-ray focusing using Laue diffraction and multilayer-coated mirror techniques have paved the way towards a gamma-ray mission providing major improvements compared to past missions regarding sensitivity and angular resolution Such a

  1. Gamma ray spectroscopy in astrophysics. [conferences

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cline, T. L. (Editor); Ramaty, R. (Editor)

    1978-01-01

    Experimental and theoretical aspects of gamma ray spectroscopy in high energy astrophysics are discussed. Line spectra from solar, stellar, planetary, and cosmic gamma rays are examined as well as HEAO investigations, the prospects of a gamma ray observatory, and follow-on X-ray experiments in space.

  2. Gamma-ray line astrophysics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lingenfelter, R. E.; Ramaty, R.

    1986-01-01

    Recent observations of gamma-ray line emission from solar flares, gamma-ray bursts, the galactic center, the interstellar medium and the jets of SS433 are reviewed. The implications of these observations on high energy processes in these sources are discussed.

  3. Perils at the heart of the Milky Way: Systematic effects for studying low-luminosity accretion onto Sgr A*

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Corrales, Lia; Mon, Brayden; Haggard, Daryl; Baganoff, Frederick K.; Garmire, Gordon; Degenaar, Nathalie; Reynolds, Mark

    2017-08-01

    The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, Sgr A*, is surprisingly under-luminous. This problem has motivated a host of theoretical models to explain low-level radiatively inefficient accretion flows onto compact objects. We discuss how the Galactic Center sight line, which is optically thick to the scattering of soft X-rays (tau ~ 5), affects high resolution studies of the accretion flow around Sgr A*. X-ray light from compact objects in the dense GC environment is scattered by foreground dust, producing scattering echoes that are time delayed relative to the X-ray source's light curve. We discuss the scattering halo of SWIFT J174540.7-290015, which underwent the brightest X-ray outburst within 30’' of Sgr A*. Preliminary fits to the scattering halo suggest that a small amount of foreground dust, within 250 pc of the GC, affects the X-ray surface brightness profile within 10’' of any GC point source. The associated time delay is on the order of several hours, which is important for understanding the quiescent accretion flow of Sgr A*. We take advantage of the Chandra Galactic Center XVP dataset to explore the effect of the interstellar medium on the inferred characteristics of Sgr A*.

  4. PROPER MOTIONS AND ORIGINS OF SGR 1806-20 AND SGR 1900+14

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tendulkar, Shriharsh P.; Kulkarni, Shrinivas R.; Cameron, P. Brian, E-mail: spt@astro.caltech.edu

    2012-12-10

    We present results from high-resolution infrared observations of magnetars SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 over 5 years using laser-supported adaptive optics at the 10 m Keck Observatory. Our measurements of the proper motions of these magnetars provide robust links between magnetars and their progenitors and provide age estimates for magnetars. At the measured distances of their putative associations, we measure the linear transverse velocity of SGR 1806-20 to be 350 {+-} 100 km s{sup -1} and of SGR 1900+14 to be 130 {+-} 30 km s{sup -1}. The transverse velocity vectors for both magnetars point away from the clusters ofmore » massive stars, solidifying their proposed associations. Assuming that the magnetars were born in the clusters, we can estimate the braking index to be {approx}1.8 for SGR 1806-20 and {approx}1.2 for SGR 1900+14. This is significantly lower than the canonical value of n = 3 predicted by the magnetic dipole spin-down suggesting an alternative source of dissipation such as twisted magnetospheres or particle winds.« less

  5. Highlights of GeV Gamma-Ray Astronomy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, David J.

    2010-01-01

    Because high-energy gamma rays are primarily produced by high-energy particle interactions, the gamma-ray survey of the sky by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope offers a view of sites of cosmic ray production and interactions. Gamma-ray bursts, pulsars, pulsar wind nebulae, binary sources, and Active Galactic Nuclei are all phenomena that reveal particle acceleration through their gamma-ray emission. Diffuse Galactic gamma radiation, Solar System gamma-ray sources, and energetic radiation from supernova remnants are likely tracers of high-energy particle interactions with matter and photon fields. This paper will present a broad overview of the constantly changing sky seen with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi spacecraft.

  6. Extended VHE γ-ray emission towards SGR1806-20, LBV 1806-20, and stellar cluster Cl* 1806-20

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    H.E.S.S. Collaboration; Abdalla, H.; Abramowski, A.; Aharonian, F.; Ait Benkhali, F.; Akhperjanian, A. G.; Angüner, E. O.; Arrieta, M.; Aubert, P.; Backes, M.; Balzer, A.; Barnard, M.; Becherini, Y.; Becker Tjus, J.; Berge, D.; Bernhard, S.; Bernlöhr, K.; Birsin, E.; Blackwell, R.; Böttcher, M.; Boisson, C.; Bolmont, J.; Bordas, P.; Bregeon, J.; Brun, F.; Brun, P.; Bryan, M.; Bulik, T.; Capasso, M.; Carr, J.; Casanova, S.; Chakraborty, N.; Chalme-Calvet, R.; Chaves, R. C. G.; Chen, A.; Chevalier, J.; Chrétien, M.; Colafrancesco, S.; Cologna, G.; Condon, B.; Conrad, J.; Couturier, C.; Cui, Y.; Davids, I. D.; Degrange, B.; Deil, C.; deWilt, P.; Djannati-Ataï, A.; Domainko, W.; Donath, A.; Drury, L. O.'C.; Dubus, G.; Dutson, K.; Dyks, J.; Dyrda, M.; Edwards, T.; Egberts, K.; Eger, P.; Ernenwein, J.-P.; Eschbach, S.; Farnier, C.; Fegan, S.; Fernandes, M. V.; Fiasson, A.; Fontaine, G.; Förster, A.; Funk, S.; Füßling, M.; Gabici, S.; Gajdus, M.; Gallant, Y. A.; Garrigoux, T.; Giavitto, G.; Giebels, B.; Glicenstein, J. F.; Gottschall, D.; Goyal, A.; Grondin, M.-H.; Grudzińska, M.; Hadasch, D.; Hahn, J.; Hawkes, J.; Heinzelmann, G.; Henri, G.; Hermann, G.; Hervet, O.; Hillert, A.; Hinton, J. A.; Hofmann, W.; Hoischen, C.; Holler, M.; Horns, D.; Ivascenko, A.; Jacholkowska, A.; Jamrozy, M.; Janiak, M.; Jankowsky, D.; Jankowsky, F.; Jingo, M.; Jogler, T.; Jouvin, L.; Jung-Richardt, I.; Kastendieck, M. A.; Katarzyński, K.; Katz, U.; Kerszberg, D.; Khélifi, B.; Kieffer, M.; King, J.; Klepser, S.; Klochkov, D.; Kluźniak, W.; Kolitzus, D.; Komin, Nu.; Kosack, K.; Krakau, S.; Kraus, M.; Krayzel, F.; Krüger, P. P.; Laffon, H.; Lamanna, G.; Lau, J.; Lees, J.-P.; Lefaucheur, J.; Lefranc, V.; Lemière, A.; Lemoine-Goumard, M.; Lenain, J.-P.; Leser, E.; Lohse, T.; Lorentz, M.; Liu, R.; Lypova, I.; Marandon, V.; Marcowith, A.; Mariaud, C.; Marx, R.; Maurin, G.; Maxted, N.; Mayer, M.; Meintjes, P. J.; Menzler, U.; Meyer, M.; Mitchell, A. M. W.; Moderski, R.; Mohamed, M.; Morå, K.; Moulin, E.; Murach, T.; de Naurois, M.; Niederwanger, F.; Niemiec, J.; Oakes, L.; Odaka, H.; Öttl, S.; Ohm, S.; Ostrowski, M.; Oya, I.; Padovani, M.; Panter, M.; Parsons, R. D.; Paz Arribas, M.; Pekeur, N. W.; Pelletier, G.; Petrucci, P.-O.; Peyaud, B.; Pita, S.; Poon, H.; Prokhorov, D.; Prokoph, H.; Pühlhofer, G.; Punch, M.; Quirrenbach, A.; Raab, S.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Renaud, M.; de Reyes, R.; Rieger, F.; Romoli, C.; Rosier-Lees, S.; Rowell, G.; Rudak, B.; Rulten, C. B.; Sahakian, V.; Salek, D.; Sanchez, D. A.; Santangelo, A.; Sasaki, M.; Schlickeiser, R.; Schüssler, F.; Schulz, A.; Schwanke, U.; Schwemmer, S.; Seyffert, A. S.; Shafi, N.; Shilon, I.; Simoni, R.; Sol, H.; Spanier, F.; Spengler, G.; Spies, F.; Stawarz, Ł.; Steenkamp, R.; Stegmann, C.; Stinzing, F.; Stycz, K.; Sushch, I.; Tavernet, J.-P.; Tavernier, T.; Taylor, A. M.; Terrier, R.; Tluczykont, M.; Trichard, C.; Tuffs, R.; van der Walt, J.; van Eldik, C.; van Soelen, B.; Vasileiadis, G.; Veh, J.; Venter, C.; Viana, A.; Vincent, P.; Vink, J.; Voisin, F.; Völk, H. J.; Vuillaume, T.; Wadiasingh, Z.; Wagner, S. J.; Wagner, P.; Wagner, R. M.; White, R.; Wierzcholska, A.; Willmann, P.; Wörnlein, A.; Wouters, D.; Yang, R.; Zabalza, V.; Zaborov, D.; Zacharias, M.; Zdziarski, A. A.; Zech, A.; Zefi, F.; Ziegler, A.; Żywucka, N.

    2018-04-01

    Using the High Energy Spectroscopic System (H.E.S.S.) telescopes we have discovered a steady and extended very high-energy (VHE) γ-ray source towards the luminous blue variable candidate LBV 1806-20, massive stellar cluster Cl* 1806-20, and magnetar SGR 1806-20. The new VHE source, HESS J1808-204, was detected at a statistical significance of >6σ (post-trial) with a photon flux normalisation (2.9 ± 0.4stat ± 0.5sys) × 10-13 ph cm-2 s-1 TeV-1 at 1 TeV and a power-law photon index of 2.3 ± 0.2stat ± 0.3sys. The luminosity of this source (0.2 to 10 TeV; scaled to distance d = 8.7 kpc) is LVHE 1.6 × 1034(d/8.7 kpc)2 erg s-1. The VHE γ-ray emission is extended and is well fit by a single Gaussian with statistical standard deviation of 0.095° ± 0.015°. This extension is similar to that of the synchrotron radio nebula G10.0-0.3, which is thought to be powered by LBV 1806-20. The VHE γ-ray luminosity could be provided by the stellar wind luminosity of LBV 1806-20 by itself and/or the massive star members of Cl* 1806-20. Alternatively, magnetic dissipation (e.g. via reconnection) from SGR 1806-20 can potentially account for the VHE luminosity. The origin and hadronic and/or leptonic nature of the accelerated particles responsible for HESS J1808-204 is not yet clear. If associated with SGR 1806-20, the potentially young age of the magnetar (650 yr) can be used to infer the transport limits of these particles to match the VHE source size. This discovery provides new interest in the potential for high-energy particle acceleration from magnetars, massive stars, and/or stellar clusters.

  7. A NEW RESULT ON THE ORIGIN OF THE EXTRAGALACTIC GAMMA-RAY BACKGROUND

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zhou Ming; Wang Jiancheng, E-mail: mzhou@ynao.ac.cn

    2013-06-01

    In this paper, we repeatedly use the method of image stacking to study the origin of the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB) at GeV bands, and find that the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters (FIRST) sources undetected by the Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope can contribute about (56 {+-} 6)% of the EGB. Because FIRST is a flux-limited sample of radio sources with incompleteness at the faint limit, we consider that point sources, including blazars, non-blazar active galactic nuclei, and starburst galaxies, could produce a much larger fraction of the EGB.

  8. Portable compton gamma-ray detection system

    DOEpatents

    Rowland, Mark S [Alamo, CA; Oldaker, Mark E [Pleasanton, CA

    2008-03-04

    A Compton scattered gamma-ray detector system. The system comprises a gamma-ray spectrometer and an annular array of individual scintillators. The scintillators are positioned so that they are arrayed around the gamma-ray spectrometer. The annular array of individual scintillators includes a first scintillator. A radiation shield is positioned around the first scintillator. A multi-channel analyzer is operatively connected to the gamma-ray spectrometer and the annular array of individual scintillators.

  9. Prospects for future very high-energy gamma-ray sky survey: Impact of secondary gamma rays

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Inoue, Yoshiyuki; Kalashev, Oleg E.; Kusenko, Alexander

    2014-02-01

    Very high-energy gamma-ray measurements of distant blazars can be well explained by secondary gamma rays emitted by cascades induced by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. The secondary gamma rays will enable one to detect a large number of blazars with future ground based gamma-ray telescopes such as Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). We show that the secondary emission process will allow CTA to detect 100, 130, 150, 87, and 8 blazars above 30 GeV, 100 GeV, 300 GeV, 1 TeV, and 10 TeV, respectively, up to z~8 assuming the intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF) strength B=10-17 G and an unbiased all sky survey withmore » 0.5 h exposure at each field of view, where total observing time is ~540 h. These numbers will be 79, 96, 110, 63, and 6 up to z~5 in the case of B=10-15 G. This large statistics of sources will be a clear evidence of the secondary gamma-ray scenarios and a new key to studying the IGMF statistically. We also find that a wider and shallower survey is favored to detect more and higher redshift sources even if we take into account secondary gamma rays.« less

  10. Very High-Energy Gamma-Ray Sources.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weekes, Trevor C.

    1986-01-01

    Discusses topics related to high-energy, gamma-ray astronomy (including cosmic radiation, gamma-ray detectors, high-energy gamma-ray sources, and others). Also considers motivation for the development of this field, the principal results to date, and future prospects. (JN)

  11. Gamma Ray Bursts-Afterglows and Counterparts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fishman, Gerald J

    1998-01-01

    Several breakthrough discoveries were made last year of x-ray, optical and radio afterglows and counterparts to gamma-ray bursts, and a redshift has been associated with at least one of these. These discoveries were made possible by the fast, accurate gamma-ray burst locations of the BeppoSAX satellite. It is now generally believed that the burst sources are at cosmological distances and that they represent the most powerful explosions in the Universe. These observations also open new possibilities for the study of early star formation, the physics of extreme conditions and perhaps even cosmology. This session will concentrate on recent x-ray, optical and radio afterglow observations of gamma-ray bursts, associated redshift measurements, and counterpart observations. Several review and theory talks will also be presented, along with a summary of the astrophysical implications of the observations. There will be additional poster contributions on observations of gamma-ray burst source locations at wavelengths other than gamma rays. Posters are also solicited that describe new observational capabilities for rapid follow-up observations of gamma-ray bursts.

  12. Characteristics of gamma-ray line flares

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bai, T.; Dennis, B.

    1983-01-01

    Observations of solar gamma rays by the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) demonstrate that energetic protons and ions are rapidly accelerated during the impulsive phase. To understand the acceleration mechanisms for these particles, the characteristics of the gamma ray line flares observed by SMM were studied. Some very intense hard X-ray flares without detectable gamma ray lines were also investigated. Gamma ray line flares are distinguished from other flares by: (1) intense hard X-ray and microwave emissions; (2) delay of high energy hard X-rays; (3) emission of type 2 and/or type 4 radio bursts; and (4) flat hard X-ray spectra (average power law index: 3.1). The majority of the gamma ray line flares shared all these characteristics, and the remainder shared at least three of them. Positive correlations were found between durations of spike bursts and spatial sizes of flare loops as well as between delay times and durations of spike bursts.

  13. About cosmic gamma ray lines

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Diehl, Roland

    2017-06-01

    Gamma ray lines from cosmic sources convey the action of nuclear reactions in cosmic sites and their impacts on astrophysical objects. Gamma rays at characteristic energies result from nuclear transitions following radioactive decays or high-energy collisions with excitation of nuclei. The gamma-ray line from the annihilation of positrons at 511 keV falls into the same energy window, although of different origin. We present here the concepts of cosmic gamma ray spectrometry and the corresponding instruments and missions, followed by a discussion of recent results and the challenges and open issues for the future. Among the lessons learned are the diffuse radioactive afterglow of massive-star nucleosynthesis in 26Al and 60Fe gamma rays, which is now being exploited towards the cycle of matter driven by massive stars and their supernovae; large interstellar cavities and superbubbles have been recognised to be of key importance here. Also, constraints on the complex processes making stars explode as either thermonuclear or core-collapse supernovae are being illuminated by gamma-ray lines, in this case from shortlived radioactivities from 56Ni and 44Ti decays. In particular, the three-dimensionality and asphericities that have recently been recognised as important are enlightened in different ways through such gamma-ray line spectroscopy. Finally, the distribution of positron annihilation gamma ray emission with its puzzling bulge-dominated intensity disctribution is measured through spatially-resolved spectra, which indicate that annihilation conditions may differ in different parts of our Galaxy. But it is now understood that a variety of sources may feed positrons into the interstellar medium, and their characteristics largely get lost during slowing down and propagation of positrons before annihilation; a recent microquasar flare was caught as an opportunity to see positrons annihilate at a source.

  14. Near-infrared and gamma-ray monitoring of TANAMI gamma-ray bright sources

    DOE PAGES

    Nesci, R.; Tosti, G.; Pursimo, T.; ...

    2013-06-18

    Context. We present that spectral energy distribution and its variability are basic tools for understanding the physical processes operating in active galactic nuclei (AGN). Aims. In this paper we report the results of a one-year near-infrared (NIR) and optical monitoring of a sample of 22 AGN known to be gamma-ray emitters, aimed at discovering correlations between optical and gamma-ray emission. Methods. We observed our objects with the Rapid Eye Mount (REM) telescope in J,H,K, and R bands nearly twice every month during their visibility window and derived light curves and spectral indexes. We also analyzed the gamma-ray data from themore » Fermi gamma-ray Space Telescope, making weekly averages. Results. Six sources were never detected during our monitoring, proving to be fainter than their historical Two micron all sky survey (2MASS) level. All of the sixteen detected sources showed marked flux density variability, while the spectral indexes remained unchanged within our sensitivity limits. Steeper sources showed, on average, a larger variability. From the NIR light curves we also computed a variability speed index for each detected source. Only one source (PKS 0208-512) underwent an NIR flare during our monitoring. Half of the sources showed a regular flux density trend on a one-year time scale, but do not show any other peculiar characteristic. The broadband spectral index α ro appears to be a good proxy of the NIR spectral index only for BL Lac objects. No clear correlation between NIR and gamma-ray data is evident in our data, save for PKS 0537-441, PKS 0521-360, PKS 2155-304, and PKS 1424-418. In conclusion, the gamma-ray/NIR flux ratio showed a large spread, QSO being generally gamma-louder than BL Lac, with a marked correlation with the estimated peak frequency (ν peak) of the synchrotron emission.« less

  15. Lunar occultations for gamma-ray source measurements

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Koch, David G.; Hughes, E. B.; Nolan, Patrick L.

    1990-01-01

    The unambiguous association of discrete gamma-ray sources with objects radiating at other wavelengths, the separation of discrete sources from the extended emission within the Galaxy, the mapping of gamma-ray emission from nearby galaxies and the measurement of structure within a discrete source cannot presently be accomplished at gamma-ray energies. In the past, the detection processes used in high-energy gamma-ray astronomy have not allowed for good angular resolution. This problem can be overcome by placing gamma-ray detectors on the moon and using the horizon as an occulting edge to achieve arcsec resolution. For purposes of discussion, this concept is examined for gamma rays above 100 MeV for which pair production dominates the detection process and locally-generated nuclear gamma rays do not contribute to the background.

  16. Mercuric iodine room temperature gamma-ray detectors

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Patt, Bradley E.; Markakis, Jeffrey M.; Gerrish, Vernon M.; Haymes, Robert C.; Trombka, Jacob I.

    1990-01-01

    high resolution mercuric iodide room temperature gamma-ray detectors have excellent potential as an essential component of space instruments to be used for high energy astrophysics. Mercuric iodide detectors are being developed both as photodetectors used in combination with scintillation crystals to detect gamma-rays, and as direct gamma-ray detectors. These detectors are highly radiation damage resistant. The list of applications includes gamma-ray burst detection, gamma-ray line astronomy, solar flare studies, and elemental analysis.

  17. Gamma-Ray Pulsar Candidates for GLAST

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, D. J.

    2008-01-01

    The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will be launched this year, and its Large Area Telescope (LAT) is expected to discover scores to hundreds of gamma-ray pulsars. This poster discusses which of the over 1700 known pulsars, mostly visible only at radio frequencies, are likely to emit greater than 100 MeV gamma rays with intensities detectable by the LAT. The main figure of merit used to select gamma-ray pulsar candidates is sqrt(E-dot)/d2, where E-dot is the energy loss due to rotational spin-down, and d is the distance to the pulsar. The figure of merit incorporates spin-down flux at earth (proportional to E-dot/d2) times efficiency, assumed proportional to l/sqrt(E-dot). A few individual objects are cited to illustrate the issues. Since large E-dot pulsars also tend to have large timing noise and occasional glitches, their ephemerides can become inaccurate in weeks to months. To detect and study the gamma-ray emission the photons must be accurately tagged with the pulse phase. With hours to days between gamma-ray photon arrival times from a pulsar and months to years of LAT exposure needed for good detections, GLAST will rely on radio and X-ray timing measurements throughout the continuous gamma-ray observations. The poster will describe efforts to coordinate pulsar timing of the candidate gamma-ray pulsars.

  18. The Gamma-Ray Imager GRI

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wunderer, Cornelia B.; GRI Collaboration

    2008-03-01

    Observations of the gamma-ray sky reveal the most powerful sources and the most violent events in the Universe. While at lower wavebands the observed emission is generally dominated by thermal processes, the gamma-ray sky provides us with a view on the non-thermal Universe. Here particles are accelerated to extreme relativistic energies by mechanisms which are still poorly understood, and nuclear reactions are synthesizing the basic constituents of our world. Cosmic accelerators and cosmic explosions are major science themes that are addressed in the gamma-ray regime. ESA's INTEGRAL observatory currently provides the astronomical community with a unique tool to investigate the sky up to MeV energies and hundreds of sources, new classes of objects, extraordinary views of antimatter annihilation in our Galaxy, and fingerprints of recent nucleosynthesis processes have been discovered. NASA's GLAST mission will similarly take the next step in surveying the high-energy ( GeV) sky, and NuSTAR will pioneer focusing observations at hard X-ray energies (to 80 keV). There will be clearly a growing need to perform deeper, more focused investigations of gamma-ray sources in the 100-keV to MeV regime. Recent technological advances in the domain of gamma-ray focusing using Laue diffraction and multilayer-coated mirror techniques have paved the way towards a gamma-ray mission, providing major improvements compared to past missions regarding sensitivity and angular resolution. Such a future Gamma-Ray Imager will allow the study of particle acceleration processes and explosion physics in unprecedented detail, providing essential clues on the innermost nature of the most violent and most energetic processes in the Universe.

  19. Observation of gamma ray bursts and flares by the EGRET telescope on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schneid, E. J.; Bertsch, D. L.; Fichtel, C. E.; Hartman, R. C.; Hunter, S. D.; Kwok, P. W.; Mattox, J. R.; Sreekumar, P.; Thompson, D. J.; Kanbach, G.

    1992-01-01

    The Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory has observed energetic gamma ray bursts and flares. On May 3, 1991, EGRET detected a gamma ray burst both in the energy measuring NaI (Tl) scintillator and independently in the spark chamber imaging assembly. The NaI spectra were accumulated by a special BURST mode of EGRET. The spectra were measured over a range from 1 to 200 MeV, in three sequential spectra of 1,2, and 4 seconds. During the peak of the burst, six individual gamma rays were detected in the spark chamber, allowing a determination of the burst arrival direction. The intense flares of June were also detected. A solar flare on June 4 was observed to last for several minutes and for a brief time, less than a minute, had significant emission of gamma rays exceeding 150 MeV.

  20. NuSTAR Hard X-Ray Survey of the Galactic Center Region I: Hard X-Ray Morphology and Spectroscopy of the Diffuse Emission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mori, Kaya; Hailey, Charles J.; Krivonos, Roman; Hong, Jaesub; Ponti, Gabriele; Bauer, Franz; Perez, Kerstin; Nynka, Melania; Zhang, Shuo; Tomsick, John A.; Alexander, David M.; Baganoff, Frederick K.; Barret, Didier; Barrière, Nicolas; Boggs, Steven E.; Canipe, Alicia M.; Christensen, Finn E.; Craig, William W.; Forster, Karl; Giommi, Paolo; Grefenstette, Brian W.; Grindlay, Jonathan E.; Harrison, Fiona A.; Hornstrup, Allan; Kitaguchi, Takao; Koglin, Jason E.; Luu, Vy; Madsen, Kristen K.; Mao, Peter H.; Miyasaka, Hiromasa; Perri, Matteo; Pivovaroff, Michael J.; Puccetti, Simonetta; Rana, Vikram; Stern, Daniel; Westergaard, Niels J.; Zhang, William W.; Zoglauer, Andreas

    2015-12-01

    We present the first sub-arcminute images of the Galactic Center above 10 keV, obtained with NuSTAR. NuSTAR resolves the hard X-ray source IGR J17456-2901 into non-thermal X-ray filaments, molecular clouds, point sources, and a previously unknown central component of hard X-ray emission (CHXE). NuSTAR detects four non-thermal X-ray filaments, extending the detection of their power-law spectra with Γ ˜ 1.3-2.3 up to ˜50 keV. A morphological and spectral study of the filaments suggests that their origin may be heterogeneous, where previous studies suggested a common origin in young pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). NuSTAR detects non-thermal X-ray continuum emission spatially correlated with the 6.4 keV Fe Kα fluorescence line emission associated with two Sgr A molecular clouds: MC1 and the Bridge. Broadband X-ray spectral analysis with a Monte-Carlo based X-ray reflection model self-consistently determined their intrinsic column density (˜1023 cm-2), primary X-ray spectra (power-laws with Γ ˜ 2) and set a lower limit of the X-ray luminosity of Sgr A* flare illuminating the Sgr A clouds to LX ≳ 1038 erg s-1. Above ˜20 keV, hard X-ray emission in the central 10 pc region around Sgr A* consists of the candidate PWN G359.95-0.04 and the CHXE, possibly resulting from an unresolved population of massive CVs with white dwarf masses MWD ˜ 0.9 M⊙. Spectral energy distribution analysis suggests that G359.95-0.04 is likely the hard X-ray counterpart of the ultra-high gamma-ray source HESS J1745-290, strongly favoring a leptonic origin of the GC TeV emission.

  1. Gamma-ray astronomy: From Fermi up to the HAWC high-energy {gamma}-ray observatory in Sierra Negra

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Carraminana, Alberto; Collaboration: HAWC Collaboration

    Gamma-rays represent the most energetic electromagnetic window for the study of the Universe. They are studied both from space at MeV and GeV energies, with instruments like the Fermi{gamma}-ray Space Telescope, and at TeV energies with ground based instruments profiting of particle cascades in the atmosphere and of the Cerenkov radiation of charged particles in the air or in water. The Milagro gamma-ray observatory represented the first instrument to successfully implement the water Cerenkov technique for {gamma}-ray astronomy, opening the ground for the more sensitive HAWC {gamma}-ray observatory, currently under development in the Sierra Negra site and already providing earlymore » science results.« less

  2. New Fermi-LAT event reconstruction reveals more high-energy gamma rays from gamma-ray bursts

    DOE PAGES

    Atwood, W. B.; Baldini, L.; Bregeon, J.; ...

    2013-08-19

    Here, based on the experience gained during the four and a half years of the mission, the Fermi-LAT Collaboration has undertaken a comprehensive revision of the event-level analysis going under the name of Pass 8. Although it is not yet finalized, we can test the improvements in the new event reconstruction with the special case of the prompt phase of bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), where the signal-to-noise ratio is large enough that loose selection cuts are sufficient to identify gamma rays associated with the source. Using the new event reconstruction, we have re-analyzed 10 GRBs previously detected by the Largemore » Area Telescope (LAT) for which an X-ray/optical follow-up was possible and found four new gamma rays with energies greater than 10 GeV in addition to the seven previously known. Among these four is a 27.4 GeV gamma ray from GRB 080916C, which has a redshift of 4.35, thus making it the gamma ray with the highest intrinsic energy (~147 GeV) detected from a GRB. We present here the salient aspects of the new event reconstruction and discuss the scientific implications of these new high-energy gamma rays, such as constraining extragalactic background light models, Lorentz invariance violation tests, the prompt emission mechanism, and the bulk Lorentz factor of the emitting region.« less

  3. Cosmic ray albedo gamma rays from the quiet sun

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Seckel, D.; Stanev, T.; Gaisser, T. K.

    1992-01-01

    We estimate the flux of gamma-rays that result from collisions of high energy galactic cosmic rays with the solar atmosphere. An important aspect of our model is the propagation of cosmic rays through the magnetic fields of the inner solar systems. We use diffusion to model propagation down to the bottom of the corona. Below the corona we trace particle orbits through the photospheric fields to determine the location of cosmic ray interactions in the solar atmosphere and evolve the resultant cascades. For our nominal choice of parameters, we predict an integrated flux of gamma rays (at 1 AU) of F(E(sub gamma) greater than 100 MeV) approximately = 5 x 10(exp -8)/sq cm sec. This can be an order of magnitude above the galactic background and should be observable by the Energetic Gamma Ray experiment telescope (EGRET).

  4. A multi-wavelength investigation of the non-thermal radio emitting O-star 9 Sgr

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rauw, G.; Blomme, R.; Waldron, W. L.; Corcoran, M. F.; Pittard, J. M.; Pollock, A. M. T.; Runacres, M. C.; Sana, H.; Stevens, I. R.; Van Loo, S.

    2002-11-01

    We report the results of a multi-wavelength investigation of the O4 V star 9 Sgr (= HD 164794). Our data include observations in the X-ray domain with XMM-Newton, in the radio domain with the VLA as well as optical spectroscopy. 9 Sgr is one of a few presumably single OB stars that display non-thermal radio emission. This phenomenon is attributed to synchrotron emission by relativistic electrons accelerated in strong hydrodynamic shocks in the stellar wind. Given the enormous supply of photospheric UV photons in the wind of 9 Sgr, inverse Compton scattering by these relativistic electrons is a priori expected to generate a non-thermal power law tail in the X-ray spectrum. Our EPIC and RGS spectra of 9 Sgr reveal a more complex situation than expected from this simple theoretical picture. While the bulk of the thermal X-ray emission from 9 Sgr arises most probably in a plasma at temperature ~ 3 x 106 K distributed throughout the wind, the nature of the hard emission in the X-ray spectrum is less clear. Assuming a non-thermal origin, our best fitting model yields a photon index of >=2.9 for the power law component which would imply a low compression ratio of <=1.79 for the shocks responsible for the electron acceleration. However, the hard emission can also be explained by a thermal plasma at a temperature >=2 x 107 K. Our VLA data indicate that the radio emission of 9 Sgr was clearly non-thermal at the time of the XMM-Newton observation. Again, we derive a low compression ratio (1.7) for the shocks that accelerate the electrons responsible for the synchrotron radio emission. Finally, our optical spectra reveal long-term radial velocity variations suggesting that 9 Sgr could be a long-period spectroscopic binary. Based on observations with XMM-Newton, an ESA Science Mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member states and the USA (NASA). Also based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory (La Silla, Chile) and with the

  5. A link between prompt optical and prompt gamma-ray emission in gamma-ray bursts.

    PubMed

    Vestrand, W T; Wozniak, P R; Wren, J A; Fenimore, E E; Sakamoto, T; White, R R; Casperson, D; Davis, H; Evans, S; Galassi, M; McGowan, K E; Schier, J A; Asa, J W; Barthelmy, S D; Cummings, J R; Gehrels, N; Hullinger, D; Krimm, H A; Markwardt, C B; McLean, K; Palmer, D; Parsons, A; Tueller, J

    2005-05-12

    The prompt optical emission that arrives with the gamma-rays from a cosmic gamma-ray burst (GRB) is a signature of the engine powering the burst, the properties of the ultra-relativistic ejecta of the explosion, and the ejecta's interactions with the surroundings. Until now, only GRB 990123 had been detected at optical wavelengths during the burst phase. Its prompt optical emission was variable and uncorrelated with the prompt gamma-ray emission, suggesting that the optical emission was generated by a reverse shock arising from the ejecta's collision with surrounding material. Here we report prompt optical emission from GRB 041219a. It is variable and correlated with the prompt gamma-rays, indicating a common origin for the optical light and the gamma-rays. Within the context of the standard fireball model of GRBs, we attribute this new optical component to internal shocks driven into the burst ejecta by variations of the inner engine. The correlated optical emission is a direct probe of the jet isolated from the medium. The timing of the uncorrelated optical emission is strongly dependent on the nature of the medium.

  6. The solar gamma ray and neutron capabilities of COMPTEL on the Gamma Ray Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ryan, James M.; Lockwood, John A.

    1989-01-01

    The imaging Compton telescope COMPTEL on the Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) has unusual spectroscopic capabilities for measuring solar gamma-ray and neutron emission. The launch of the GRO is scheduled for June 1990 near the peak of the sunspot cycle. With a 30 to 40 percent probability for the Sun being in the COMPTEL field-of-view during the sunlit part of an orbit, a large number of flares will be observed above the 800 keV gamma-ray threshold of the telescope. The telescope energy range extends to 30 MeV with high time resolution burst spectra available from 0.1 to 10 MeV. Strong Compton tail suppression of instrumental gamma-ray interactions will facilitate improved spectral analysis of solar flare emissions. In addition, the high signal to noise ratio for neutron detection and measurement will provide new neutron spectroscopic capabilities. Specifically, a flare similar to that of 3 June 1982 will provide spectroscopic data on greater than 1500 individual neutrons, enough to construct an unambiguous spectrum in the energy range of 20 to 200 MeV. Details of the instrument and its response to solar gamma-rays and neutrons will be presented.

  7. Gamma-Ray Pulsar Candidates for GLAST

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, David J.; Smith, D. A.; Dumora, D.; Guillemot, L.; Parent, D.; Reposeur, T.; Grove, E.; Romani, R. W.; Thorsett, S. E.

    2007-01-01

    The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will be launched less than a year from now, and its Large Area Telescope (LAT) is expected to discover scores to hundreds of gamma-ray pulsars. This poster discusses which of the over 1700 known pulsars, mostly visible only at radio Erequencies, are likely to emit greater than l00 MeV gamma rays with intensities detectable by the LAT. The main figure of merit used to select gamma-ray pulsar candidates is sqrt(E-dot)/d^2, where E-dot is the energy loss due to rotational spindown, and d is the distance to the pulsar. The figure of merit incorporates spin-down flux at earth (proportional to E-dot/d^2) times efficiency, assumed proportional to 1/sqrt(E-dot). A few individual objects are cited to illustrate the issues. Since large E-dot pulsars also tend to have large timing noise and occasional glitches, their ephemerides can become inaccurate in weeks to months. To detect and study the gamma-ray emission the photons must be accurately tagged with the pulse phase. With hours to days between gamma-ray photon arrival times from a pulsar and months to years of LAT exposure needed for good detections, GLAST will need timing measurements throughout the continuous gamma-ray observations. The poster will describe efforts to coordinate pulsar timing of the candidate gamma-ray pulsars.

  8. GRI: the gamma-ray imager mission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knödlseder, Jürgen

    2006-06-01

    Observations of the gamma-ray sky reveal the most powerful sources and the most violent events in the Universe. While at lower wavebands the observed emission is generally dominated by thermal processes, the gamma-ray sky provides us with a view on the non-thermal Universe. Here particles are accelerated to extreme relativistic energies by mechanisms which are still poorly understood, and nuclear reactions are synthesizing the basic constituents of our world. Cosmic accelerators and cosmic explosions are the major science themes that are addressed in the gamma-ray regime. With the INTEGRAL observatory, ESA has provided a unique tool to the astronomical community revealing hundreds of sources, new classes of objects, extraordinary views of antimatter annihilation in our Galaxy, and fingerprints of recent nucleosynthesis processes. While INTEGRAL provides the global overview over the soft gamma-ray sky, there is a growing need to perform deeper, more focused investigations of gamma-ray sources. In soft X-rays a comparable step was taken going from the Einstein and the EXOSAT satellites to the Chandra and XMM/Newton observatories. Technological advances in the past years in the domain of gamma-ray focusing using Laue diffraction and multilayer-coated mirror techniques hav paved the way towards a gamma-ray mission, providing major improvements compared to past missions regarding sensitivity and angular resolution. Such a future Gamma-Ray Imager will allow to study particle acceleration processes and explosion physics in unprecedented detail, providing essential clues on the innermost nature of the most violent and most energetic processes in the Universe.

  9. The Mystery of Gamma-Ray Bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fishman, Gerald J.

    2004-01-01

    Gamma-ray bursts remain one of the greatest mysteries in astrophysics. Observations of gamma-ray bursts made by the BATSE experiment on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory will be described. Most workers in the field now believe that they originate from cosmological distances. This view has been reinforced by observations this year of several optical afterglow counterparts to gamma-ray bursts. A summary of these recent discoveries will be presented, along with their implications for models of the burst emission mechanism and the energy source of the bursts.

  10. Field gamma-ray spectrometer GS256: measurements stability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mojzeš, Andrej

    2009-01-01

    The stability of in situ readings of the portable gamma-ray spectrometer GS256 during the field season of 2006 was studied. The instrument is an impulse detector of gamma rays based on NaI(Tl) 3" × 3" scintillation unit and 256-channel spectral analyzer which allows simultaneous assessment of up to 8 radioisotopes in rocks. It is commonly used in surface geophysical survey for the measurement of natural 40K, 238U and 232Th but also artificial 137Cs quantities. The statistical evaluation is given of both repeated measurements - in the laboratory and at several field control points in different survey areas. The variability of values shows both the instrument stability and also the relative influence of some meteorological factors, mainly rainfalls. The analysis shows an acceptable level of instrument measurements stability, the necessity to avoid measurement under unfavourable meteorological conditions and to keep detailed field book information about time, position and work conditions.

  11. Can Sgr A* flares reveal the molecular gas density PDF?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Churazov, E.; Khabibullin, I.; Sunyaev, R.; Ponti, G.

    2017-11-01

    Illumination of dense gas in the Central Molecular Zone by powerful X-ray flares from Sgr A* leads to prominent structures in the reflected emission that can be observed long after the end of the flare. By studying this emission, we learn about past activity of the supermassive black hole in our Galactic Center and, at the same time, we obtain unique information on the structure of molecular clouds that is essentially impossible to get by other means. Here we discuss how X-ray data can improve our knowledge of both sides of the problem. Existing data already provide (I) an estimate of the flare age, (II) a model-independent lower limit on the luminosity of Sgr A* during the flare and (III) an estimate of the total emitted energy during Sgr A* flare. On the molecular clouds side, the data clearly show a voids-and-walls structure of the clouds and can provide an almost unbiased probe of the mass/density distribution of the molecular gas with the hydrogen column densities lower than few 1023 cm-2. For instance, the probability distribution function of the gas density PDF(ρ) can be measured this way. Future high energy resolution X-ray missions will provide the information on the gas velocities, allowing, for example, a reconstruction of the velocity field structure functions and cross-matching the X-ray and molecular data based on positions and velocities.

  12. Studying the High Energy Gamma Ray Sky with Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kamae, T.; Ohsugi, T.; Thompson, D. J.; Watanabe, K.

    1998-01-01

    Building on the success of the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will make a major step in the study of such subjects as blazars, gamma Ray bursts, the search for dark matter, supernova remnants, pulsars, diffuse radiation, and unidentified high energy sources. The instrument will be built on new and mature detector technologies such as silicon strip detectors, low-power low-noise LSI, and a multilevel data acquisition system. GLAST is in the research and development phase, and one full tower (of 25 total) is now being built in collaborating institutes. The prototype tower will be tested thoroughly at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in the fall of 1999.

  13. Hard X-ray and low-energy gamma-ray spectrometers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gehrels, N.; Crannell, C. J.; Orwig, L. E.; Forrest, D. J.; Lin, R. P.; Starr, R.

    1988-01-01

    Basic principles of operation and characteristics of scintillation and semi-conductor detectors used for solar hard X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers are presented. Scintillation materials such as NaI offer high stopping power for incident gamma rays, modest energy resolution, and relatively simple operation. They are, to date, the most often used detector in solar gamma-ray spectroscopy. The scintillator BGO has higher stopping power than NaI, but poorer energy resolution. The primary advantage of semi-conductor materials such as Ge is their high-energy resolution. Monte-Carlo simulations of the response of NaI and Ge detectors to model solar flare inputs show the benefit of high resoluton for studying spectral lines. No semi-conductor material besides Ge is currently available with adequate combined size and purity to make general-use hard X-ray and gamma-ray detectors for solar studies.

  14. Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McEnery, Julie E.; Michelson, Peter F.; Paclesas, William S.; Ritz, Steven

    2012-01-01

    The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, launched in June 2008, is an observatory designed to survey the high-energy gamma-ray sky. The primary instrument, the Large Area Telescope (LAT), provides observations from 20 MeV to greater than 300 GeV. A second instrument, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM), provides observations of transients from less than 10 keV to 40 MeV. We describe the design and performance of the instruments and their subsystems, the spacecraft and the ground system.

  15. Nighttime sensitivity of ionospheric VLF measurements to X-ray bursts from a remote cosmic source

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Raulin, Jean-Pierre; Trottet, Gérard; Giménez de Castro, C. Guillermo; Correia, Emilia; Macotela, E. Liliana

    2014-06-01

    On 22 January 2009, a series of X-ray bursts were emitted by the soft gamma ray repeater SGR J1550-5418. Some of these bursts produced enhanced ionization in the nighttime lower ionosphere. These ionospheric disturbances were studied using X-ray measurements from the Anti-Coincidence Shield of the Spectrometer for Integral onboard the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory and simultaneous phase and amplitude records from two VLF propagation paths between the transmitter Naval Radio Station, Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) and the receivers Radio Observatorio do Itapetinga (Brazil) and Estação Antarctica Commandante Ferraz (Antarctic Peninsula). The VLF measurements have been obtained with an unprecedented high time resolution of 20 ms. We find that the illumination factor I (illuminated path length times the cosine of the zenith angle), which characterizes the propagation paths underlying the flaring object, is a key parameter which determines the sensitivity threshold of the VLF detection of X-ray bursts from nonsolar transients. For the present VLF measurements of bursts from SGR J1550-5418, it is found that for I ≥ 1.8 Mm, all X-ray bursts with fluence in the 25 keV to 2 MeV range larger than F25_min 1.0 × 10-6 erg/cm2 produce a measurable ionospheric disturbance. Such a lower limit of the X-ray fluence value indicates that moderate X-ray bursts, as opposed to giant X-ray bursts, do produce ionospheric disturbances larger than the sensitivity limit of the VLF technique. Therefore, the frequency of detection of such events could be improved, for example by increasing the coverage of existing VLF receiving networks. The VLF detection of high-energy astrophysical bursts then appears as an important observational diagnostic to complement their detection in space. This would be especially important when space observations suffer from adverse conditions, like saturation, occultation from the Earth, or the passage of the spacecraft through the South Atlantic

  16. Cosmic rays, gamma rays and synchrotron radiation from the Galaxy

    DOE PAGES

    Orlando, Elena

    2012-07-30

    Galactic cosmic rays (CR), interstellar gamma-ray emission and synchrotron radiation are related topics. CR electrons propagate in the Galaxy and interact with the interstellar medium, producing inverse-Compton emission measured in gamma rays and synchrotron emission measured in radio. I present an overview of the latest results with Fermi/LAT on the gamma-ray diffuse emission induced by CR nuclei and electrons. Then I focus on the recent complementary studies of the synchrotron emission in the light of the latest gamma-ray results. Relevant observables include spectral indices and their variations, using surveys over a wide range of radio frequencies. As a result, thismore » paper emphasizes the importance of using the parallel study of gamma rays and synchrotron radiation in order to constrain the low-energy interstellar CR electron spectrum, models of propagation of CRs, and magnetic fields.« less

  17. Design and Performance of the GAMMA-400 Gamma-Ray Telescope for Dark Matter Searches

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Galper, A.M.; Adriani, O.; Aptekar, R. L.; Arkhangelskaja, I. V.; Arkhangelskiy, A.I.; Boezio, M.; Bonvicini, V.; Boyarchuk, K. A.; Fradkin, M. I.; Gusakov, Yu. V.; hide

    2012-01-01

    The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope is designed to measure the fluxes of gamma-rays and cosmic-ray electrons + positrons, which can be produced by annihilation or decay of the dark matter particles, as well as to survey the celestial sphere in order to study point and extended sources of gamma-rays, measure energy spectra of Galactic and extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray emission, gamma-ray bursts, and gamma-ray emission from the Sun. GAMMA-400 covers the energy range from 100 MeV to 3000 GeV. Its angular resolution is approx. 0.01 deg (E(sub gamma) > 100 GeV), the energy resolution approx. 1% (E(sub gamma) > 10 GeV), and the proton rejection factor approx 10(exp 6). GAMMA-400 will be installed on the Russian space platform Navigator. The beginning of observations is planned for 2018.

  18. Gamma-ray Albedo of the Moon

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Moskalenko, Igor V.; Porter, Troy A.

    2007-06-14

    We use the GEANT4 Monte Carlo framework to calculate the gamma-ray albedo of the Moon due to interactions of cosmic ray (CR) nuclei with moon rock. Our calculation of the albedo spectrum agrees with the EGRET data. We show that the spectrum of gamma-rays from the Moon is very steep with an effective cutoff around 3 GeV (600 MeV for the inner part of the Moon disc). Since it is the only (almost) black spot in the gamma-ray sky, it provides a unique opportunity for calibration of gamma-ray telescopes, such as the forthcoming Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST).more » The albedo flux depends on the incident CR spectrum which changes over the solar cycle. Therefore, it is possible to monitor the CR spectrum using the albedo gamma-ray flux. Simultaneous measurements of CR proton and helium spectra by the Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics (PAMELA), and observations of the albedo -rays by the GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT), can be used to test the model predictions and will enable the GLAST LAT to monitor the CR spectrum near the Earth beyond the lifetime of PAMELA.« less

  19. Low-mass X-ray binaries and gamma-ray bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lasota, J. P.; Frank, J.; King, A. R.

    1992-01-01

    More than twenty years after their discovery, the nature of gamma-ray burst sources (GRBs) remains mysterious. The results from BATSE experiment aboard the Compton Observatory show however that most of the sources of gamma-ray bursts cannot be distributed in the galactic disc. The possibility that a small fraction of sites of gamma-ray bursts is of galactic disc origin cannot however be excluded. We point out that large numbers of neutron-star binaries with orbital periods of 10 hr and M dwarf companions of mass 0.2-0.3 solar mass are a natural result of the evolution of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). The numbers and physical properties of these systems suggest that some gamma-ray burst sources may be identified with this endpoint of LMXB evolution. We suggest an observational test of this hypothesis.

  20. GRI: The Gamma-Ray Imager mission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knödlseder, Jürgen; GRI Consortium

    With the INTEGRAL observatory ESA has provided a unique tool to the astronomical community revealing hundreds of sources, new classes of objects, extraordinary views of antimatter annihilation in our Galaxy, and fingerprints of recent nucleosynthesis processes. While INTEGRAL provides the global overview over the soft gamma-ray sky, there is a growing need to perform deeper, more focused investigations of gamma-ray sources. In soft X-rays a comparable step was taken going from the Einstein and the EXOSAT satellites to the Chandra and XMM/Newton observatories. Technological advances in the past years in the domain of gamma-ray focusing using Laue diffraction have paved the way towards a new gamma-ray mission, providing major improvements regarding sensitivity and angular resolution. Such a future Gamma-Ray Imager will allow studies of particle acceleration processes and explosion physics in unprecedented detail, providing essential clues on the innermost nature of the most violent and most energetic processes in the Universe.

  1. GRI: The Gamma-Ray Imager mission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knödlseder, Jürgen; GRI Consortium

    2006-06-01

    With the INTEGRAL observatory, ESA has provided a unique tool to the astronomical community revealing hundreds of sources, new classes of objects, extraordinary views of antimatter annihilation in our Galaxy, and fingerprints of recent nucleosynthesis processes. While INTEGRAL provides the global overview over the soft gamma-ray sky, there is a growing need to perform deeper, more focused investigations of gamma-ray sources. In soft X-rays a comparable step was taken going from the Einstein and the EXOSAT satellites to the Chandra and XMM/Newton observatories. Technological advances in the past years in the domain of gamma-ray focusing using Laue diffraction have paved the way towards a new gamma-ray mission, providing major improvements regarding sensitivity and angular resolution. Such a future Gamma-Ray Imager will allow the study of particle acceleration processes and explosion physics in unprecedented detail, providing essential clues on the innermost nature of the most violent and most energetic processes in the Universe.

  2. Design and Performance of the GAMMA-400 Gamma-Ray Telescope for Dark Matter Searches

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Galper, A. M.; Adriani, O.; Aptekar, R. L.; Arkhangelskaja, I. V.; Arkhangelskiy, A. I.; Boezio, M.; Bonvicini, V.; Boyarchuk, K. A.; Fradkin, M. I.; Gusakov, Yu V.; hide

    2012-01-01

    The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope is designed to measure the fluxes of gamma-rays and cosmic-ray electrons (+) positrons, which can be produced by annihilation or decay of the dark matter particles, as well as to survey the celestial sphere in order to study point and extended sources of gamma-rays, measure energy spectra of Galactic and extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray emission, gamma-ray bursts, and gamma-ray emission from the Sun. GAMMA-400 covers the energy range from 100 MeV to 3000 GeV. Its angular resolution is approximately 0.01deg (E(sub gamma) greater than 100 GeV), the energy resolution approximately 1% (E(sub gamma) greater than 10 GeV), and the proton rejection factor approximately 10(exp 6). GAMMA-400 will be installed on the Russian space platform Navigator. The beginning of observations is planned for 2018.

  3. Simultaneous optical/gamma-ray observations of GRBs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Greiner, J.; Wenzel, W.; Hudec, R.; Moskalenko, E. I.; Metlov, V.; Chernych, N. S.; Getman, V. S.; Ziener, Rainer; Birkle, K.; Bade, N.

    1994-01-01

    Details on the project to search for serendipitous time correlated optical photographic observations of Gamma Ray Bursters (GRB's) are presented. The ongoing photographic observations at nine observatories are used to look for plates which were exposed simultaneously with a gamma ray burst detected by the gamma ray instrument team (BATSE) and contain the burst position. The results for the first two years of the gamma ray instrument team operation are presented.

  4. Design and performance of the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope for dark matter searches

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galper, A. M.; Adriani, O.; Aptekar, R. L.; Arkhangelskaja, I. V.; Arkhangelskiy, A. I.; Boezio, M.; Bonvicini, V.; Boyarchuk, K. A.; Fradkin, M. I.; Gusakov, Yu. V.; Kaplin, V. A.; Kachanov, V. A.; Kheymits, M. D.; Leonov, A. A.; Longo, F.; Mazets, E. P.; Maestro, P.; Marrocchesi, P.; Mereminskiy, I. A.; Mikhailov, V. V.; Moiseev, A. A.; Mocchiutti, E.; Mori, N.; Moskalenko, I. V.; Naumov, P. Yu.; Papini, P.; Picozza, P.; Rodin, V. G.; Runtso, M. F.; Sparvoli, R.; Spillantini, P.; Suchkov, S. I.; Tavani, M.; Topchiev, N. P.; Vacchi, A.; Vannuccini, E.; Yurkin, Yu. T.; Zampa, N.; Zverev, V. G.; Zirakashvili, V. N.

    2013-02-01

    The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope is designed to measure the fluxes of gamma-rays and cosmic-ray electrons + positrons, which can be produced by annihilation or decay of the dark matter particles, as well as to survey the celestial sphere in order to study point and extended sources of gamma-rays, measure energy spectra of Galactic and extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray emission, gamma-ray bursts, and gamma-ray emission from the Sun. GAMMA-400 covers the energy range from 100 MeV to 3000 GeV. Its angular resolution is ~0.01° (Eγ > 100 GeV), the energy resolution ~1% (Eγ > 10 GeV), and the proton rejection factor ~106. GAMMA-400 will be installed on the Russian space platform Navigator. The beginning of observations is planned for 2018.

  5. The Animated Gamma-ray Sky Revealed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

    ScienceCinema

    Isabelle Grenier

    2018-04-17

    The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has been observing the sky in gamma-rays since August 2008.  In addition to breakthrough capabilities in energy coverage (20 MeV-300 GeV) and angular resolution, the wide field of view of the Large Area Telescope enables observations of 20% of the sky at any instant, and of the whole sky every three hours. It has revealed a very animated sky with bright gamma-ray bursts flashing and vanishing in minutes, powerful active galactic nuclei flaring over hours and days, many pulsars twinkling in the Milky Way, and X-ray binaries shimmering along their orbit. Most of these variable sources had not been seen by the Fermi predecessor, EGRET, and the wealth of new data already brings important clues to the origin of the high-energy emission and particles powered by the compact objects. The telescope also brings crisp images of the bright gamma-ray emission produced by cosmic-ray interactions in the interstellar medium, thus allowing to measure the cosmic nuclei and electron spectra across the Galaxy, to weigh interstellar clouds, in particular in the dark-gas phase. The telescope sensitivity at high energy will soon provide useful constraints on dark-matter annihilations in a variety of environments. I will review the current results and future prospects of the Fermi mission.

  6. Gamma-ray lens development status for a European gamma-ray imager

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Frontera, F.; Pisa, A.; Carassiti, V.; Evangelisti, F.; Loffredo, G.; Pellicciotta, D.; Andersen, K. H.; Courtois, P.; Amati, L.; Caroli, E.; Franceschini, T.; Landini, G.; Silvestri, S.; Stephen, J. B.

    2006-06-01

    A breakthrough in the sensitivity level of the hard X-/gamma-ray telescopes, which today are based on detectors that view the sky through (or not) coded masks, is expected when focusing optics will be available also in this energy range. Focusing techniques are now in an advanced stage of development. To date the most efficient technique to focus hard X-rays with energies above 100 keV appears to be the Bragg diffraction from crystals in transmission configuration (Laue lenses). Crystals with mosaic structure appear to be the most suitable to build a Laue lens with a broad passband, even though other alternative structures are being investigated. The goal of our project is the development of a broad band focusing telescope based on gamma-ray lenses for the study of the continuum emission of celestial sources from 60 keV up to >600 keV. We will report details of our project, its development status and results of our assessment study of a lens configuration for the European Gamma Ray Imager (GRI) mission now under study for the ESA plan Cosmic Vision 2015-2025.

  7. Gamma ray astrophysics. [emphasizing processes and absorption

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stecker, F. W.

    1974-01-01

    Gamma ray production processes are reviewed, including Compton scattering, synchrotron radiation, bremsstrahlung interactions, meson decay, nucleon-antinucleon annihilations, and pion production. Gamma ray absorption mechanisms through interactions with radiation and with matter are discussed, along with redshifts and gamma ray fluxes.

  8. Found: A Galaxy's Missing Gamma Rays

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kohler, Susanna

    2016-04-01

    Recent reanalysis of data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has resulted in the first detection of high-energy gamma rays emitted from a nearby galaxy. This discovery reveals more about how supernovae interact with their environments.Colliding Supernova RemnantAfter a stellar explosion, the supernovas ejecta expand, eventually encountering the ambient interstellar medium. According to models, this generates a strong shock, and a fraction of the kinetic energy of the ejecta is transferred into cosmic rays high-energy radiation composed primarily of protons and atomic nuclei. Much is still unknown about this process, however. One open question is: what fraction of the supernovas explosion power goes into accelerating these cosmic rays?In theory, one way to answer this is by looking for gamma rays. In a starburst galaxy, the collision of the supernova-accelerated cosmic rays with the dense interstellar medium is predicted to produce high-energy gamma rays. That radiation should then escape the galaxy and be visible to us.Pass 8 to the RescueObservational tests of this model, however, have beenstumped by Arp 220. This nearby ultraluminous infrared galaxy is the product of a galaxy merger ~700 million years ago that fueled a frenzy of starbirth. Due to its dusty interior and extreme levels of star formation, Arp 220 has long been predicted to emit the gamma rays produced by supernova-accelerated cosmic rays. But though weve looked, gamma-ray emission has never been detected from this galaxy until now.In a recent study, a team of scientists led by Fang-Kun Peng (Nanjing University) reprocessed 7.5 years of Fermi observations using the new Pass 8 analysis software. The resulting increase in resolution revealed the first detection of GeV emission from Arp 220!Acceleration EfficiencyGamma-ray luminosity vs. total infrared luminosity for LAT-detected star-forming galaxies and Seyferts. Arp 220s luminosities are consistent with the scaling relation. [Peng et al. 2016

  9. Action at the Horizon: Chandra/EHT Observations of Sgr A*

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Neilsen, Joseph

    2017-09-01

    In April 2017, the Event Horizon Telescope will observe Sgr A* with imaging quality sufficient to resolve the shadow of the black hole, while providing a close-up view of accretion at the horizon. As Sgr A* is a well-known source of X-ray flares, coordinated Chandra/EHT observations offer an incredible opportunity: a chance to observe structures (e.g., hotspots) near the event horizon while tracking their high-energy variability. In anticipation of a follow-up campaign in 2018, we are requesting 4x33 ks Chandra observations of Sgr A* to be coordinated with EHT. This campaign will double our chances of simultaneous flares. We will search for flares and hotspots, provide priors for EHT image reconstruction, and track any activity associated with the closest approach of the massive star S0-2.

  10. Search of the energetic gamma-ray experiment telescope (EGRET) data for high-energy gamma-ray microsecond bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fichtel, C. E.; Bertsch, D. L.; Dingus, B. L.; Esposito, J. A.; Hartman, R. C.; Hunter, S. D.; Kanbach, G.; Kniffen, D. A.; Lin, Y. C.; Mattox, J. R.

    1994-01-01

    Hawking (1974) and Page & Hawking (1976) investigated theoretically the possibility of detecting high-energy gamma rays produced by the quantum-mechanical decay of a small black hole created in the early universe. They concluded that, at the very end of the life of the small black hole, it would radiate a burst of gamma rays peaked near 250 MeV with a total energy of about 10(exp 34) ergs in the order of a microsecond or less. The characteristics of a black hole are determined by laws of physics beyond the range of current particle accelerators; hence, the search for these short bursts of high-energy gamma rays provides at least the possibility of being the first test of this region of physics. The Compton Observatory Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) has the capability of detecting directly the gamma rays from such bursts at a much fainter level than SAS 2, and a search of the EGRET data has led to an upper limit of 5 x 10(exp -2) black hole decays per cu pc per yr, placing constraints on this and other theories predicting microsecond high-energy gamma-ray bursts.

  11. RoboPol: the optical polarization of gamma-ray-loud and gamma-ray-quiet blazars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Angelakis, E.; Hovatta, T.; Blinov, D.; Pavlidou, V.; Kiehlmann, S.; Myserlis, I.; Böttcher, M.; Mao, P.; Panopoulou, G. V.; Liodakis, I.; King, O. G.; Baloković, M.; Kus, A.; Kylafis, N.; Mahabal, A.; Marecki, A.; Paleologou, E.; Papadakis, I.; Papamastorakis, I.; Pazderski, E.; Pearson, T. J.; Prabhudesai, S.; Ramaprakash, A. N.; Readhead, A. C. S.; Reig, P.; Tassis, K.; Urry, M.; Zensus, J. A.

    2016-12-01

    We present average R-band optopolarimetric data, as well as variability parameters, from the first and second RoboPol observing season. We investigate whether gamma-ray-loud and gamma-ray-quiet blazars exhibit systematic differences in their optical polarization properties. We find that gamma-ray-loud blazars have a systematically higher polarization fraction (0.092) than gamma-ray-quiet blazars (0.031), with the hypothesis of the two samples being drawn from the same distribution of polarization fractions being rejected at the 3σ level. We have not found any evidence that this discrepancy is related to differences in the redshift distribution, rest-frame R-band luminosity density, or the source classification. The median polarization fraction versus synchrotron-peak-frequency plot shows an envelope implying that high-synchrotron-peaked sources have a smaller range of median polarization fractions concentrated around lower values. Our gamma-ray-quiet sources show similar median polarization fractions although they are all low-synchrotron-peaked. We also find that the randomness of the polarization angle depends on the synchrotron peak frequency. For high-synchrotron-peaked sources, it tends to concentrate around preferred directions while for low-synchrotron-peaked sources, it is more variable and less likely to have a preferred direction. We propose a scenario which mediates efficient particle acceleration in shocks and increases the helical B-field component immediately downstream of the shock.

  12. Multiwavelength Study of Gamma-Ray Bright Blazars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morozova, Daria; Larionov, V. M.; Hagen-Thorn, V. A.; Jorstad, S. G.; Marscher, A. P.; Troitskii, I. S.

    2011-01-01

    We investigate total intensity radio images of 6 gamma-ray bright blazars (BL Lac, 3C 279, 3C 273, W Com, PKS 1510-089, and 3C 66A) and their optical and gamma-ray light curves to study connections between gamma-ray and optical brightness variations and changes in the parsec-scale radio structure. We use high-resolution maps obtained by the BU group at 43 GHz with the VLBA, optical light curves constructed by the St.Petersburg State U. (Russia) team using measurements with the 0.4 m telescope of St.Petersburg State U. (LX200) and the 0.7 m telescope of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (AZT-8), and gamma-ray light curves, which we have constructed with data provided by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Over the period from August 2008 to November 2009, superluminal motion is found in all 6 objects with apparent speed ranging from 2c to 40c. The blazars with faster apparent speeds, 3C 273, 3C 279, PKS 1510-089, and 3C 66A, exhibit stronger variability of the gamma-ray emission. There is a tendency for sources with sharply peaked gamma-ray flares to have faster jet speed than sources with gamma-ray light curves with no sharp peaks. Gamma-ray light curves with sharply peaked gamma-ray flares possess a stronger gamma-ray/optical correlations. The research at St.Petersburg State U. was funded by the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (state contract N#P123). The research at BU was funded in part by NASA Fermi Guest Investigator grant NNX08AV65G and by NSF grant AST-0907893. The VLBA is an instrument of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

  13. Gamma-ray Astrophysics with AGILE

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Longo, Francesco; Tavani, M.; Barbiellini, G.

    2007-07-12

    AGILE will explore the gamma-ray Universe with a very innovative instrument combining for the first time a gamma-ray imager and a hard X-ray imager. AGILE will be operational in spring 2007 and it will provide crucial data for the study of Active Galactic Nuclei, Gamma-Ray Bursts, unidentified gamma-ray sources. Galactic compact objects, supernova remnants, TeV sources, and fundamental physics by microsecond timing. The AGILE instrument is designed to simultaneously detect and image photons in the 30 MeV - 50 GeV and 15 - 45 keV energy bands with excellent imaging and timing capabilities, and a large field of view coveringmore » {approx} 1/5 of the entire sky at energies above 30 MeV. A CsI calorimeter is capable of GRB triggering in the energy band 0.3-50 MeV AGILE is now (March 2007) undergoing launcher integration and testing. The PLSV launch is planned in spring 2007. AGILE is then foreseen to be fully operational during the summer of 2007.« less

  14. Gamma-ray Output Spectra from 239 Pu Fission

    DOE PAGES

    Ullmann, John

    2015-05-25

    The gamma-ray multiplicities, individual gamma-ray energy spectra, and total gamma energy spectra following neutron-induced fission of 239Pu were measured using the DANCE detector at Los Alamos. Corrections for detector response were made using a forward-modeling technique based on propagating sets of gamma rays generated from a paramaterized model through a GEANT model of the DANCE array and adjusting the parameters for best fit to the measured spectra. The results for the gamma-ray spectrum and multiplicity are in general agreement with previous results, but the measured total gamma-ray energy is about 10% higher. We found that a dependence of the gamma-raymore » spectrum on the gamma-ray multplicity was also observed. Finally, global model calculations of the multiplicity and gamma energy distributions are in good agreement with the data, but predict a slightly softer total-energy distribution.« less

  15. GLAST and Ground-Based Gamma-Ray Astronomy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McEnery, Julie

    2008-01-01

    The launch of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope together with the advent of a new generation of ground-based gamma-ray detectors such as VERITAS, HESS, MAGIC and CANGAROO, will usher in a new era of high-energy gamma-ray astrophysics. GLAST and the ground based gamma-ray observatories will provide highly complementary capabilities for spectral, temporal and spatial studies of high energy gamma-ray sources. Joint observations will cover a huge energy range, from 20 MeV to over 20 TeV. The LAT will survey the entire sky every three hours, allowing it both to perform uniform, long-term monitoring of variable sources and to detect flaring sources promptly. Both functions complement the high-sensitivity pointed observations provided by ground-based detectors. Finally, the large field of view of GLAST will allow a study of gamma-ray emission on large angular scales and identify interesting regions of the sky for deeper studies at higher energies. In this poster, we will discuss the science returns that might result from joint GLAST/ground-based gamma-ray observations and illustrate them with detailed source simulations.

  16. Gamma-Ray Emission from Galaxy Clusters : DARK MATTER AND COSMIC-RAYS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pinzke, Anders

    The quest for the first detection of a galaxy cluster in the high energy gamma-ray regime is ongoing, and even though clusters are observed in several other wave-bands, there is still no firm detection in gamma-rays. To complement the observational efforts we estimate the gamma-ray contributions from both annihilating dark matter and cosmic-ray (CR) proton as well as CR electron induced emission. Using high-resolution simulations of galaxy clusters, we find a universal concave shaped CR proton spectrum independent of the simulated galaxy cluster. Specifically, the gamma-ray spectra from decaying neutral pions, which are produced by CR protons, dominate the cluster emission. Furthermore, based on our derived flux and luminosity functions, we identify the galaxy clusters with the brightest galaxy clusters in gamma-rays. While this emission is challenging to detect using the Fermi satellite, major observations with Cherenkov telescopes in the near future may put important constraints on the CR physics in clusters. To extend these predictions, we use a dark matter model that fits the recent electron and positron data from Fermi, PAMELA, and H.E.S.S. with remarkable precision, and make predictions about the expected gamma-ray flux from nearby clusters. In order to remain consistent with the EGRET upper limit on the gamma-ray emission from Virgo, we constrain the minimum mass of substructures for cold dark matter halos. In addition, we find comparable levels of gamma-ray emission from CR interactions and dark matter annihilations without Sommerfeld enhancement.

  17. A New View of the High Energy Gamma-Ray Sky with the Ferrni Gamma-Ray Space Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McEnery, Julie

    2009-01-01

    Following its launch in June 2008, high energy gamma-ray observations by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have opened a new and important window on a wide variety of phenomena, including pulsars, black holes and active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, supernova remnants and the origin of cosmic rays, and searches for hypothetical new phenomena such as super symmetric dark matter annihilations. In this talk I will describe the current status of the Fermi observatory and review the science highlights from the first year of observations.

  18. Fermi: The Gamma-Ray Large Area Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McEnery, Julie

    2015-01-01

    Following its launch in June 2008, high-energy gamma-ray observations by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have unveiled over 1000 new sources and opened an important and previously unexplored window on a wide variety of phenomena. These have included the discovery of an population of pulsars pulsing only in gamma rays; the detection of photons up to 10s of GeV from gamma-ray bursts, enhancing our understanding of the astrophysics of these powerful explosions; the detection of hundreds of active galaxies; a measurement of the high energy cosmic-ray electron spectrum which may imply the presence of nearby astrophysical particle accelerators; the determination of the diffuse gamma-ray emission with unprecedented accuracy and the constraints on phenomena such as supersymmetric dark-matter annihilations and exotic relics from the Big Bang. Continuous monitoring of the high-energy gamma-ray sky has uncovered numerous outbursts from active galaxies and the discovery of transient sources in our galaxy. In this talk I will describe the current status of the Fermi observatory and review the science highlights from Fermi.

  19. Fermi: The Gamma-Ray Large Area Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McEnery, Julie

    2014-01-01

    Following its launch in June 2008, high-energy gamma-ray observations by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have unveiled over 1000 new sources and opened an important and previously unexplored window on a wide variety of phenomena. These have included the discovery of an population of pulsars pulsing only in gamma rays; the detection of photons up to 10 seconds of gigaelectronvolts from gamma-ray bursts, enhancing our understanding of the astrophysics of these powerful explosions; the detection of hundreds of active galaxies; a measurement of the high energy cosmic-ray electron spectrum which may imply the presence of nearby astrophysical particle accelerators; the determination of the diffuse gamma-ray emission with unprecedented accuracy and the constraints on phenomena such as super-symmetric dark-matter annihilations and exotic relics from the Big Bang. Continuous monitoring of the high-energy gamma-ray sky has uncovered numerous outbursts from active galaxies and the discovery of transient sources in our galaxy. In this talk I will describe the current status of the Fermi observatory and review the science highlights from Fermi.

  20. Gamma Ray Bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gehrels, Neil; Meszaros, Peter

    2012-01-01

    Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are bright flashes of gamma-rays coming from the cosmos. They occur roughly once per day ,last typically lOs of seconds and are the most luminous events in the universe. More than three decades after their discovery, and after pioneering advances from space and ground experiments, they still remain mysterious. The launch of the Swift and Fermi satellites in 2004 and 2008 brought in a trove of qualitatively new data. In this review we survey the interplay between these recent observations and the theoretical models of the prompt GRB emission and the subsequent afterglows.

  1. Discoveries by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gehrels, Neil

    2011-01-01

    Fermi is a large space gamma-ray mission developed by NASA and the DOE with major contributions from France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Sweden. It was launched in June 2008 and has been performing flawlessly since then. The main instrument is the Large Area Telescope (LAT) operating in the 20 MeV to 300 GeV range and a smaller monitor instrument is the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) operating in the 8 keV to 40 MeV range. New findings are occurring every week. Some of the key discoveries are: 1) Discovery of many new gamma-ray pulsars, including gamma-ray only and millisecond pulsars. 2) Detection of high energy gamma-ray emission from globular clusters, most likely due to summed emission from msec pulsars. 3) Discovery of delayed and extended high energy gamma-ray emission from short and long gamma-ray busts. 4) Detection of approximately 250 gamma-ray bursts per year with the GBM instrument. 5) Most accurate measurement of the cosmic ray electron spectrum between 30 GeV and 1 TeV, showing some excess above the conventional diffusion model. The talk will present the new discoveries and their implications.

  2. Six Years of Monitoring of the Sgr B2 Molecular Cloud with INTEGRAL

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Terrier, R.; Bélanger, G.; Ponti, G.; Trap, G.; Goldwurm, A.; Decourchelle, A.

    2009-05-01

    Several molecular clouds around the Galactic Centre (GC) emit strong neutral iron fluorescence line at 6.4 keV, as well as hard X-ray emission up to 100 keV. The origin of this emission has long been a matter of controversy: irradiation by low energy cosmic ray electrons or X-rays emitted by a nearby flaring source in the central region. A recent evidence for time variability in the iron line intensity that has been detected in the Sgr B2 cloud favors the reflexion scenario. We present here the data obtained after 6 years of INTEGRAL monitoring of the GC. In particular, we show a lightcurve of Sgr B2 that reveals a decrease in the hard X-ray flux over the last years and discuss its implications. We finally discuss perspectives with Simbol-X.

  3. High-frequency VLBI Imaging of Sgr A* and VX Sgr

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lu, R.-S.; Krichbaum, T. P.; Zensus, A. J.

    VLBI observations at millimeter wavelengths provide unprecedented high angular resolution and allow to image regions, which are self-absorbed at longer wavelengths. Here we present new results from a multi-frequency VLBA monitoring of SgrA* at 22, 43, and 86 GHz performed on 10 consecutive days in May 2007. We discuss the source structure of Sgr A* through the analysis of the closure phase and closure amplitude, of which the latter improves the calibration accuracy and shows indications of a non-Gaussian brightness distribution at the highest frequency. We also present preliminary maps of the maser emission lines (v=1, J=1-0, and J=2-1) in the circumstellar SiO maser of VX Sgr. This will put new constraints on the kinematics and the pumping mechanisms of SiO masers.

  4. Gamma Rays at Very High Energies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aharonian, Felix

    This chapter presents the elaborated lecture notes on Gamma Rays at Very High Energies given by Felix Aharonian at the 40th Saas-Fee Advanced Course on "Astrophysics at Very High Energies". Any coherent description and interpretation of phenomena related to gammarays requires deep knowledge of many disciplines of physics like nuclear and particle physics, quantum and classical electrodynamics, special and general relativity, plasma physics, magnetohydrodynamics, etc. After giving an introduction to gamma-ray astronomy the author discusses the astrophysical potential of ground-based detectors, radiation mechanisms, supernova remnants and origin of the galactic cosmic rays, TeV emission of young supernova remnants, gamma-emission from the Galactic center, pulsars, pulsar winds, pulsar wind nebulae, and gamma-ray loud binaries.

  5. GREEN BANK TELESCOPE AND SWIFT X-RAY TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS OF THE GALACTIC CENTER RADIO MAGNETAR SGR J1745–2900

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lynch, Ryan S.; Archibald, Robert F.; Kaspi, Victoria M.

    We present results from eight months of Green Bank Telescope 8.7 GHz observations and nearly 18 months of Swift X-ray telescope observations of the radio magnetar SGR J1745–2900. We tracked the radio and X-ray flux density, polarization properties, profile evolution, rotation, and single-pulse behavior. We identified two main periods of activity. The first is characterized by approximately 5.5 months of relatively stable evolution in radio flux density, rotation, and profile shape, while in the second these properties varied substantially. Specifically, a third profile component emerged and the radio flux also became more variable. The single pulse properties also changed, mostmore » notably with a larger fraction of pulses with pulse widths ∼5–20 ms in the erratic state. Bright single pulses are well described by a log-normal energy distribution at low energies, but with an excess at high energies. The 2–10 keV flux decayed steadily since the initial X-ray outburst, while the radio flux remained stable to within ∼20% during the stable state. A joint pulsar timing analysis of the radio and X-ray data shows a level of timing noise unprecedented in a radio magnetar, though during the time covered by the radio data alone the timing noise was at a level similar to that observed in other radio magnetars. While SGR J1745–2900 is similar to other radio magnetars in many regards, it differs by having experienced a period of relative stability in the radio that now appears to have ended, while the X-ray properties evolved independently.« less

  6. Future Facilities for Gamma-Ray Pulsar Studies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, D. J.

    2003-01-01

    Pulsars seen at gamma-ray energies offer insight into particle acceleration to very high energies, along with information about the geometry and interaction processes in the magnetospheres of these rotating neutron stars. During the next decade, a number of new gamma-ray facilities will become available for pulsar studies. This brief review describes the motivation for gamma-ray pulsar studies, the opportunities for such studies, and some specific discussion of the capabilities of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT) for pulsar measurements.

  7. Quasi-periodic oscillations in short recurring bursts of magnetars SGR 1806–20 and SGR 1900+14 observed with RXTE

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Huppenkothen, D.; Heil, L. M.; Watts, A. L.

    2014-11-10

    Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) observed in the giant flares of magnetars are of particular interest due to their potential to open up a window into the neutron star interior via neutron star asteroseismology. However, only three giant flares have been observed. We therefore make use of the much larger data set of shorter, less energetic recurrent bursts. Here, we report on a search for QPOs in a large data set of bursts from the two most burst-active magnetars, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14, observed with Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. We find a single detection in an averaged periodogram comprising 30 burstsmore » from SGR 1806–20, with a frequency of 57 Hz and a width of 5 Hz, remarkably similar to a giant flare QPO observed from SGR 1900+14. This QPO fits naturally within the framework of global magneto-elastic torsional oscillations employed to explain giant flare QPOs. Additionally, we uncover a limit on the applicability of Fourier analysis for light curves with low background count rates and strong variability on short timescales. In this regime, standard Fourier methodology and more sophisticated Fourier analyses fail in equal parts by yielding an unacceptably large number of false-positive detections. This problem is not straightforward to solve in the Fourier domain. Instead, we show how simulations of light curves can offer a viable solution for QPO searches in these light curves.« less

  8. Understanding Sgr A* with PIC Simulations of Particle Acceleration in Magnetic Reconnection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ozel, Feryal

    2017-09-01

    Sgr A* has been the subject of intense observational studies with Chandra. In the proposed work, we will investigate magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in low-luminosity black hole accretion flows using a combination of GRMHD and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. We will use the PIC simulations to understand how particles are accelerated when magnetic energy is dissipated and quantify the resulting electron energy distributions. Incorporating the results of the microphysical studies into the global simulations of Sgr A*, we will investigate the origin of the intense X-ray flares observed with Chandra. We will also study how these processes affect the 1.3 mm image size in preparation for the upcoming simultaneous Chandra and EHT observations of Sgr A*.

  9. Cosmological gamma-ray bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Paczynski, Bohdan

    1991-01-01

    The distribution in angle and flux of gamma-ray bursts indicates that the majority of gamma-ray bursters are at cosmological distances, i.e., at z of about 1. The rate is then about 10 exp -8/yr in a galaxy like the Milky Way, i.e., orders of magnitude lower than the estimated rate for collisions between neutron stars in close binary systems. The energy per burst is about 10 exp 51 ergs, assuming isotropic emission. The events appear to be less energetic and more frequent if their emission is strongly beamed. Some tests for the distance scale are discussed: a correlation between the burst's strength and its spectrum; the absorption by the Galactic gas below about 2 keV; the X-ray tails caused by forward scattering by the Galactic dust; about 1 month recurrence of some bursts caused by gravitational lensing by foreground galaxies; and a search for gamma-ray bursts in M31. The bursts appear to be a manifestation of something exotic, but conventional compact objects can provide an explanation. The best possibility is offered by a decay of a bindary composed of a spinning-stellar-mass black-hole primary and a neutron or a strange-quark star secondary. In the final phase the secondary is tidally disrupted, forms an accretion disk, and up to 10 exp 54 ergs are released. A very small fraction of this energy powers the gamma-ray burst.

  10. NuSTAR HARD X-RAY SURVEY OF THE GALACTIC CENTER REGION. I. HARD X-RAY MORPHOLOGY AND SPECTROSCOPY OF THE DIFFUSE EMISSION

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mori, Kaya; Hailey, Charles J.; Perez, Kerstin

    2015-12-01

    We present the first sub-arcminute images of the Galactic Center above 10 keV, obtained with NuSTAR. NuSTAR resolves the hard X-ray source IGR J17456–2901 into non-thermal X-ray filaments, molecular clouds, point sources, and a previously unknown central component of hard X-ray emission (CHXE). NuSTAR detects four non-thermal X-ray filaments, extending the detection of their power-law spectra with Γ ∼ 1.3–2.3 up to ∼50 keV. A morphological and spectral study of the filaments suggests that their origin may be heterogeneous, where previous studies suggested a common origin in young pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). NuSTAR detects non-thermal X-ray continuum emission spatially correlated with the 6.4more » keV Fe Kα fluorescence line emission associated with two Sgr A molecular clouds: MC1 and the Bridge. Broadband X-ray spectral analysis with a Monte-Carlo based X-ray reflection model self-consistently determined their intrinsic column density (∼10{sup 23} cm{sup −2}), primary X-ray spectra (power-laws with Γ ∼ 2) and set a lower limit of the X-ray luminosity of Sgr A* flare illuminating the Sgr A clouds to L{sub X} ≳ 10{sup 38} erg s{sup −1}. Above ∼20 keV, hard X-ray emission in the central 10 pc region around Sgr A* consists of the candidate PWN G359.95–0.04 and the CHXE, possibly resulting from an unresolved population of massive CVs with white dwarf masses M{sub WD} ∼ 0.9 M{sub ⊙}. Spectral energy distribution analysis suggests that G359.95–0.04 is likely the hard X-ray counterpart of the ultra-high gamma-ray source HESS J1745–290, strongly favoring a leptonic origin of the GC TeV emission.« less

  11. Significance of medium energy gamma ray astronomy in the study of cosmic rays

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fichtel, C. E.; Kniffen, D. A.; Thompson, D. J.; Bignami, G. F.; Cheung, C. Y.

    1975-01-01

    Medium energy (about 10 to 30 MeV) gamma ray astronomy provides information on the product of the galactic electron cosmic ray intensity and the galactic matter to which the electrons are dynamically coupled by the magnetic field. Because high energy (greater than 100 MeV) gamma ray astronomy provides analogous information for the nucleonic cosmic rays and the relevant matter, a comparison between high energy and medium energy gamma ray intensities provides a direct ratio of the cosmic ray electrons and nucleons throughout the galaxy. A calculation of gamma ray production by electron bremsstrahlung shows that: bremsstrahlung energy loss is probably not negligible over the lifetime of the electrons in the galaxy; and the approximate bremsstrahlung calculation often used previously overestimates the gamma ray intensity by about a factor of two. As a specific example, expected medium energy gamma ray intensities are calculated for the speral arm model.

  12. Nuclear gamma rays from energetic particle interactions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ramaty, R.; Kozlovsky, B.; Lingenfelter, R. E.

    1978-01-01

    Gamma ray line emission from nuclear deexcitation following energetic particle reactions is evaluated. The compiled nuclear data and the calculated gamma ray spectra and intensities can be used for the study of astrophysical sites which contain large fluxes of energetic protons and nuclei. A detailed evaluation of gamma ray line production in the interstellar medium is made.

  13. Fermi gamma-ray imaging of a radio galaxy.

    PubMed

    Abdo, A A; Ackermann, M; Ajello, M; Atwood, W B; Baldini, L; Ballet, J; Barbiellini, G; Bastieri, D; Baughman, B M; Bechtol, K; Bellazzini, R; Berenji, B; Blandford, R D; Bloom, E D; Bonamente, E; Borgland, A W; Bregeon, J; Brez, A; Brigida, M; Bruel, P; Burnett, T H; Buson, S; Caliandro, G A; Cameron, R A; Caraveo, P A; Casandjian, J M; Cavazzuti, E; Cecchi, C; Celik, O; Chekhtman, A; Cheung, C C; Chiang, J; Ciprini, S; Claus, R; Cohen-Tanugi, J; Colafrancesco, S; Cominsky, L R; Conrad, J; Costamante, L; Cutini, S; Davis, D S; Dermer, C D; de Angelis, A; de Palma, F; Digel, S W; do Couto e Silva, E; Drell, P S; Dubois, R; Dumora, D; Farnier, C; Favuzzi, C; Fegan, S J; Finke, J; Focke, W B; Fortin, P; Fukazawa, Y; Funk, S; Fusco, P; Gargano, F; Gasparrini, D; Gehrels, N; Georganopoulos, M; Germani, S; Giebels, B; Giglietto, N; Giordano, F; Giroletti, M; Glanzman, T; Godfrey, G; Grenier, I A; Grove, J E; Guillemot, L; Guiriec, S; Hanabata, Y; Harding, A K; Hayashida, M; Hays, E; Hughes, R E; Jackson, M S; Jóhannesson, G; Johnson, A S; Johnson, T J; Johnson, W N; Kamae, T; Katagiri, H; Kataoka, J; Kawai, N; Kerr, M; Knödlseder, J; Kocian, M L; Kuss, M; Lande, J; Latronico, L; Lemoine-Goumard, M; Longo, F; Loparco, F; Lott, B; Lovellette, M N; Lubrano, P; Madejski, G M; Makeev, A; Mazziotta, M N; McConville, W; McEnery, J E; Meurer, C; Michelson, P F; Mitthumsiri, W; Mizuno, T; Moiseev, A A; Monte, C; Monzani, M E; Morselli, A; Moskalenko, I V; Murgia, S; Nolan, P L; Norris, J P; Nuss, E; Ohsugi, T; Omodei, N; Orlando, E; Ormes, J F; Paneque, D; Parent, D; Pelassa, V; Pepe, M; Pesce-Rollins, M; Piron, F; Porter, T A; Rainò, S; Rando, R; Razzano, M; Razzaque, S; Reimer, A; Reimer, O; Reposeur, T; Ritz, S; Rochester, L S; Rodriguez, A Y; Romani, R W; Roth, M; Ryde, F; Sadrozinski, H F-W; Sambruna, R; Sanchez, D; Sander, A; Saz Parkinson, P M; Scargle, J D; Sgrò, C; Siskind, E J; Smith, D A; Smith, P D; Spandre, G; Spinelli, P; Starck, J-L; Stawarz, Ł; Strickman, M S; Suson, D J; Tajima, H; Takahashi, H; Takahashi, T; Tanaka, T; Thayer, J B; Thayer, J G; Thompson, D J; Tibaldo, L; Torres, D F; Tosti, G; Tramacere, A; Uchiyama, Y; Usher, T L; Vasileiou, V; Vilchez, N; Vitale, V; Waite, A P; Wallace, E; Wang, P; Winer, B L; Wood, K S; Ylinen, T; Ziegler, M; Hardcastle, M J; Kazanas, D

    2010-05-07

    The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected the gamma-ray glow emanating from the giant radio lobes of the radio galaxy Centaurus A. The resolved gamma-ray image shows the lobes clearly separated from the central active source. In contrast to all other active galaxies detected so far in high-energy gamma-rays, the lobe flux constitutes a considerable portion (greater than one-half) of the total source emission. The gamma-ray emission from the lobes is interpreted as inverse Compton-scattered relic radiation from the cosmic microwave background, with additional contribution at higher energies from the infrared-to-optical extragalactic background light. These measurements provide gamma-ray constraints on the magnetic field and particle energy content in radio galaxy lobes, as well as a promising method to probe the cosmic relic photon fields.

  14. Gamma-400 Science Objectives Built on the Current HE Gamma-Ray and CR Results

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moiseev, Alexander; Mitchell, John; Thompson, David

    2012-01-01

    The main scientific interest of the Russian Gamma-400 team: Observe gamma-rays above approximately 50 GeV with excellent energy and angular resolution with the goals of: (1) Studying the fine spectral structure of the isotropic high-energy gamma-radiation, (2) Attempting to identify the many still-unidentified Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sources. Gamma-400 will likely be the only space-based gamma-ray observatory operating at the end of the decade. In our proposed Gamma-400-LE version, it will substantially improve upon the capabilities of Fermi LAT and AGILE in both LE and HE energy range. Measuring gamma-rays from approx 20 MeV to approx 1 TeV for at least 7 years, Gamma-400-LE will address the topics of dark matter, cosmic ray origin and propagation, neutron stars, flaring pulsars, black holes, AGNs, GRBs, and actively participate in multiwavelength campaigns.

  15. The Gamma-Ray Albedo of the Moon

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Moskalenko, I.V.; /Stanford U., HEPL /KIPAC, Menlo Park; Porter, T.A.

    2008-03-25

    We use the GEANT4 Monte Carlo framework to calculate the {gamma}-ray albedo of the Moon due to interactions of cosmic ray (CR) nuclei with moon rock. Our calculation of the albedo spectrum agrees with the EGRET data. We show that the spectrum of {gamma}-rays from the Moon is very steep with an effective cutoff around 3-4 GeV (600 MeV for the inner part of the Moon disk) and exhibits a narrow pion-decay line at 67.5 MeV, perhaps unique in astrophysics. Apart from other astrophysical sources, the albedo spectrum of the Moon is well understood, including its absolute normalization; this makesmore » it a useful 'standard candle' for {gamma}-ray telescopes. The steep albedo spectrum also provides a unique opportunity for energy calibration of {gamma}-ray telescopes, such as the forthcoming Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). Since the albedo flux depends on the incident CR spectrum which changes over the solar cycle, it is possible to monitor the CR spectrum using the albedo {gamma}-ray flux. Simultaneous measurements of CR proton and helium spectra by the Payload for Antimatter-Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics (PAMELA), and observations of the albedo {gamma}-rays by the GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT), can be used to test the model predictions and will enable the LAT to monitor the CR spectrum near the Earth beyond the lifetime of the PAMELA.« less

  16. The Gamma-ray Albedo of the Moon

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Moskalenko, Igor V.; /Stanford U., HEPL; Porter, Troy A.

    2007-09-28

    We use the GEANT4 Monte Carlo framework to calculate the {gamma}-ray albedo of the Moon due to interactions of cosmic ray (CR) nuclei with moon rock. Our calculation of the albedo spectrum agrees with the EGRET data. We show that the spectrum of {gamma}-rays from the Moon is very steep with an effective cutoff around 3-4 GeV (600 MeV for the inner part of the Moon disk) and exhibits a narrow pion-decay line at 67.5 MeV, perhaps unique in astrophysics. Apart from other astrophysical sources, the albedo spectrum of the Moon is well understood, including its absolute normalization; this makesmore » it a useful 'standard candle' for {gamma}-ray telescopes. The steep albedo spectrum also provides a unique opportunity for energy calibration of {gamma}-ray telescopes, such as the forthcoming Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). Since the albedo flux depends on the incident CR spectrum which changes over the solar cycle, it is possible to monitor the CR spectrum using the albedo {gamma}-ray flux. Simultaneous measurements of CR proton and helium spectra by the Payload for Antimatter-Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics (PAMELA), and observations of the albedo {gamma}-rays by the GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT), can be used to test the model predictions and will enable the LAT to monitor the CR spectrum near the Earth beyond the lifetime of the PAMELA.« less

  17. Observational techniques for solar flare gamma-rays, hard X-rays, and neutrons

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lin, Robert P.

    1989-01-01

    The development of new instrumentation and techniques for solar hard X-ray, gamma ray and neutron observations from spacecraft and/or balloon-borne platforms is examined. The principal accomplishments are: (1) the development of a two segment germanium detector which is near ideal for solar hard X-ray and gamma ray spectroscopy; (2) the development of long duration balloon flight techniques and associated instrumentation; and (3) the development of innovative new position sensitive detectors for hard X-ray and gamma rays.

  18. X-Ray Observations of Magnetar SGR 0501+4516 from Outburst to Quiescence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mong, Y.-L.; Ng, C.-Y.

    2018-01-01

    Magnetars are neutron stars having extreme magnetic field strengths. Study of their emission properties in quiescent state can help understand effects of a strong magnetic field on neutron stars. SGR 0501+4516 is a magnetar that was discovered in 2008 during an outburst, which has recently returned to quiescence. We report its spectral and timing properties measured with new and archival observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, XMM-Newton, and Suzaku. We found that the quiescent spectrum is best fit by a power-law plus two blackbody model, with temperatures of kT low ∼ 0.26 keV and kT high ∼ 0.62 keV. We interpret these two blackbody components as emission from a hotspot and the entire surface. The hotspot radius shrunk from 1.4 km to 0.49 km since the outburst, and there was a significant correlation between its area and the X-ray luminosity, which agrees well with the prediction by the twisted magnetosphere model. We applied the two-temperature spectral model to all magnetars in quiescence and found that it could be a common feature among the population. Moreover, the temperature of the cooler blackbody shows a general trend with the magnetar field strength, which supports the simple scenario of heating by magnetic field decay.

  19. Gamma-ray transfer and energy deposition in supernovae

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Swartz, Douglas A.; Sutherland, Peter G.; Harkness, Robert P.

    1995-01-01

    Solutions to the energy-independent (gray) radiative transfer equations are compared to results of Monte Carlo simulations of the Ni-56 and Co-56 decay gamma-ray energy deposition in supernovae. The comparison shows that an effective, purely absorptive, gray opacity, kappa(sub gamma) approximately (0. 06 +/- 0.01)Y(sub e) sq cm/g, where Y is the total number of electrons per baryon, accurately describes the interaction of gamma-rays with the cool supernova gas and the local gamma-ray energy deposition within the gas. The nature of the gamma-ray interaction process (dominated by Compton scattering in the relativistic regime) creates a weak dependence of kappa(sub gamma) on the optical thickness of the (spherically symmetric) supernova atmosphere: The maximum value of kappa(sub gamma) applies during optically thick conditions when individual gamma-rays undergo multiple scattering encounters and the lower bound is reached at the phase characterized by a total Thomson optical depth to the center of the atmosphere tau(sub e) approximately less than 1. Gamma-ray deposition for Type Ia supernova models to within 10% for the epoch from maximum light to t = 1200 days. Our results quantitatively confirm that the quick and efficient solution to the gray transfer problem provides an accurate representation of gamma-ray energy deposition for a broad range of supernova conditions.

  20. NEAR Gamma Ray Spectrometer Characterization and Repair

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Groves, Joel Lee; Vajda, Stefan

    1998-01-01

    This report covers the work completed in the third year of the contract. The principle activities during this period were (1) the characterization of the NEAR 2 Gamma Ray Spectrometer using a neutron generator to generate complex gamma ray spectra and a large Ge Detecter to identify all the major peaks in the spectra; (2) the evaluation and repair of the Engineering Model Unit of the Gamma Ray Spectrometer for the NEAR mission; (3) the investigation of polycapillary x-ray optics for x-ray detection; and (4) technology transfer from NASA to forensic science.

  1. Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marisaldi, Martino; Fuschino, Fabio; Labanti, Claudio; Tavani, Marco; Argan, Andrea; Del Monte, Ettore; Longo, Francesco; Barbiellini, Guido; Giuliani, Andrea; Trois, Alessio; Bulgarelli, Andrea; Gianotti, Fulvio; Trifoglio, Massimo

    2013-08-01

    Lightning and thunderstorm systems in general have been recently recognized as powerful particle accelerators, capable of producing electrons, positrons, gamma-rays and neutrons with energies as high as several tens of MeV. In fact, these natural systems turn out to be the highest energy and most efficient natural particle accelerators on Earth. Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) are millisecond long, very intense bursts of gamma-rays and are one of the most intriguing manifestation of these natural accelerators. Only three currently operative missions are capable of detecting TGFs from space: the RHESSI, Fermi and AGILE satellites. In this paper we review the characteristics of TGFs, including energy spectrum, timing structure, beam geometry and correlation with lightning, and the basic principles of the associated production models. Then we focus on the recent AGILE discoveries concerning the high energy extension of the TGF spectrum up to 100 MeV, which is difficult to reconcile with current theoretical models.

  2. Flares from Galactic Centre pulsars: a new class of X-ray transients?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Giannios, Dimitrios; Lorimer, Duncan R.

    2016-06-01

    Despite intensive searches, the only pulsar within 0.1 pc of the central black hole in our Galaxy, Sgr A*, is a radio-loud magnetar. Since magnetars are rare among the Galactic neutron star population, and a large number of massive stars are already known in this region, the Galactic Centre (GC) should harbour a large number of neutron stars. Population syntheses suggest several thousand neutron stars may be present in the GC. Many of these could be highly energetic millisecond pulsars which are also proposed to be responsible for the GC gamma-ray excess. We propose that the presence of a neutron star within 0.03 pc from Sgr A* can be revealed by the shock interactions with the disc around the central black hole. As we demonstrate, these interactions result in observable transient non-thermal X-ray and gamma-ray emission over time-scales of months, provided that the spin-down luminosity of the neutron star is Lsd ˜ 1035 erg s-1. Current limits on the population of normal and millisecond pulsars in the GC region suggest that a number of such pulsars are present with such luminosities.

  3. The supernova-gamma-ray burst-jet connection.

    PubMed

    Hjorth, Jens

    2013-06-13

    The observed association between supernovae and gamma-ray bursts represents a cornerstone in our understanding of the nature of gamma-ray bursts. The collapsar model provides a theoretical framework for this connection. A key element is the launch of a bipolar jet (seen as a gamma-ray burst). The resulting hot cocoon disrupts the star, whereas the (56)Ni produced gives rise to radioactive heating of the ejecta, seen as a supernova. In this discussion paper, I summarize the observational status of the supernova-gamma-ray burst connection in the context of the 'engine' picture of jet-driven supernovae and highlight SN 2012bz/GRB 120422A--with its luminous supernova but intermediate high-energy luminosity--as a possible transition object between low-luminosity and jet gamma-ray bursts. The jet channel for supernova explosions may provide new insights into supernova explosions in general.

  4. Search for medium-energy gamma-ray pulsars

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sweeney, W.E. Jr.

    1987-01-01

    Results are presented from a search for pulsed gamma rays from four radio pulsars, chosen for their interest to gamma-ray astronomers in previous studies. The data set used for the search consists of gamma-ray events at energies of 1-30 MeV, detected during a 40-hour balloon flight of the UCR double Compton scatter telescope launched at the National Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, USA on September 30, 1978. No statistically significant signals were detected from any of the pulsars. Three sigma upper limits to pulsed 1-30 MeV gamma ray flux from PSR 0950+08, PSR 1822+09, PSR 1929+10, and PSR 1953+29more » are presented. Two complete exposures to PSR 0950+08 were obtained. The reported tentative detection of 1-20 MeV gamma rays from PSR 0950+08 is not confirmed.« less

  5. Gamma-Ray Astrophysics: New Insight Into the Universe

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fichtel, Carl E.; Trombka, Jacob I.

    1997-01-01

    During the 15 years that have passed since the first edition of this book was published, there has been a major increase in our knowledge of gamma-ray astronomy. Much of this advance arises from the extensive results that have been forthcoming from the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. There has been the discovery of a new class of gamma-ray objects, namely high-energy gamma- ray-emitting blazars, a special class of Active Galactic Nuclei, whose basic high-energy properties now seem to be understood. A much improved picture of our galaxy now exists in the frequency range of gamma rays. The question of whether cosmic rays are galactic or metagalactic now seems settled with certainty. Significant new information exists on the gamma-ray properties of neutron star pulsars, Seyfert galaxies, and gamma-ray bursts. Substantial new insight has been obtained on solar phenomena through gamma-ray observations. Hence, this seemed to be an appropriate time to write a new edition of this book to add the important scientific implications of these many new findings. The special importance of gamma-ray astrophysics had long been recognized by many physicists and astronomers, and theorists had pursued many aspects of the subject well before the experimental results began to become available. The slower development of the experimental side was not because of a lack of incentive, but due to the substantial experimental difficulties that had to be overcome. Thus, as the gamma-ray results became available in much greater number and detail, it was possible to build upon the theoretical work that already existed and to make substantial progress in the study of many of the phenomena involved. Consequently, a much better understanding of many of the astrophysical phenomena mentioned here and others is now possible. Our principal aims in writing this book are the same as they were for the first edition: to provide a text which describes the significance of gamma-ray astrophysics and to assemble

  6. X-Ray and Radio Observations of the Magnetar SGR J1935+2154 during Its 2014, 2015, and 2016 Outbursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Younes, George; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Jaodand, Amruta; Baring, Matthew G.; van der Horst, Alexander J.; Harding, Alice K.; Hessels, Jason W. T.; Gehrels, Neil; Gill, Ramandeep; Huppenkothen, Daniela; Granot, Jonathan; Göğüş, Ersin; Lin, Lin

    2017-10-01

    We analyzed broadband X-ray and radio data of the magnetar SGR J1935+2154 taken in the aftermath of its 2014, 2015, and 2016 outbursts. The source soft X-ray spectrum <10 keV is well described with a blackbody+power-law (BB+PL) or 2BB model during all three outbursts. Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array observations revealed a hard X-ray tail, with a PL photon index Γ = 0.9, extending up to 50 keV, with flux comparable to the one detected <10 keV. Imaging analysis of Chandra data did not reveal small-scale extended emission around the source. Following the outbursts, the total 0.5-10 keV flux from SGR J1935+2154 increased in concordance to its bursting activity, with the flux at activation onset increasing by a factor of ˜7 following its strongest 2016 June outburst. A Swift/X-Ray Telescope observation taken 1.5 days prior to the onset of this outburst showed a flux level consistent with quiescence. We show that the flux increase is due to the PL or hot BB component, which increased by a factor of 25 compared to quiescence, while the cold BB component kT = 0.47 keV remained more or less constant. The 2014 and 2015 outbursts decayed quasi-exponentially with timescales of ˜40 days, while the stronger 2016 May and June outbursts showed a quick short-term decay with timescales of about four days. Our Arecibo radio observations set the deepest limits on the radio emission from a magnetar, with a maximum flux density limit of 14 μJy for the 4.6 GHz observations and 7 μJy for the 1.4 GHz observations. We discuss these results in the framework of the current magnetar theoretical models.

  7. Study of the gamma-ray spectrum from the Galactic Center in view of multi-TeV dark matter candidates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Belikov, Alexander V.; Zaharijas, Gabrijela; Silk, Joseph

    2012-10-01

    Motivated by the complex gamma-ray spectrum of the Galactic Center source now measured over five decades in energy, we revisit the issue of the role of dark matter (DM) annihilations in this interesting region. We reassess whether the emission measured by the HESS collaboration could be a signature of dark matter annihilation, and we use the Fermi LAT spectrum to model the emission from SgrA*, using power-law spectral fits. We find that good fits are achieved by a power law with an index ˜2.5-2.6, in combination with a spectrum similar to the one observed from pulsar population and with a spectrum from a ≳10TeV DM annihilating to a mixture of bb¯ and harder τ+τ- channels and with boost factors of the order of a hundred. Alternatively, we also consider the combination of a log-parabola fit with the DM contribution. Finally, as both the spectrum of gamma rays from the Galactic Center and the spectrum of cosmic ray electrons exhibit a cutoff at TeV energies, we study the dark matter fits to both data sets. Constraining the spectral shape of the purported dark matter signal provides a robust way of comparing data. We find a marginal overlap only between the 99.999% C.L. regions in parameter space.

  8. Gamma ray energy tracking in GRETINA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, I. Y.

    2011-10-01

    The next generation of stable and exotic beam accelerators will provide physics opportunities to study nuclei farther away from the line of stability. However, these experiments will be more demanding on instrumentation performance. These come from the lower production rate for more exotic beams, worse beam impurities, and large beam velocity from the fragmentation and inverse reactions. Gamma-ray spectroscopy will be one of the most effective tools to study exotic nuclei. However, to fully exploit the physics reach provided by these new facilities, better gamma-ray detector will be needed. In the last 10 years, a new concept, gamma-ray energy tracking array, was developed. Tracking arrays will increase the detection sensitivity by factors of several hundred compared to current arrays used in nuclear physics research. Particularly, the capability of reconstructing the position of the interaction with millimeters resolution is needed to correct the Doppler broadening of gamma rays emitted from high velocity nuclei. GRETINA is a gamma-ray tracking array which uses 28 Ge crystals, each with 36 segments, to cover ¼ of the 4 π of the 4 π solid angle. The gamma ray tracking technique requires detailed pulse shape information from each of the segments. These pulses are digitized using 14-bit 100 MHz flash ADCs, and digital signal analysis algorithms implemented in the on-board FPGAs provides energy, time and selection of pulse traces. A digital trigger system, provided flexible trigger functions including a fast trigger output, and also allows complicated trigger decisions to be made up to 20 microseconds. Further analyzed, carried out in a computer cluster, determine the energy, time, and three-dimensional positions of all gamma-ray interactions in the array. This information is then utilized, together with the characteristics of Compton scattering and pair-production processes, to track the scattering sequences of the gamma rays. GRETINA construction is completed in

  9. Possible Detection of Gamma Ray Air Showers in Coincidence with BATSE Gamma Ray Bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lin, Tzu-Fen

    1999-08-01

    Project GRAND presents the results of a search for coincident high-energy gamma ray events in the direction and at the time of nine Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) detected by BATSE. A gamma ray has a non-negligible hadron production cross section; for each gamma ray of energy of 100 GeV, there are 0.015 muons which reach detection level (Fasso & Poirier, 1999). These muons are identified and their angles are measured in stations of eight planes of proportional wire chambers (PWCs). A 50 mm steel plate above the bottom pair of planes is used to distinguish muons from electrons. The mean angular resolution is 0.26o over a ± 61o range in the XZ and YZ planes. The BATSE GRB catalogue is examined for bursts which are near zenith for Project GRAND. The geometrical acceptance is calculated for each of these events. The product is then taken of the GRB flux and GRANDÕs geometrical acceptance. The nine sources with the best combination of detection efficiency and BATSEÕs intensity are selected to be examined in the data. The most significant detection of these nine sources is at a statistical significance of +3.7s; this is also the GRB with the highest product of GRB flux and geometrical acceptance.

  10. SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF GAMMA-RAY-BRIGHT BLAZARS WITH OPTICAL POLARIZATION AND GAMMA-RAY VARIABILITY

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Itoh, Ryosuke; Fukazawa, Yasushi; Kanda, Yuka

    Blazars are highly variable active galactic nuclei that emit radiation at all wavelengths from radio to gamma rays. Polarized radiation from blazars is one key piece of evidence for synchrotron radiation at low energies, and it also varies dramatically. The polarization of blazars is of interest for understanding the origin, confinement, and propagation of jets. However, even though numerous measurements have been performed, the mechanisms behind jet creation, composition, and variability are still debated. We performed simultaneous gamma-ray and optical photopolarimetry observations of 45 blazars between 2008 July and 2014 December to investigate the mechanisms of variability and search formore » a basic relation between the several subclasses of blazars. We identify a correlation between the maximum degree of optical linear polarization and the gamma-ray luminosity or the ratio of gamma-ray to optical fluxes. Since the maximum polarization degree depends on the condition of the magnetic field (chaotic or ordered), this result implies a systematic difference in the intrinsic alignment of magnetic fields in parsec-scale relativistic jets between different types of blazars (flat-spectrum radio quasars vs. BL Lacs) and consequently between different types of radio galaxies (FR I versus FR II).« less

  11. Solar Gamma Rays Above 8 MeV

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Crannell, C. J.; Crannell, H.; Ramaty, R.

    1978-01-01

    Processes which lead to the production of gamma rays with energy greater than 8 MeV in solar flares are reviewed and evaluated. Excited states produced by inelastic scattering, charge exchange, and spallation reactions in the abundant nuclear species are considered in order to identify nuclear lines which may contribute to the Gamma ray spectrum of solar flares. The flux of 15.11 MeV Gamma rays relative to the flux of 4.44 MeV Gamma rays from the de-excitation of the corresponding states in C12 is calculated for a number of assumed distributions of exciting particles. This flux ratio is a sensitive diagnostic of accelerated particle spectra. Other high energy nuclear levels are not so isolated as the 15.11 MeV state and are not expected to be so strong. The spectrum of Gamma rays from the decay of Pi dey is sensitive to the energy distribution of particles accelerated to energies greater than 100 MeV.

  12. Gamma ray constraints on the Galactic supernova rate

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hartmann, D.; The, L.-S.; Clayton, Donald D.; Leising, M.; Mathews, G.; Woosley, S. E.

    1991-01-01

    We perform Monte Carlo simulations of the expected gamma ray signatures of Galactic supernovae of all types to estimate the significance of the lack of a gamma ray signal due to supernovae occurring during the last millenium. Using recent estimates of the nuclear yields, we determine mean Galactic supernova rates consistent with the historic supernova record and the gamma ray limits. Another objective of these calculations of Galactic supernova histories is their application to surveys of diffuse Galactic gamma ray line emission.

  13. Gamma ray constraints on the galactic supernova rate

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hartmann, D.; The, L.-S.; Clayton, D. D.; Leising, M.; Mathews, G.; Woosley, S. E.

    1992-01-01

    Monte Carlo simulations of the expected gamma-ray signatures of galactic supernovae of all types are performed in order to estimate the significance of the lack of a gamma-ray signal due to supernovae occurring during the last millenium. Using recent estimates of nuclear yields, we determine galactic supernova rates consistent with the historic supernova record and the gamma-ray limits. Another objective of these calculations of galactic supernova histories is their application to surveys of diffuse galactic gamma-ray line emission.

  14. Superconducting High Energy Resolution Gamma-ray Spectrometers

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chow, D T

    2002-02-22

    We have demonstrated that a bulk absorber coupled to a TES can serve as a good gamma-ray spectrometer. Our measured energy resolution of 70 eV at 60 keV is among the best measurements in this field. We have also shown excellent agreement between the noise predictions and measured noise. Despite this good result, we noted that our detector design has shortcomings with a low count rate and vulnerabilities with the linearity of energy response. We addressed these issues by implementation of an active negative feedback bias. We demonstrated the effects of active bias such as additional pulse shortening, reduction ofmore » TES change in temperature during a pulse, and linearization of energy response at low energy. Linearization at higher energy is possible with optimized heat capacities and thermal conductivities of the microcalorimeter. However, the current fabrication process has low control and repeatability over the thermal properties. Thus, optimization of the detector performance is difficult until the fabrication process is improved. Currently, several efforts are underway to better control the fabrication of our gamma-ray spectrometers. We are developing a full-wafer process to produce TES films. We are investigating the thermal conductivity and surface roughness of thicker SiN membranes. We are exploring alternative methods to couple the absorber to the TES film for reproducibility. We are also optimizing the thermal conductivities within the detector to minimize two-element phonon noise. We are experimenting with different absorber materials to optimize absorption efficiency and heat capacity. We are also working on minimizing Johnson noise from the E S shunt and SQUID amplifier noise. We have shown that our performance, noise, and active bias models agree very well with measured data from several microcalorimeters. Once the fabrication improvements have been implemented, we have no doubt that our gamma-ray spectrometer will achieve even more spectacular

  15. Telescope for x ray and gamma ray studies in astrophysics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Weaver, W. D.; Desai, Upendra D.

    1993-01-01

    Imaging of x-rays has been achieved by various methods in astrophysics, nuclear physics, medicine, and material science. A new method for imaging x-ray and gamma-ray sources avoids the limitations of previously used imaging devices. Images are formed in optical wavelengths by using mirrors or lenses to reflect and refract the incoming photons. High energy x-ray and gamma-ray photons cannot be reflected except at grazing angles and pass through lenses without being refracted. Therefore, different methods must be used to image x-ray and gamma-ray sources. Techniques using total absorption, or shadow casting, can provide images in x-rays and gamma-rays. This new method uses a coder made of a pair of Fresnel zone plates and a detector consisting of a matrix of CsI scintillators and photodiodes. The Fresnel zone plates produce Moire patterns when illuminated by an off-axis source. These Moire patterns are deconvolved using a stepped sine wave fitting or an inverse Fourier transform. This type of coder provides the capability of an instantaneous image with sub-arcminute resolution while using a detector with only a coarse position-sensitivity. A matrix of the CsI/photodiode detector elements provides the necessary coarse position-sensitivity. The CsI/photodiode detector also allows good energy resolution. This imaging system provides advantages over previously used imaging devices in both performance and efficiency.

  16. The GAMMA Ray Sky as Seen by Fermi: Opening a New Window on the High Energy Space Environment

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-01-01

    pulsars , stars whose repeating emissions can be used as ultra-precise chronometers. Measurement of gamma radiation provides unique insight...diffuse glow are a number of bright point sources, mostly gamma ray pulsars — rotating, magnetized neutron stars — as discussed below. The bright sources...important early discoveries of Fermi have been from objects in our galaxy. The LAT has discovered 12 new pulsars that seem to be visible only in gamma

  17. Effects of Correlated and Uncorrelated Gamma Rays on Neutron Multiplicity Counting

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Cowles, Christian C.; Behling, Richard S.; Imel, George R.

    Neutron multiplicity counting relies on time correlation between neutron events to assay the fissile mass, (α,n) to spontaneous fission neutron ratio, and neutron self-multiplication of samples. Gamma-ray sensitive neutron multiplicity counters may misidentify gamma rays as neutrons and therefore miscalculate sample characteristics. Time correlated and uncorrelated gamma-ray-like signals were added into gamma-ray free neutron multiplicity counter data to examine the effects of gamma ray signals being misidentified as neutron signals on assaying sample characteristics. Multiplicity counter measurements with and without gamma-ray-like signals were compared to determine the assay error associated with gamma-ray-like signals at various gamma-ray and neutron rates. Correlatedmore » and uncorrelated gamma-ray signals each produced consistent but different measurement errors. Correlated gamma-ray signals most strongly led to fissile mass overestimates, whereas uncorrelated gamma-ray signals most strongly lead to (α,n) neutron overestimates. Gamma-ray sensitive neutron multiplicity counters may be able to account for the effects of gamma-rays on measurements to mitigate measurement uncertainties.« less

  18. Fermi: The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McEnery, Julie

    2014-01-01

    Following its launch in June 2008, high-energy gamma-ray observations by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have unveiled over 1000 new sources and opened an important and previously unexplored window on a wide variety of phenomena. These have included the discovery of an population of pulsars pulsing only in gamma rays; the detection of photons up to 10s of GeV from gamma-ray bursts, enhancing our understanding of the astrophysics of these powerful explosions; the detection of hundreds of active galaxies; a measurement of the high energy cosmic-ray electron spectrum which may imply the presence of nearby astrophysical particle accelerators; the determination of the diffuse gamma-ray emission with unprecedented accuracy and the constraints on phenomena such as supersymmetric dark-matter annihilations and exotic relics from the Big Bang. Continuous monitoring of the high-energy gamma-ray sky has uncovered numerous outbursts from active galaxies and the discovery of transient sources in our galaxy. In this talk I will describe the current status of the Fermi observatory and review the science highlights from Fermi.

  19. Stellar Photon Archaeology with Gamma-Rays

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stecker, Floyd W.

    2009-01-01

    Ongoing deep surveys of galaxy luminosity distribution functions, spectral energy distributions and backwards evolution models of star formation rates can be used to calculate the past history of intergalactic photon densities and, from them, the present and past optical depth of the Universe to gamma-rays from pair production interactions with these photons. The energy-redshift dependence of the optical depth of the Universe to gamma-rays has become known as the Fazio-Stecker relation (Fazio & Stecker 1970). Stecker, Malkan & Scully have calculated the densities of intergalactic background light (IBL) photons of energies from 0.03 eV to the Lyman limit at 13.6 eV and for 0$ < z < $6, using deep survey galaxy observations from Spitzer, Hubble and GALEX and have consequently predicted spectral absorption features for extragalactic gamma-ray sources. This procedure can also be reversed. Determining the cutoff energies of gamma-ray sources with known redshifts using the recently launched Fermi gamma-ray space telescope may enable a more precise determination of the IBL photon densities in the past, i.e., the "archaeo-IBL.", and therefore allow a better measure of the past history of the total star formation rate, including that from galaxies too faint to be observed.

  20. Gamma-ray luminosity and photon index evolution of FSRQ blazars and contribution to the gamma-ray background

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Singal, J.; Ko, A.; Petrosian, V., E-mail: jsingal@richmond.edu

    We present the redshift evolutions and distributions of the gamma-ray luminosity and photon spectral index of flat spectrum radio quasar (FSRQ) type blazars, using non-parametric methods to obtain the evolutions and distributions directly from the data. The sample we use for analysis consists of almost all FSRQs observed with a greater than approximately 7σ detection threshold in the first-year catalog of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope's Large Area Telescope, with redshifts as determined from optical spectroscopy by Shaw et al. We find that FSQRs undergo rapid gamma-ray luminosity evolution, but negligible photon index evolution, with redshift. With these evolutions accountedmore » for we determine the density evolution and luminosity function of FSRQs and calculate their total contribution to the extragalactic gamma-ray background radiation, resolved and unresolved, which is found to be 16(+10/–4)%, in agreement with previous studies.« less

  1. The Goddard program of gamma ray transient astronomy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cline, T. L.; Desai, U. D.; Teegarden, B. J.

    1980-01-01

    Gamma ray burst studies are reviewed. The past results, present status and future expectations are outlined regarding endeavors using experiments on balloons, IMP-6 and -7, OGO-3, ISEE-1 and -3, Helios-2, Solar Maximum Mission, the Einstein Observatory, Solar Polar and the Gamma Ray Observatory, and with the interplanetary gamma ray burst networks, to which some of these spacecraft sensors contribute. Additional emphasis is given to the recent discovery of a new type of gamma ray transient, detected on 1979 March 5.

  2. The BATSE experiment on the Gamma Ray Observatory: Solar flare hard x ray and gamma-ray capabilities

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fishman, G. J.; Meegan, C. A.; Wilson, R. B.; Parnell, T. A.; Paciesas, W. S.; Pendleton, G. N.; Hudson, H. S.; Matteson, J. L.; Peterson, L. E.; Cline, T. L.

    1989-01-01

    The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) for the Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) consists of eight detector modules that provide full-sky coverage for gamma-ray bursts and other transient phenomena such as solar flares. Each detector module has a thin, large-area scintillation detector (2025 sq cm) for high time-resolution studies, and a thicker spectroscopy detector (125 sq cm) to extend the energy range and provide better spectral resolution. The total energy range of the system is 15 keV to 100 MeV. These 16 detectors and the associated onboard data system should provide unprecedented capabilities for observing rapid spectral changes and gamma-ray lines from solar flares. The presence of a solar flare can be detected in real-time by BATSE; a trigger signal is sent to two other experiments on the GRO. The launch of the GRO is scheduled for June 1990, so that BATSE can be an important component of the Max '91 campaign.

  3. Pulsed high-energy gamma rays from PSR 1055-52

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fierro, J. M.; Bertsch, D. L.; Brazier, K. T.; Chiang, J.; D'Amico, N.; Fichtel, C. E.; Hartman, R. C.; Hunter, S. D.; Johnston, S.; Kanbach, G.

    1993-01-01

    The Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory has detected a high-energy gamma-ray source at a position coincident with that of the radio pulsar PSR 1055-52. Analysis of the EGRET data at the radio pulsar period of 197 ms has revealed pulsed gamma-radiation at energies above 300 MeV, making PSR 1055-52 the fifth detected high-energy gamma-ray pulsar. The pulsed radiation from PSR 1055-52 has a very hard photon spectral index of -1.18 +/- 0.16 and a high efficiency for converting its rotational energy into gamma-rays. No unpulsed emission was observed.

  4. Bright x-ray flares in gamma-ray burst afterglows.

    PubMed

    Burrows, D N; Romano, P; Falcone, A; Kobayashi, S; Zhang, B; Moretti, A; O'brien, P T; Goad, M R; Campana, S; Page, K L; Angelini, L; Barthelmy, S; Beardmore, A P; Capalbi, M; Chincarini, G; Cummings, J; Cusumano, G; Fox, D; Giommi, P; Hill, J E; Kennea, J A; Krimm, H; Mangano, V; Marshall, F; Mészáros, P; Morris, D C; Nousek, J A; Osborne, J P; Pagani, C; Perri, M; Tagliaferri, G; Wells, A A; Woosley, S; Gehrels, N

    2005-09-16

    Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows have provided important clues to the nature of these massive explosive events, providing direct information on the nearby environment and indirect information on the central engine that powers the burst. We report the discovery of two bright x-ray flares in GRB afterglows, including a giant flare comparable in total energy to the burst itself, each peaking minutes after the burst. These strong, rapid x-ray flares imply that the central engines of the bursts have long periods of activity, with strong internal shocks continuing for hundreds of seconds after the gamma-ray emission has ended.

  5. Gamma-Ray "Raindrops" from Flaring Blazar

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-12-08

    This visualization shows gamma rays detected during 3C 279's big flare by the LAT instrument on NASA's Fermi satellite. Gamma rays are represented as expanding circles reminiscent of raindrops on water. The flare is an abrupt shower of "rain" that trails off toward the end of the movie. Both the maximum size of the circle and its color represent the energy of the gamma ray, with white lowest and magenta highest. In a second version of the visualization, a background map shows how the LAT detects 3C 279 and other sources by accumulating high-energy photons over time (brighter squares reflect higher numbers of gamma rays). The movie starts on June 14 and ends June 17. The area shown is a region of the sky five degrees on a side and centered on the position of 3C 279. Read more: go.nasa.gov/1TqximF Credits: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

  6. Polarization of the prompt gamma-ray emission from the gamma-ray burst of 6 December 2002.

    PubMed

    Coburn, Wayne; Boggs, Steven E

    2003-05-22

    Observations of the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have revealed that they lie at cosmological distances, and so correspond to the release of an enormous amount of energy. The nature of the central engine that powers these events and the prompt gamma-ray emission mechanism itself remain enigmatic because, once a relativistic fireball is created, the physics of the afterglow is insensitive to the nature of the progenitor. Here we report the discovery of linear polarization in the prompt gamma-ray emission from GRB021206, which indicates that it is synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons in a strong magnetic field. The polarization is at the theoretical maximum, which requires a uniform, large-scale magnetic field over the gamma-ray emission region. A large-scale magnetic field constrains possible progenitors to those either having or producing organized fields. We suggest that the large magnetic energy densities in the progenitor environment (comparable to the kinetic energy densities of the fireball), combined with the large-scale structure of the field, indicate that magnetic fields drive the GRB explosion.

  7. Sizing up the population of gamma-ray binaries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dubus, Guillaume; Guillard, Nicolas; Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier; Martin, Pierrick

    2017-12-01

    Context. Gamma-ray binaries are thought to be composed of a young pulsar in orbit around a massive O or Be star with their gamma-ray emission powered by pulsar spin-down. The number of such systems in our Galaxy is not known. Aims: We aim to estimate the total number of gamma-ray binaries in our Galaxy and to evaluate the prospects for new detections in the GeV and TeV energy range, taking into account that their gamma-ray emission is modulated on the orbital period. Methods: We modelled the population of gamma-ray binaries and evaluated the fraction of detected systems in surveys with the Fermi-LAT (GeV), H.E.S.S., HAWC and CTA (TeV) using observation-based and synthetic template light curves. Results: The detected fraction depends more on the orbit-average flux than on the light-curve shape. Our best estimate for the number of gamma-ray binaries is 101-52+89 systems. A handful of discoveries are expected by pursuing the Fermi-LAT survey. Discoveries in TeV surveys are less likely. However, this depends on the relative amounts of power emitted in GeV and TeV domains. There could be as many as ≈ 200 HESS J0632+057-like systems with a high ratio of TeV to GeV emission compared to other gamma-ray binaries. Statistics allow for as many as three discoveries in five years of HAWC observations and five discoveries in the first two years of the CTA Galactic Plane survey. Conclusions: We favour continued Fermi-LAT observations over ground-based TeV surveys to find new gamma-ray binaries. Gamma-ray observations are most sensitive to short orbital period systems with a high spin-down pulsar power. Radio pulsar surveys (SKA) are likely to be more efficient in detecting long orbital period systems, providing a complementary probe into the gamma-ray binary population.

  8. Analysis of Data from the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kniffen, Donald A.; Elliott, William W.

    1999-01-01

    The final report consists of summaries of work proposed, work accomplished, papers and presentations published and continuing work regarding the cooperative agreement. The work under the agreement is based on high energy gamma ray source data analysis collected from the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET).

  9. Status of GRMHD simulations and radiative models of Sgr A*

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mościbrodzka, Monika

    2017-01-01

    The Galactic center is a perfect laboratory for testing various theoretical models of accretion flows onto a supermassive black hole. Here, I review general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations that were used to model emission from the central object - Sgr A*. These models predict dynamical and radiative properties of hot, magnetized, thick accretion disks with jets around a Kerr black hole. Models are compared to radio-VLBI, mm-VLBI, NIR, and X-ray observations of Sgr A*. I present the recent constrains on the free parameters of the model such as accretion rate onto the black hole, the black hole angular momentum, and orientation of the system with respect to our line of sight.

  10. Prompt optical emission from gamma-ray bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kehoe, Robert; Akerlof, Karl; Balsano, Richard; Barthelmy, Scott; Bloch, Jeff; Butterworth, Paul; Casperson, Don; Cline, Tom; Fletcher, Sandra; Frontera, Fillippo; Gisler, Galen; Heise, John; Hills, Jack; Hurley, Kevin; Lee, Brian; Marshall, Stuart; McKay, Tim; Pawl, Andrew; Piro, Luigi; Priedhorsky, Bill; Szymanski, John; Wren, Jim

    The Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) seeks to measure contemporaneous and early afterglow optical emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The ROTSE-I telescope array has been fully automated and responding to burst alerts from the GRB Coordinates Network since March 1998, taking prompt optical data for 30 bursts in its first year. We will briefly review observations of GRB990123 which revealed the first detection of an optical burst occurring during the gamma-ray emission, reaching 9th magnitude at its peak. In addition, we present here preliminary optical results for seven other gamma-ray bursts. No other optical counterparts were seen in this analysis, and the best limiting senisitivities are mV > 13.0 at 14.7 seconds after the gamma-ray rise, and mmV > 16.4 at 62 minutes. These are the most stringent limits obtained for GRB optical counterpart brightness in the first hour after the burst. This analysis suggests that there is not a strong correlation between optical flux and gamma-ray emission.

  11. IR observations in gamma-ray blazars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mahoney, W. A.; Gautier, T. N.; Ressler, M. E.; Wallyn, P.; Durouchoux, P.; Higdon, J. C.

    1997-01-01

    The infrared photometric and spectral observation of five gamma ray blazars in coordination with the energetic gamma ray experiment telescope (EGRET) onboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory is reported. The infrared measurements were made with a Cassegrain infrared camera and the mid-infrared large well imager at the Mt. Palomar 5 m telescope. The emphasis is on the three blazars observed simultaneously by EGRET and the ground-based telescope during viewing period 519. In addition to the acquisition of broadband spectral measurements for direct correlation with the 100 MeV EGRET observations, near infrared images were obtained, enabling a search for intra-day variability to be carried out.

  12. Gamma ray spectroscopy in astrophysics: Solar gamma ray astronomy on solar maximum mission. [experimental design

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Forrest, D. J.

    1978-01-01

    The SMM gamma ray experiment and the important scientific capabilities of the instrument are discussed. The flare size detectable as a function of spectrum integration time was studied. A preliminary estimate indicates that a solar gamma ray line at 4.4 MeV one-fifth the intensity of that believed to have been emitted on 4 August 1972 can be detected in approximately 1000 sec with a confidence level of 99%.

  13. LUMINOSITY EVOLUTION OF GAMMA-RAY PULSARS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hirotani, Kouichi, E-mail: hirotani@tiara.sinica.edu.tw

    2013-04-01

    We investigate the electrodynamic structure of a pulsar outer-magnetospheric particle accelerator and the resulting gamma-ray emission. By considering the condition for the accelerator to be self-sustained, we derive how the trans-magnetic-field thickness of the accelerator evolves with the pulsar age. It is found that the thickness is small but increases steadily if the neutron-star envelope is contaminated by sufficient light elements. For such a light element envelope, the gamma-ray luminosity of the accelerator is kept approximately constant as a function of age in the initial 10,000 yr, forming the lower bound of the observed distribution of the gamma-ray luminosity ofmore » rotation-powered pulsars. If the envelope consists of only heavy elements, on the other hand, the thickness is greater, but it increases less rapidly than a light element envelope. For such a heavy element envelope, the gamma-ray luminosity decreases relatively rapidly, forming the upper bound of the observed distribution. The gamma-ray luminosity of a general pulsar resides between these two extreme cases, reflecting the envelope composition and the magnetic inclination angle with respect to the rotation axis. The cutoff energy of the primary curvature emission is regulated below several GeV even for young pulsars because the gap thickness, and hence the acceleration electric field, is suppressed by the polarization of the produced pairs.« less

  14. Implications for the Origin of GRB 051103 from LIGO Observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abadie, J.; Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, T. D.; Abbott, R.; Abernathy, M.; Adams, C.; Adhikari, R.; Affeldt, C.; Ajith, P.; Allen, B.; Allen, G. S.; Amador Ceron, E.; Amariutei, D.; Amin, R. S.; Anderson, S. B.; Anderson, W. G.; Arai, K.; Arain, M. A.; Araya, M. C.; Aston, S. M.; Atkinson, D.; Aufmuth, P.; Aulbert, C.; Aylott, B. E.; Babak, S.; Baker, P.; Ballmer, S.; Barker, D.; Barnum, S.; Barr, B.; Barriga, P.; Barsotti, L.; Barton, M. A.; Bartos, I.; Bassiri, R.; Bastarrika, M.; Bauchrowitz, J.; Behnke, B.; Bell, A. S.; Belopolski, I.; Benacquista, M.; Bertolini, A.; Betzwieser, J.; Beveridge, N.; Beyersdorf, P. T.; Bilenko, I. A.; Billingsley, G.; Birch, J.; Biswas, R.; Black, E.; Blackburn, J. K.; Blackburn, L.; Blair, D.; Bland, B.; Bock, O.; Bodiya, T. P.; Bogan, C.; Bondarescu, R.; Bork, R.; Born, M.; Bose, S.; Boyle, M.; Brady, P. R.; Braginsky, V. B.; Brau, J. E.; Breyer, J.; Bridges, D. O.; Brinkmann, M.; Britzger, M.; Brooks, A. F.; Brown, D. A.; Brummitt, A.; Buonanno, A.; Burguet-Castell, J.; Burmeister, O.; Byer, R. L.; Cadonati, L.; Camp, J. B.; Campsie, P.; Cannizzo, J.; Cannon, K.; Cao, J.; Capano, C.; Caride, S.; Caudill, S.; Cavaglia, M.; Cepeda, C.; Chalermsongsak, T.; Chalkley, E.; Charlton, P.; Chelkowski, S.; Chen, Y.; Christensen, N.; Chua, S. S. Y.; Chung, S.; Chung, C. T. Y.; Clara, F.; Clark, D.; Clark, J.; Clayton, J. H.; Conte, R.; Cook, D.; Corbitt, T. R. C.; Cornish, N.; Costa, C. A.; Coughlin, M.; Coward, D. M.; Coyne, D. C.; Creighton, J. D. E.; Creighton, T. D.; Cruise, A. M.; Cumming, A.; Cunningham, L.; Culter, R. M.; Dahl, K.; Danilishin, S. L.; Dannenberg, R.; Danzmann, K.; Das, K.; Daudert, B.; Daveloza, H.; Davies, G.; Daw, E. J.; Dayanga, T.; DeBra, D.; Degallaix, J.; Dent, T.; Dergachev, V.; DeRosa, R.; DeSalvo, R.; Dhurandhar, S.; Di Palma, I.; Díaz, M.; Donovan, F.; Dooley, K. L.; Dorsher, S.; Douglas, E. S. D.; Drever, R. W. P.; Driggers, J. C.; Dumas, J.-C.; Dwyer, S.; Eberle, T.; Edgar, M.; Edwards, M.; Effler, A.; Ehrens, P.; Engel, R.; Etzel, T.; Evans, M.; Evans, T.; Factourovich, M.; Fairhurst, S.; Fan, Y.; Farr, B. F.; Fazi, D.; Fehrmann, H.; Feldbaum, D.; Finn, L. S.; Flanigan, M.; Foley, S.; Forsi, E.; Fotopoulos, N.; Frede, M.; Frei, M.; Frei, Z.; Freise, A.; Frey, R.; Fricke, T. T.; Friedrich, D.; Fritschel, P.; Frolov, V. V.; Fulda, P.; Fyffe, M.; Garcia, J.; Garofoli, J. A.; Gholami, I.; Ghosh, S.; Giaime, J. A.; Giampanis, S.; Giardina, K. D.; Gill, C.; Goetz, E.; Goggin, L. M.; González, G.; Gorodetsky, M. L.; Goßler, S.; Graef, C.; Grant, A.; Gras, S.; Gray, C.; Greenhalgh, R. J. S.; Gretarsson, A. M.; Grosso, R.; Grote, H.; Grunewald, S.; Guido, C.; Gupta, R.; Gustafson, E. K.; Gustafson, R.; Hage, B.; Hallam, J. M.; Hammer, D.; Hammond, G.; Hanks, J.; Hanna, C.; Hanson, J.; Harms, J.; Harry, G. M.; Harry, I. W.; Harstad, E. D.; Hartman, M. T.; Haughian, K.; Hayama, K.; Heefner, J.; Hendry, M. A.; Heng, I. S.; Heptonstall, A. W.; Herrera, V.; Hewitson, M.; Hild, S.; Hoak, D.; Hodge, K. A.; Holt, K.; Hong, T.; Hooper, S.; Hosken, D. J.; Hough, J.; Howell, E. J.; Hughey, B.; Husa, S.; Huttner, S. H.; Ingram, D. R.; Inta, R.; Isogai, T.; Ivanov, A.; Johnson, W. W.; Jones, D. I.; Jones, G.; Jones, R.; Ju, L.; Kalmus, P.; Kalogera, V.; Kandhasamy, S.; Kanner, J. B.; Katsavounidis, E.; Katzman, W.; Kawabe, K.; Kawamura, S.; Kawazoe, F.; Kells, W.; Kelner, M.; Keppel, D. G.; Khalaidovski, A.; Khalili, F. Y.; Khazanov, E. A.; Kim, N.; Kim, H.; King, P. J.; Kinzel, D. L.; Kissel, J. S.; Klimenko, S.; Kondrashov, V.; Kopparapu, R.; Koranda, S.; Korth, W. Z.; Kozak, D.; Kringel, V.; Krishnamurthy, S.; Krishnan, B.; Kuehn, G.; Kumar, R.; Kwee, P.; Landry, M.; Lantz, B.; Lastzka, N.; Lazzarini, A.; Leaci, P.; Leong, J.; Leonor, I.; Li, J.; Lindquist, P. E.; Lockerbie, N. A.; Lodhia, D.; Lormand, M.; Lu, P.; Luan, J.; Lubinski, M.; Lück, H.; Lundgren, A. P.; Macdonald, E.; Machenschalk, B.; MacInnis, M.; Mageswaran, M.; Mailand, K.; Mandel, I.; Mandic, V.; Marandi, A.; Márka, S.; Márka, Z.; Maros, E.; Martin, I. W.; Martin, R. M.; Marx, J. N.; Mason, K.; Matichard, F.; Matone, L.; Matzner, R. A.; Mavalvala, N.; McCarthy, R.; McClelland, D. E.; McGuire, S. C.; McIntyre, G.; McIver, J.; McKechan, D. J. A.; Meadors, G.; Mehmet, M.; Meier, T.; Melatos, A.; Melissinos, A. C.; Mendell, G.; Mercer, R. A.; Meshkov, S.; Messenger, C.; Meyer, M. S.; Miao, H.; Miller, J.; Mino, Y.; Mitrofanov, V. P.; Mitselmakher, G.; Mittleman, R.; Miyakawa, O.; Moe, B.; Moesta, P.; Mohanty, S. D.; Moraru, D.; Moreno, G.; Mossavi, K.; Mow-Lowry, C. M.; Mueller, G.; Mukherjee, S.; Mullavey, A.; Müller-Ebhardt, H.; Munch, J.; Murphy, D.; Murray, P. G.; Nash, T.; Nawrodt, R.; Nelson, J.; Newton, G.; Nishizawa, A.; Nolting, D.; Nuttall, L.; O'Reilly, B.; O'Shaughnessy, R.; Ochsner, E.; O'Dell, J.; Ogin, G. H.; Oldenburg, R. G.; Osthelder, C.; Ott, C. D.; Ottaway, D. J.; Ottens, R. S.; Overmier, H.; Owen, B. J.; Page, A.; Pan, Y.; Pankow, C.; Papa, M. A.; Patel, P.; Pedraza, M.; Pekowsky, L.; Penn, S.; Peralta, C.; Perreca, A.; Phelps, M.; Pickenpack, M.; Pinto, I. M.; Pitkin, M.; Pletsch, H. J.; Plissi, M. V.; Podkaminer, J.; Pöld, J.; Postiglione, F.; Predoi, V.; Price, L. R.; Prijatelj, M.; Principe, M.; Privitera, S.; Prix, R.; Prokhorov, L.; Puncken, O.; Quetschke, V.; Raab, F. J.; Radkins, H.; Raffai, P.; Rakhmanov, M.; Ramet, C. R.; Rankins, B.; Mohapatra, S. R. P.; Raymond, V.; Redwine, K.; Reed, C. M.; Reed, T.; Reid, S.; Reitze, D. H.; Riesen, R.; Riles, K.; Roberts, P.; Robertson, N. A.; Robinson, C.; Robinson, E. L.; Roddy, S.; Rollins, J.; Romano, J. D.; Romie, J. H.; Röver, C.; Rowan, S.; Rüdiger, A.; Ryan, K.; Sakata, S.; Sakosky, M.; Salemi, F.; Salit, M.; Sammut, L.; Sancho de la Jordana, L.; Sandberg, V.; Sannibale, V.; Santamaría, L.; Santiago-Prieto, I.; Santostasi, G.; Saraf, S.; Sathyaprakash, B. S.; Sato, S.; Saulson, P. R.; Savage, R.; Schilling, R.; Schlamminger, S.; Schnabel, R.; Schofield, R. M. S.; Schulz, B.; Schutz, B. F.; Schwinberg, P.; Scott, J.; Scott, S. M.; Searle, A. C.; Seifert, F.; Sellers, D.; Sengupta, A. S.; Sergeev, A.; Shaddock, D. A.; Shaltev, M.; Shapiro, B.; Shawhan, P.; Shihan Weerathunga, T.; Shoemaker, D. H.; Sibley, A.; Siemens, X.; Sigg, D.; Singer, A.; Singer, L.; Sintes, A. M.; Skelton, G.; Slagmolen, B. J. J.; Slutsky, J.; Smith, R.; Smith, J. R.; Smith, M. R.; Smith, N. D.; Somiya, K.; Sorazu, B.; Soto, J.; Speirits, F. C.; Stein, A. J.; Steinlechner, J.; Steinlechner, S.; Steplewski, S.; Stefszky, M.; Stochino, A.; Stone, R.; Strain, K. A.; Strigin, S.; Stroeer, A. S.; Stuver, A. L.; Summerscales, T. Z.; Sung, M.; Susmithan, S.; Sutton, P. J.; Szokoly, G. P.; Talukder, D.; Tanner, D. B.; Tarabrin, S. P.; Taylor, J. R.; Taylor, R.; Thomas, P.; Thorne, K. A.; Thorne, K. S.; Thrane, E.; Thüring, A.; Tokmakov, K. V.; Torres, C.; Torrie, C. I.; Traylor, G.; Trias, M.; Tseng, K.; Ugolini, D.; Urbanek, K.; Vahlbruch, H.; Vaishnav, B.; Vallisneri, M.; Van Den Broeck, C.; van der Sluys, M. V.; van Veggel, A. A.; Vass, S.; Vaulin, R.; Vecchio, A.; Veitch, J.; Veitch, P. J.; Veltkamp, C.; Villar, A. E.; Vorvick, C.; Vyachanin, S. P.; Waldman, S. J.; Wallace, L.; Wanner, A.; Ward, R. L.; Wei, P.; Weinert, M.; Weinstein, A. J.; Weiss, R.; Wen, L.; Wen, S.; Wessels, P.; West, M.; Westphal, T.; Wette, K.; Whelan, J. T.; Whitcomb, S. E.; White, D.; Whiting, B. F.; Wilkinson, C.; Willems, P. A.; Williams, H. R.; Williams, L.; Willke, B.; Winkelmann, L.; Winkler, W.; Wipf, C. C.; Wiseman, A. G.; Woan, G.; Wooley, R.; Worden, J.; Yablon, J.; Yakushin, I.; Yamamoto, K.; Yamamoto, H.; Yang, H.; Yeaton-Massey, D.; Yoshida, S.; Yu, P.; Zanolin, M.; Zhang, L.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, C.; Zotov, N.; Zucker, M. E.; Zweizig, J.; LIGO Collaboration; Bizouard, M. A.; Dietz, A.; Guidi, G. M.; Was, M.

    2012-08-01

    We present the results of a LIGO search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with GRB 051103, a short-duration hard-spectrum gamma-ray burst (GRB) whose electromagnetically determined sky position is coincident with the spiral galaxy M81, which is 3.6 Mpc from Earth. Possible progenitors for short-hard GRBs include compact object mergers and soft gamma repeater (SGR) giant flares. A merger progenitor would produce a characteristic GW signal that should be detectable at a distance of M81, while GW emission from an SGR is not expected to be detectable at that distance. We found no evidence of a GW signal associated with GRB 051103. Assuming weakly beamed γ-ray emission with a jet semi-angle of 30°, we exclude a binary neutron star merger in M81 as the progenitor with a confidence of 98%. Neutron star-black hole mergers are excluded with >99% confidence. If the event occurred in M81, then our findings support the hypothesis that GRB 051103 was due to an SGR giant flare, making it one of the most distant extragalactic magnetars observed to date.

  15. Gamma-Ray Telescopes: 400 Years of Astronomical Telescopes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gehrels, Neil; Cannizzo, John K.

    2010-01-01

    The last half-century has seen dramatic developments in gamma-ray telescopes, from their initial conception and development through to their blossoming into full maturity as a potent research tool in astronomy. Gamma-ray telescopes are leading research in diverse areas such as gamma-ray bursts, blazars, Galactic transients, and the Galactic distribution of Al-26.

  16. Tycho's Star Shines in Gamma Rays

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-12-08

    NASA image relase December 13, 2011 Gamma-rays detected by Fermi's LAT show that the remnant of Tycho's supernova shines in the highest-energy form of light. This portrait of the shattered star includes gamma rays (magenta), X-rays (yellow, green, and blue), infrared (red) and optical data. Credit: Gamma ray, NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration; X-ray, NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared, NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical, MPIA, Calar Alto, O. Krause et al. and DSS To read more go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/tycho-star.html NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

  17. Technology Needs for Gamma Ray Astronomy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gehrels, Neil

    2011-01-01

    Gamma ray astronomy is currently in an exciting period of multiple missions and a wealth of data. Results from INTEGRAL, Fermi, AGILE, Suzaku and Swift are making large contributions to our knowledge of high energy processes in the universe. The advances are due to new detector and imaging technologies. The steps to date have been from scintillators to solid state detectors for sensors and from light buckets to coded aperture masks and pair telescopes for imagers. A key direction for the future is toward focusing telescopes pushing into the hard X-ray regime and Compton telescopes and pair telescopes with fine spatial resolution for medium and high energy gamma rays. These technologies will provide finer imaging of gamma-ray sources. Importantly, they will also enable large steps forward in sensitivity by reducing background.

  18. The EGRET high energy gamma ray telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hartman, R. C.; Bertsch, D. L.; Fichtel, C. E.; Hunter, S. D.; Kanbach, G.; Kniffen, D. A.; Kwok, P. W.; Lin, Y. C.; Mattox, J. R.; Mayer-Hasselwander, H. A.

    1992-01-01

    The Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) is sensitive in the energy range from about 20 MeV to about 30,000 MeV. Electron-positron pair production by incident gamma photons is utilized as the detection mechanism. The pair production occurs in tantalum foils interleaved with the layers of a digital spark chamber system; the spark chamber records the tracks of the electron and positron, allowing the reconstruction of the arrival direction of the gamma ray. If there is no signal from the charged particle anticoincidence detector which surrounds the upper part of the detector, the spark chamber array is triggered by two hodoscopes of plastic scintillators. A time of flight requirement is included to reject events moving backward through the telescope. The energy of the gamma ray is primarily determined by absorption of the energies of the electron and positron in a 20 cm deep NaI(Tl) scintillator.

  19. The EGRET high energy gamma ray telescope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hartman, R. C.; Bertsch, D. L.; Fichtel, C. E.; Hunter, S. D.; Kanbach, G.; Kniffen, D. A.; Kwok, P. W.; Lin, Y. C.; Mattox, J. R.; Mayer-Hasselwander, H. A.; Michelson, P. F.; von Montigny, C.; Nolan, P. L.; Pinkau, K.; Rothermel, H.; Schneid, E.; Sommer, M.; Sreekumar, P.; Thompson, D. J.

    1992-02-01

    The Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) is sensitive in the energy range from about 20 MeV to about 30,000 MeV. Electron-positron pair production by incident gamma photons is utilized as the detection mechanism. The pair production occurs in tantalum foils interleaved with the layers of a digital spark chamber system; the spark chamber records the tracks of the electron and positron, allowing the reconstruction of the arrival direction of the gamma ray. If there is no signal from the charged particle anticoincidence detector which surrounds the upper part of the detector, the spark chamber array is triggered by two hodoscopes of plastic scintillators. A time of flight requirement is included to reject events moving backward through the telescope. The energy of the gamma ray is primarily determined by absorption of the energies of the electron and positron in a 20 cm deep NaI(Tl) scintillator.

  20. Prompt Optical Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akerlof, Carl; Balsano, Richard; Barthelmy, Scott; Bloch, Jeff; Butterworth, Paul; Casperson, Don; Cline, Tom; Fletcher, Sandra; Frontera, Fillippo; Gisler, Galen; Heise, John; Hills, Jack; Hurley, Kevin; Kehoe, Robert; Lee, Brian; Marshall, Stuart; McKay, Tim; Pawl, Andrew; Piro, Luigi; Szymanski, John; Wren, Jim

    2000-03-01

    The Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) seeks to measure simultaneous and early afterglow optical emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). A search for optical counterparts to six GRBs with localization errors of 1 deg2 or better produced no detections. The earliest limiting sensitivity is mROTSE>13.1 at 10.85 s (5 s exposure) after the gamma-ray rise, and the best limit is mROTSE>16.0 at 62 minutes (897 s exposure). These are the most stringent limits obtained for the GRB optical counterpart brightness in the first hour after the burst. Consideration of the gamma-ray fluence and peak flux for these bursts and for GRB 990123 indicates that there is not a strong positive correlation between optical flux and gamma-ray emission.

  1. Research in cosmic and gamma ray astrophysics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stone, E. C.; Davis, L., Jr.; Mewaldt, R. A.; Prince, T. A.

    1989-01-01

    Research activities in cosmic rays, gamma rays, and astrophysical plasmas are covered. The activities are divided into sections and described, followed by a bibliography. The astrophysical aspects of cosmic rays, gamma rays, and of the radiation and electromagnetic field environment of the Earth and other planets are investigated. These investigations are performed by means of energetic particle and photon detector systems flown on spacecraft and balloons.

  2. Solar X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Imaging Spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dennis, B. R.; Christe, S. D.; Shih, A. Y.; Holman, G. D.; Emslie, A. G.; Caspi, A.

    2018-02-01

    X-ray and gamma-ray Sun observations from a lunar-based observatory would provide unique information on solar atmosphere thermal and nonthermal processes. EUV and energetic neutral atom imaging spectroscopy would augment the scientific value.

  3. Gamma-Ray Imaging for Explosives Detection

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    deNolfo, G. A.; Hunter, S. D.; Barbier, L. M.; Link, J. T.; Son, S.; Floyd, S. R.; Guardala, N.; Skopec, M.; Stark, B.

    2008-01-01

    We describe a gamma-ray imaging camera (GIC) for active interrogation of explosives being developed by NASA/GSFC and NSWCICarderock. The GIC is based on the Three-dimensional Track Imager (3-DTI) technology developed at GSFC for gamma-ray astrophysics. The 3-DTI, a large volume time-projection chamber, provides accurate, approx.0.4 mm resolution, 3-D tracking of charged particles. The incident direction of gamma rays, E, > 6 MeV, are reconstructed from the momenta and energies of the electron-positron pair resulting from interactions in the 3-DTI volume. The optimization of the 3-DTI technology for this specific application and the performance of the GIC from laboratory tests is presented.

  4. Delayed Gamma-ray Spectroscopy for Safeguards Applications

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mozin, Vladimir

    The delayed gamma-ray assay technique utilizes an external neutron source (D-D, D-T, or electron accelerator-driven), and high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometers to perform characterization of SNM materials behind shielding and in complex configurations such as a nuclear fuel assembly. High-energy delayed gamma-rays (2.5 MeV and above) observed following the active interrogation, provide a signature for identification of specific fissionable isotopes in a mixed sample, and determine their relative content. Potential safeguards applications of this method are: 1) characterization of fresh and spent nuclear fuel assemblies in wet or dry storage; 2) analysis of uranium enrichment in shielded or non-characterized containers or inmore » the presence of a strong radioactive background and plutonium contamination; 3) characterization of bulk and waste and product streams at SNM processing plants. Extended applications can include warhead confirmation and warhead dismantlement confirmation in the arms control area, as well as SNM diagnostics for the emergency response needs. In FY16 and prior years, the project has demonstrated the delayed gamma-ray measurement technique as a robust SNM assay concept. A series of empirical and modeling studies were conducted to characterize its response sensitivity, develop analysis methodologies, and analyze applications. Extensive experimental tests involving weapons-grade Pu, HEU and depleted uranium samples were completed at the Idaho Accelerator Center and LLNL Dome facilities for various interrogation time regimes and effects of the neutron source parameters. A dedicated delayed gamma-ray response modeling technique was developed and its elements were benchmarked in representative experimental studies, including highresolution gamma-ray measurements of spent fuel at the CLAB facility in Sweden. The objective of the R&D effort in FY17 is to experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of the delayed gamma-ray interrogation of shielded

  5. Research in particle and gamma-ray astrophysics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stone, E. C.; Davis, L., Jr.; Mewaldt, R. A.; Prince, T. A.

    1988-01-01

    Research activities in cosmic rays, gamma rays, and astrophysical plasmas are covered. Each activity is described, followed by a bibliography. The research program is directed toward the investigation of the astrophysical aspects of cosmic rays and gamma rays and of the radiation and electromagnetic field environment of the earth and other planets. These investigations were performed by means of energetic particle and photon detector systems flown on spacecraft and balloons.

  6. Sgr A* and general relativity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Johannsen, Tim

    2016-06-01

    General relativity has been widely tested in weak gravitational fields but still stands largely untested in the strong-field regime. According to the no-hair theorem, black holes in general relativity depend only on their masses and spins and are described by the Kerr metric. Mass and spin are the first two multipole moments of the Kerr spacetime and completely determine all higher-order moments. The no-hair theorem and, hence, general relativity can be tested by measuring potential deviations from the Kerr metric affecting such higher-order moments. Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, is a prime target for precision tests of general relativity with several experiments across the electromagnetic spectrum. First, near-infrared (NIR) monitoring of stars orbiting around Sgr A* with current and new instruments is expected to resolve their orbital precessions. Second, timing observations of radio pulsars near the Galactic center may detect characteristic residuals induced by the spin and quadrupole moment of Sgr A*. Third, the event horizon telescope, a global network of mm and sub-mm telescopes, aims to study Sgr A* on horizon scales and to image the silhouette of its shadow cast against the surrounding accretion flow using very-long baseline interferometric (VLBI) techniques. Both NIR and VLBI observations may also detect quasiperiodic variability of the emission from the accretion flow of Sgr A*. In this review, I discuss our current understanding of the spacetime of Sgr A* and the prospects of NIR, timing, and VLBI observations to test its Kerr nature in the near future.

  7. Fermi GBM Observations of Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A.; Briggs, M. S.; Connaughton, V.; Fishman, G. J.; Bhat, P. N.; Paciesas, W. S.; Preece, R.; Kippen, R. M.; vonKienlin, A.; Dwyer, J. R.; hide

    2010-01-01

    This slide presentation explores the relationship between Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGF) and lightning. Using data from the World-Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), and the gamma ray observations from Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM), the study reviews any causal relationship between TGFs and lightning. The conclusion of the study is that the TGF and lightning are simultaneous with out a causal relationship.

  8. Gamma-ray background induced by atmospheric neutrons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ma, Y.-Q.

    1984-03-01

    A small piggyback detector system is used to study the reduction of gamma-ray background induced by atmospheric neutrons in the type of actively shielded gamma-ray spectroscopes. The system consists of two 1.5 x 1.5 arcsec NaI crystal units, one of which is surrounded by some neutron shield material. The results of a balloon flight in 1981 are presented. The data show that a shield of 3 cm-thick pure paraffin cannot reduce the gamma-ray background. On the contrary, it may even cause some enhancement.

  9. ADP study of gamma-ray bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lamb, Don Q.; Wang, John C. L.; Heuter, Geoffry J.; Graziani, Carlo; Loredo, Tom; Freeman, Peter

    1991-01-01

    This grant supported study of cyclotron scattering lines in the spectra of gamma-ray bursts through analysis of Ginga and HEAO-1 archival data, and modeling of the results in terms of radiation transfer calculations of cyclotron scattering in a strong magnetic field. A Monte Carlo radiation transfer code with which we are able to calculate the expected properties of cyclotron scattering lines in the spectra of gamma-ray bursts was developed. The extensive software necessary in order to carry out fits of these model spectra to gamma-ray burst spectral data, including folding of the model spectra through the detector response functions was also developed. Fits to Ginga satellite data on burst GB880205 were completed and fits to Ginga satellite data on burst GB870303 are being carried out. These fits have allowed us to test our software, as well as to garner new scientific results. This work has demonstrated that cyclotron resonant scattering successfully accounts for the locations, strengths, and widths of the observed line features in GB870303 and GB880205. The success of the model provides compelling evidence that these gamma-ray bursts come from strongly magnetic neutron stars and are galactic in origin, resolving longstanding controversies about the nature and distance of the burst sources. These results were reported in two papers which are in press in the proceedings of the Taos Workshop on Gamma-Ray Bursts, and in a paper submitted for publication.

  10. Soft gamma rays from black holes versus neutron stars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Liang, Edison P.

    1992-01-01

    The recent launches of GRANAT and GRO provide unprecedented opportunities to study compact collapsed objects from their hard x ray and gamma ray emissions. The spectral range above 100 keV can now be explored with much higher sensitivity and time resolution than before. The soft gamma ray spectral data is reviewed of black holes and neutron stars, radiation, and particle energization mechanisms and potentially distinguishing gamma ray signatures. These may include soft x ray excesses versus deficiencies, thermal versus nonthermal processes, transient gamma ray bumps versus power law tails, lines, and periodicities. Some of the highest priority future observations are outlines which will shed much light on such systems.

  11. Modelling accretion disc and stellar wind interactions: the case of Sgr A.

    PubMed

    Christie, I M; Petropoulou, M; Mimica, P; Giannios, D

    2016-07-01

    Sgr A* is an ideal target to study low-luminosity accreting systems. It has been recently proposed that properties of the accretion flow around Sgr A* can be probed through its interactions with the stellar wind of nearby massive stars belonging to the S-cluster. When a star intercepts the accretion disc, the ram and thermal pressures of the disc terminate the stellar wind leading to the formation of a bow shock structure. Here, a semi-analytical model is constructed which describes the geometry of the termination shock formed in the wind. With the employment of numerical hydrodynamic simulations, this model is both verified and extended to a region prone to Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. Because the characteristic wind and stellar velocities are in ∼10 8  cm s -1 range, the shocked wind may produce detectable X-rays via thermal bremsstrahlung emission. The application of this model to the pericentre passage of S2, the brightest member of the S-cluster, shows that the shocked wind produces roughly a month long X-ray flare with a peak luminosity of L ≈ 4 × 10 33  erg s -1 for a stellar mass-loss rate, disc number density, and thermal pressure strength of [Formula: see text], n d  = 10 5  cm -3 , and α = 0.1, respectively. This peak luminosity is comparable to the quiescent X-ray emission detected from Sgr A* and is within the detection capabilities of current X-ray observatories. Its detection could constrain the density and thickness of the disc at a distance of ∼3000 gravitational radii from the supermassive black hole.

  12. Directional detector of gamma rays

    DOEpatents

    Cox, Samson A.; Levert, Francis E.

    1979-01-01

    A directional detector of gamma rays comprises a strip of an electrical cuctor of high atomic number backed with a strip of a second electrical conductor of low atomic number. These elements are enclosed within an electrical conductor that establishes an electrical ground, maintains a vacuum enclosure and screens out low-energy gamma rays. The detector exhibits a directional sensitivity marked by an increased output in the favored direction by a factor of ten over the output in the unfavored direction.

  13. Air shower detectors in gamma-ray astronomy

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sinnis, Gus

    2008-01-01

    Extensive air shower (EAS) arrays directly detect the particles in an EAS that reach the observation altitude. This detection technique effectively makes air shower arrays synoptic telescopes -- they are capable of simultaneously and continuously viewing the entire overhead sky. Typical air shower detectors have an effective field-of-view of 2 sr and operate nearly 100% of the time. These two characteristics make them ideal instruments for studying the highest energy gamma rays, extended sources and transient phenomena. Until recently air shower arrays have had insufficient sensitivity to detect gamma-ray sources. Over the past decade, the situation has changed markedly. Milagro,more » in the US, and the Tibet AS{gamma} array in Tibet, have detected very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from the Crab Nebula and the active galaxy Markarian 421 (both previously known sources). Milagro has discovered TeV diffuse emission from the Milky Way, three unidentified sources of TeV gamma rays, and several candidate sources of TeV gamma rays. Given these successes and the suite of existing and planned instruments in the GeV and TeV regime (AGILE, GLAST, HESS, VERITAS, CTA, AGIS and IceCube) there are strong reasons for pursuing a next generation of EAS detectors. In conjunction with these other instruments the next generation of EAS instruments could answer long-standing problems in astrophysics.« less

  14. Development of ultrashort x-ray/gamma-ray sources using ultrahigh power lasers (Conference Presentation)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Hyung Taek; Nakajima, Kazuhisa; Hojbota, Calin; Jeon, Jong Ho; Rhee, Yong-Joo; Lee, Kyung Hwan; Lee, Seong Ku; Sung, Jae Hee; Lee, Hwang Woon; Pathak, Vishwa B.; Pae, Ki Hong; Sebban, Stéphane; Tissandier, Fabien; Gautier, Julien; Ta Phuoc, Kim; Malka, Victor; Nam, Chang Hee

    2017-05-01

    Short-pulse x-ray/gamma-ray sources have become indispensable light sources for investigating material science, bio technology, and photo-nuclear physics. In past decades, rapid advancement of high intensity laser technology led extensive progresses in the field of radiation sources based on laser-plasma interactions - x-ray lasers, betatron radiation and Compton gamma-rays. Ever since the installation of a 100-TW laser in 2006, we have pursued the development of ultrashort x-ray/gamma-ray radiations, such as x-ray lasers, relativistic high-order harmonics, betatron radiation and all-optical Compton gamma-rays. With the construction of two PW Ti:Sapphire laser beamlines having peak powers of 1.0 PW and 1.5 PW in 2010 and 2012, respectively [1], we have investigated the generation of multi-GeV electron beams [2] and MeV betatron radiations. We plan to carry out the Compton backscattering to generate MeV gamma-rays from the interaction of a GeV electron beam and a PW laser beam. Here, we present the recent progress in the development of ultrashort x-ray/gamma-ray radiation sources based on laser plasma interactions and the plan for developing Compton gamma-ray sources driven by the PW lasers. In addition, we will present the applications of laser-plasma x-ray lasers to x-ray holography and coherent diffraction imaging. [references] 1. J. H. Sung, S. K. Lee, T. J. Yu, T. M. Jeong, and J. Lee, Opt. Lett. 35, 3021 (2010). 2. H. T. Kim, K. H. Pae, H. J. Cha, I J. Kim, T. J. Yu, J. H. Sung, S. K. Lee, T. M. Jeong, J. Lee, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 165002 (2013).

  15. A Novel Study Connecting Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays, Neutrinos, and Gamma-Rays

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Coenders, Stefan; Resconi, Elisa; Padovani, Paolo; Giommi, Paolo; Caccianiga, Lorenzo

    We present a novel study connecting ultra-high energy cosmic rays, neutrinos, and gamma-rays with the objective to identify common counterparts of the three astrophysical messengers. In the test presented here, we first identify potential hadronic sources by filtering gamma-ray emitters that are in spatial coincidence with IceCube neutrinos. Subsequently, these objects are correlated against ultra-high energy cosmic rays detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array, scanning in gamma-ray flux and angular separation between sources and cosmic rays. A maximal excess of 80 cosmic rays (41.9 expected) is observed for the second catalog of hard Fermi-LAT objects of blazars of the high synchrotron peak type. This corresponds to a deviation from the null-hypothesis of 2.94σ . No excess is observed for objects not in spatial connection with neutrinos. The gamma-ray sources that make up the excess are blazars of the high synchrotron peak type.

  16. The gamma-ray light curves of SN 1987A

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Leising, Mark D.; Share, Gerald H.

    1990-01-01

    Observations of the SN 1987A ejecta in four Co-56-decay gamma-ray lines, obtained using the SMM gamma-ray spectrometer between February 1987 and May 1989, are reported and analyzed. The instrument characteristics and data-reduction procedures are described, and the results are presented in extensive tables and graphs and discussed with reference to theoretical models. Gamma-ray fluxes significantly above possible instrumental levels (as determined from analysis of pre-1987 data) were detected in the second half of 1987 and the first half of 1988. The data are found to favor a model with some Co-56 in regions of low gamma-ray optical depth by 200 d after the SN outburst over models with all Co-56 at one depth within a uniform expanding envelope. Also investigated are the gamma-ray contribution to the total bolometric luminosity and the escape (and potential observability) of Co-57 gamma rays.

  17. Gamma-ray pulsars: Emission zones and viewing geometries

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Romani, Roger W.; Yadigaroglu, I.-A.

    1995-01-01

    There are now a half-dozen young pulsars detected in high-energy photons by the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO), showing a variety of emission efficiencies and pulse profiles. We present here a calculation of the pattern of high-energy emission on the sky in a model which posits gamma-ray production by charge-depleted gaps in the outer magnetosphere. This model accounts for the radio to gamma-ray pulse offsets of the known pulsars, as well as the shape of the high-energy pulse profiles. We also show that about one-third of emitting young radio pulsars will not be detected due to beaming effects, while approximately 2.5 times the number of radio-selected gamma-ray pulsars will be viewed only high energies. Finally we compute the polarization angle variation and find that the previously misunderstood optical polarization sweep of the Crab pulsar arises naturally in this picture. These results strongly support an outer magnetosphere location for the gamma-ray emission.

  18. Gamma rays from hidden millisecond pulsars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tavani, Marco

    1992-01-01

    The properties were studied of a new class of gamma ray sources consisting of millisecond pulsars totally or partially surrounded by evaporating material from irradiated companion stars. Hidden millisecond pulsars offer a unique possibility to study gamma ray, optical and radio emission from vaporizing binaries. The relevance of this class of binaries for GRO observations and interpretation of COS-B data is emphasized.

  19. Population Studies of Radio and Gamma-Ray Pulsars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harding, Alice K; Gonthier, Peter; Coltisor, Stefan

    2004-01-01

    Rotation-powered pulsars are one of the most promising candidates for at least some of the 40-50 EGRET unidentified gamma-ray sources that lie near the Galactic plane. Since the end of the EGRO mission, the more sensitive Parkes Multibeam radio survey has detected mere than two dozen new radio pulsars in or near unidentified EGRET sources, many of which are young and energetic. These results raise an important question about the nature of radio quiescence in gamma-ray pulsars: is the non-detection of radio emission a matter of beaming or of sensitivity? The answer is very dependent on the geometry of the radio and gamma-ray beams. We present results of a population synthesis of pulsars in the Galaxy, including for the first time the full geometry of the radio and gamma-ray beams. We use a recent empirically derived model of the radio emission and luminosity, and a gamma-ray emission geometry and luminosity derived theoretically from pair cascades in the polar slot gap. The simulation includes characteristics of eight radio surveys of the Princeton catalog plus the Parkes MB survey. Our results indicate that EGRET was capable of detecting several dozen pulsars as point sources, with the ratio of radio-loud to radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsars increasing significantly to about ten to one when the Parkes Survey is included. Polar cap models thus predict that many of the unidentified EGRET sources could be radio-loud gamma- ray pulsars, previously undetected as radio pulsars due to distance, large dispersion and lack of sensitivity. If true, this would make gamma-ray telescopes a potentially more sensitive tool for detecting distant young neutron stars in the Galactic plane.

  20. "Short, Hard Gamma-Ray Bursts - Mystery Solved?????"

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Parsons, A.

    2006-01-01

    After over a decade of speculation about the nature of short-duration hard-spectrum gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the recent detection of afterglow emission from a small number of short bursts has provided the first physical constraints on possible progenitor models. While the discovery of afterglow emission from long GRBs was a real breakthrough linking their origin to star forming galaxies, and hence the death of massive stars, the progenitors, energetics, and environments for short gamma-ray burst events remain elusive despite a few recent localizations. Thus far, the nature of the host galaxies measured indicates that short GRBs arise from an old (> 1 Gyr) stellar population, strengthening earlier suggestions and providing support for coalescing compact object binaries as the progenitors. On the other hand, some of the short burst afterglow observations cannot be easily explained in the coalescence scenario. These observations raise the possibility that short GRBs may have different or multiple progenitors systems. The study of the short-hard GRB afterglows has been made possible by the Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer, launched in November of 2004. Swift is equipped with a coded aperture gamma-ray telescope that can observe up to 2 steradians of the sky and can compute the position of a gamma-ray burst to within 2-3 arcmin in less than 10 seconds. The Swift spacecraft can slew on to this burst position without human intervention, allowing its on-board x ray and optical telescopes to study the afterglow within 2 minutes of the original GRB trigger. More Swift short burst detections and afterglow measurements are needed before we can declare that the mystery of short gamma-ray burst is solved.

  1. Gamma ray pulsars. [electron-photon cascades

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Oegelman, H.; Ayasli, S.; Hacinliyan, A.

    1977-01-01

    Data from the SAS-2 high-energy gamma-ray experiment reveal the existence of four pulsars emitting photons above 35 MeV. An attempt is made to explain the gamma-ray emission from these pulsars in terms of an electron-photon cascade that develops in the magnetosphere of the pulsar. Although there is very little material above the surface of the pulsar, the very intense magnetic fields (10 to the 12th power gauss) correspond to many radiation lengths which cause electrons to emit photons by magnetic bremsstrahlung and which cause these photons to pair-produce. The cascade develops until the mean photon energy drops below the pair-production threshold which is in the gamma-ray range; at this stage, the photons break out from the source.

  2. Fermi: The Gamma-Ray Large Area Telescope Mission Status

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McEnery, Julie

    2014-01-01

    Following its launch in June 2008, high-energy gamma-ray observations by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have unveiled over 1000 new sources and opened an important and previously unexplored window on a wide variety of phenomena. These have included the discovery of an population of pulsars pulsing only in gamma rays; the detection of photons up to 10s of GeV from gamma-ray bursts, enhancing our understanding of the astrophysics of these powerful explosions; the detection of hundreds of active galaxies; a measurement of the high energy cosmic-ray electron spectrum which may imply the presence of nearby astrophysical particle accelerators; the determination of the diffuse gamma-ray emission with unprecedented accuracy and the constraints on phenomena such as supersymmetric dark-matter annihilations and exotic relics from the Big Bang. Continuous monitoring of the high-energy gamma-ray sky has uncovered numerous outbursts from active galaxies and the discovery of transient sources in our galaxy. In this talk I will describe the current status of the Fermi observatory and review the science highlights from Fermi.

  3. Gamma-ray flares from the Crab Nebula.

    PubMed

    Abdo, A A; Ackermann, M; Ajello, M; Allafort, A; Baldini, L; Ballet, J; Barbiellini, G; Bastieri, D; Bechtol, K; Bellazzini, R; Berenji, B; Blandford, R D; Bloom, E D; Bonamente, E; Borgland, A W; Bouvier, A; Brandt, T J; Bregeon, J; Brez, A; Brigida, M; Bruel, P; Buehler, R; Buson, S; Caliandro, G A; Cameron, R A; Cannon, A; Caraveo, P A; Casandjian, J M; Çelik, Ö; Charles, E; Chekhtman, A; Cheung, C C; Chiang, J; Ciprini, S; Claus, R; Cohen-Tanugi, J; Costamante, L; Cutini, S; D'Ammando, F; Dermer, C D; de Angelis, A; de Luca, A; de Palma, F; Digel, S W; do Couto e Silva, E; Drell, P S; Drlica-Wagner, A; Dubois, R; Dumora, D; Favuzzi, C; Fegan, S J; Ferrara, E C; Focke, W B; Fortin, P; Frailis, M; Fukazawa, Y; Funk, S; Fusco, P; Gargano, F; Gasparrini, D; Gehrels, N; Germani, S; Giglietto, N; Giordano, F; Giroletti, M; Glanzman, T; Godfrey, G; Grenier, I A; Grondin, M-H; Grove, J E; Guiriec, S; Hadasch, D; Hanabata, Y; Harding, A K; Hayashi, K; Hayashida, M; Hays, E; Horan, D; Itoh, R; Jóhannesson, G; Johnson, A S; Johnson, T J; Khangulyan, D; Kamae, T; Katagiri, H; Kataoka, J; Kerr, M; Knödlseder, J; Kuss, M; Lande, J; Latronico, L; Lee, S-H; Lemoine-Goumard, M; Longo, F; Loparco, F; Lubrano, P; Madejski, G M; Makeev, A; Marelli, M; Mazziotta, M N; McEnery, J E; Michelson, P F; Mitthumsiri, W; Mizuno, T; Moiseev, A A; Monte, C; Monzani, M E; Morselli, A; Moskalenko, I V; Murgia, S; Nakamori, T; Naumann-Godo, M; Nolan, P L; Norris, J P; Nuss, E; Ohsugi, T; Okumura, A; Omodei, N; Ormes, J F; Ozaki, M; Paneque, D; Parent, D; Pelassa, V; Pepe, M; Pesce-Rollins, M; Pierbattista, M; Piron, F; Porter, T A; Rainò, S; Rando, R; Ray, P S; Razzano, M; Reimer, A; Reimer, O; Reposeur, T; Ritz, S; Romani, R W; Sadrozinski, H F-W; Sanchez, D; Saz Parkinson, P M; Scargle, J D; Schalk, T L; Sgrò, C; Siskind, E J; Smith, P D; Spandre, G; Spinelli, P; Strickman, M S; Suson, D J; Takahashi, H; Takahashi, T; Tanaka, T; Thayer, J B; Thompson, D J; Tibaldo, L; Torres, D F; Tosti, G; Tramacere, A; Troja, E; Uchiyama, Y; Vandenbroucke, J; Vasileiou, V; Vianello, G; Vitale, V; Wang, P; Wood, K S; Yang, Z; Ziegler, M

    2011-02-11

    A young and energetic pulsar powers the well-known Crab Nebula. Here, we describe two separate gamma-ray (photon energy greater than 100 mega-electron volts) flares from this source detected by the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The first flare occurred in February 2009 and lasted approximately 16 days. The second flare was detected in September 2010 and lasted approximately 4 days. During these outbursts, the gamma-ray flux from the nebula increased by factors of four and six, respectively. The brevity of the flares implies that the gamma rays were emitted via synchrotron radiation from peta-electron-volt (10(15) electron volts) electrons in a region smaller than 1.4 × 10(-2) parsecs. These are the highest-energy particles that can be associated with a discrete astronomical source, and they pose challenges to particle acceleration theory.

  4. AGIS -- the Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krennrich, Frank

    2009-05-01

    The Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System, AGIS, is envisioned to become the follow-up mission of the current generation of very high energy gamma-ray telescopes, namely, H.E.S.S., MAGIC and VERITAS. These instruments have provided a glimpse of the TeV gamma-ray sky, showing more than 70 sources while their detailed studies constrain a wealth of physics and astrophysics. The particle acceleration, emission and absorption processes in these sources permit the study of extreme physical conditions found in galactic and extragalactic TeV sources. AGIS will dramatically improve the sensitivity and angular resolution of TeV gamma-ray observations and therefore provide unique prospects for particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. This talk will provide an overview of the science drivers, scientific capabilities and the novel technical approaches that are pursued to maximize the performance of the large array concept of AGIS.

  5. Gamma-Ray Flares from the Crab Nebula

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bechtol, K.; Bellazzini, R.; Berenji, B.; Blandford, R. D.; Bloom, E. D.; Bonamente, E.; Borgland, A. W.; Bouvier, A.; Brandt, T. J.; Bregeon, J.; Brez, A.; Brigida, M.; Bruel, P.; Buehler, R.; Buson, S.; Caliandro, G. A.; Cameron, R. A.; Cannon, A.; Caraveo, P. A.; Casandjian, J. M.; Çelik, Ö.; Charles, E.; Chekhtman, A.; Cheung, C. C.; Chiang, J.; Ciprini, S.; Claus, R.; Cohen-Tanugi, J.; Costamante, L.; Cutini, S.; D'Ammando, F.; Dermer, C. D.; de Angelis, A.; de Luca, A.; de Palma, F.; Digel, S. W.; do Couto e Silva, E.; Drell, P. S.; Drlica-Wagner, A.; Dubois, R.; Dumora, D.; Favuzzi, C.; Fegan, S. J.; Ferrara, E. C.; Focke, W. B.; Fortin, P.; Frailis, M.; Fukazawa, Y.; Funk, S.; Fusco, P.; Gargano, F.; Gasparrini, D.; Gehrels, N.; Germani, S.; Giglietto, N.; Giordano, F.; Giroletti, M.; Glanzman, T.; Godfrey, G.; Grenier, I. A.; Grondin, M.-H.; Grove, J. E.; Guiriec, S.; Hadasch, D.; Hanabata, Y.; Harding, A. K.; Hayashi, K.; Hayashida, M.; Hays, E.; Horan, D.; Itoh, R.; Jóhannesson, G.; Johnson, A. S.; Johnson, T. J.; Khangulyan, D.; Kamae, T.; Katagiri, H.; Kataoka, J.; Kerr, M.; Knödlseder, J.; Kuss, M.; Lande, J.; Latronico, L.; Lee, S.-H.; Lemoine-Goumard, M.; Longo, F.; Loparco, F.; Lubrano, P.; Madejski, G. M.; Makeev, A.; Marelli, M.; Mazziotta, M. N.; McEnery, J. E.; Michelson, P. F.; Mitthumsiri, W.; Mizuno, T.; Moiseev, A. A.; Monte, C.; Monzani, M. E.; Morselli, A.; Moskalenko, I. V.; Murgia, S.; Nakamori, T.; Naumann-Godo, M.; Nolan, P. L.; Norris, J. P.; Nuss, E.; Ohsugi, T.; Okumura, A.; Omodei, N.; Ormes, J. F.; Ozaki, M.; Paneque, D.; Parent, D.; Pelassa, V.; Pepe, M.; Pesce-Rollins, M.; Pierbattista, M.; Piron, F.; Porter, T. A.; Rainò, S.; Rando, R.; Ray, P. S.; Razzano, M.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Reposeur, T.; Ritz, S.; Romani, R. W.; Sadrozinski, H. F.-W.; Sanchez, D.; Parkinson, P. M. Saz; Scargle, J. D.; Schalk, T. L.; Sgrò, C.; Siskind, E. J.; Smith, P. D.; Spandre, G.; Spinelli, P.; Strickman, M. S.; Suson, D. J.; Takahashi, H.; Takahashi, T.; Tanaka, T.; Thayer, J. B.; Thompson, D. J.; Tibaldo, L.; Torres, D. F.; Tosti, G.; Tramacere, A.; Troja, E.; Uchiyama, Y.; Vandenbroucke, J.; Vasileiou, V.; Vianello, G.; Vitale, V.; Wang, P.; Wood, K. S.; Yang, Z.; Ziegler, M.

    2011-02-01

    A young and energetic pulsar powers the well-known Crab Nebula. Here, we describe two separate gamma-ray (photon energy greater than 100 mega-electron volts) flares from this source detected by the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The first flare occurred in February 2009 and lasted approximately 16 days. The second flare was detected in September 2010 and lasted approximately 4 days. During these outbursts, the gamma-ray flux from the nebula increased by factors of four and six, respectively. The brevity of the flares implies that the gamma rays were emitted via synchrotron radiation from peta-electron-volt (1015 electron volts) electrons in a region smaller than 1.4 × 10-2 parsecs. These are the highest-energy particles that can be associated with a discrete astronomical source, and they pose challenges to particle acceleration theory.

  6. Primary gamma rays. [resulting from cosmic ray interaction with interstellar matter

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fichtel, C. E.

    1974-01-01

    Within this galaxy, cosmic rays reveal their presence in interstellar space and probably in source regions by their interactions with interstellar matter which lead to gamma rays with a very characteristic energy spectrum. From the study of the intensity of the high energy gamma radiation as a function of galactic longitude, it is already clear that cosmic rays are almost certainly not uniformly distributed in the galaxy and are not concentrated in the center of the galaxy. The galactic cosmic rays appear to be tied to galactic structural features, presumably by the galactic magnetic fields which are in turn held by the matter in the arm segments and the clouds. On the extragalactic scale, it is now possible to say that cosmic rays are not universal at the density seen near the earth. The diffuse celestial gamma ray spectrum that is observed presents the interesting possibility of cosmological studies and possible evidence for a residual universal cosmic ray density, which is much lower than the present galactic cosmic ray density.

  7. SAS-2 gamma-ray observations of PSR 1747-46. [radio pulsar

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, D. J.; Fichtel, C. E.; Kniffen, D. A.; Ogelman, H. B.; Lamb, R. C.

    1976-01-01

    Evidence is reported for the observation of gamma-ray emission from the radio pulsar PSR 1747-46 by the gamma-ray telescope aboard SAS 2. The evidence is based on the presence of both an approximately 3-sigma enhancement of gamma rays at the pulsar's location and an approximately 4-sigma peak in the phase plot of 79 gamma-ray events whose phase was calculated from the pulsar's known period. The gamma-ray pulsation is found to appear at a phase lag of about 0.16 from that predicted by the radio observations. The pulsed gamma-ray fluxes above 35 MeV and 100 MeV are estimated, and it is shown that the gamma-ray pulse width is similar to the radio pulse width. It is concluded that PSR 1747-46 is a most likely candidate for pulsed gamma-ray emission.

  8. ASTRONOMY: Neighborhood Gamma Ray Burst Boosts Theory.

    PubMed

    Schilling, G

    2000-07-07

    Titanic explosions that emit powerful flashes of energetic gamma rays are one of astronomy's hottest mysteries. Now an analysis of the nearest gamma ray burst yet detected has added weight to the popular theory that they are expelled during the death throes of supermassive stars.

  9. High energy gamma-ray observations of SN 1987A

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sood, R. K.; Thomas, J. A.; Waldron, L.; Manchanda, R. K.; Rochester, G. K.

    1988-01-01

    Results are presented from observations of SN 1987A made with a combined high energy gamma ray and hard X-ray payload carried on a balloon flight over Alice Springs, Australia on April 5, 1988. The payload instrumentation is described, emphasizing the characteristics of the gamma-ray detector. The gamma-ray emission profile is illustrated and the preliminary results of the observations are summarized.

  10. Detecting Axionlike Particles with Gamma Ray Telescopes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hooper, Dan; Serpico, Pasquale D.

    2007-12-01

    We propose that axionlike particles (ALPs) with a two-photon vertex, consistent with all astrophysical and laboratory bounds, may lead to a detectable signature in the spectra of high-energy gamma-ray sources. This occurs as a result of gamma rays being converted into ALPs in the magnetic fields of efficient astrophysical accelerators according to the “Hillas criterion”, such as jets of active galactic nuclei or hot spots of radio galaxies. The discovery of such an effect is possible by GLAST in the 1 100 GeV range and by ground-based gamma-ray telescopes in the TeV range.

  11. Hard gamma-ray background from the coding collimator of a gamma-ray telescope during in conditions of a space experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aleksandrov, A. P.; Berezovoj, A. N.; Gal'Per, A. M.; Grachev, V. M.; Dmitrenko, V. V.; Kirillov-Ugryumov, V. G.; Lebedev, V. V.; Lyakhov, V. A.; Moiseev, A. A.; Ulin, S. E.; Shchvets, N. I.

    1984-11-01

    Coding collimators are used to improve the angular resolution of gamma-ray telescopes at energies above 50 MeV. However, the interaction of cosmic rays with the collimator material can lead to the appearance of a gramma-ray background flux which can have a deleterious effect on measurement efficiency. An experiment was performed on the Salyut-6-Soyuz spacecraft system with the Elena-F small-scale gamma-ray telescope in order to measure the magnitude of this background. It is shown that, even at a zenith angle of approximately zero degrees (the angle at which the gamma-ray observations are made), the coding collimator has only an insignificant effect on the background conditions.

  12. An Ordinary Gamma-Ray Burst with Extraordinary Consequences

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-10-18

    On Aug. 17, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope caught a short burst of gamma rays from the spectacular smashup of two neutron stars, setting off a chain of events that marks the first-ever detection of a cosmic event in gravitational waves and different kinds of light. NASA scientists Colleen Wilson-Hodge and Tyson Littenberg explain what happened and what it means for science and discovery.

  13. Fermi Bubbles: an elephant in the gamma-ray sky

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malyshev, Dmitry

    2017-03-01

    The Fermi bubbles are one of the most remarkable features in the gamma-ray sky revealed by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). The nature of the gamma-ray emission and the origin of the bubbles are still open questions. In this note, we will review some basic features of leptonic and hadronic modes of gamma-ray production. At the moment, gamma rays are our best method to study the bubbles, but in order to resolve the origin of the bubbles multi-wavelength and multi-messenger observations will be crucial.

  14. Gamma-ray Emission from Globular Clusters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tam, Pak-Hin T.; Hui, Chung Y.; Kong, Albert K. H.

    2016-03-01

    Over the last few years, the data obtained using the Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has provided new insights on high-energy processes in globular clusters, particularly those involving compact objects such as MilliSecond Pulsars (MSPs). Gamma-ray emission in the 100 MeV to 10 GeV range has been detected from more than a dozen globular clusters in our galaxy, including 47 Tucanae and Terzan 5. Based on a sample of known gammaray globular clusters, the empirical relations between gamma-ray luminosity and properties of globular clusters such as their stellar encounter rate, metallicity, and possible optical and infrared photon energy densities, have been derived. The measured gamma-ray spectra are generally described by a power law with a cut-off at a few gigaelectronvolts. Together with the detection of pulsed γ-rays from two MSPs in two different globular clusters, such spectral signature lends support to the hypothesis that γ-rays from globular clusters represent collective curvature emission from magnetospheres of MSPs in the clusters. Alternative models, involving Inverse-Compton (IC) emission of relativistic electrons that are accelerated close to MSPs or pulsar wind nebula shocks, have also been suggested. Observations at >100 GeV by using Fermi/LAT and atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes such as H.E.S.S.-II, MAGIC-II, VERITAS, and CTA will help to settle some questions unanswered by current data.

  15. Gamma-Ray Flares from the Crab Nebula

    DOE PAGES

    Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; ...

    2010-01-06

    A young and energetic pulsar powers the well-known Crab Nebula. Here, we describe two separate gamma-ray (photon energy greater than 100 mega–electron volts) flares from this source detected by the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The first flare occurred in February 2009 and lasted approximately 16 days. The second flare was detected in September 2010 and lasted approximately 4 days. During these outbursts, the gamma-ray flux from the nebula increased by factors of four and six, respectively. The brevity of the flares implies that the gamma rays were emitted via synchrotron radiation from peta–electron-volt (10more » 15 electron volts) electrons in a region smaller than 1.4 × 10 -2 parsecs. In conclusion, these are the highest-energy particles that can be associated with a discrete astronomical source, and they pose challenges to particle acceleration theory.« less

  16. Prompt gamma-ray imaging for small animals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Libai

    Small animal imaging is recognized as a powerful discovery tool for small animal modeling of human diseases, which is providing an important clue to complete understanding of disease mechanisms and is helping researchers develop and test new treatments. The current small animal imaging techniques include positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission tomography (SPECT), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound (US). A new imaging modality called prompt gamma-ray imaging (PGI) has been identified and investigated primarily by Monte Carlo simulation. Currently it is suggested for use on small animals. This new technique could greatly enhance and extend the present capabilities of PET and SPECT imaging from ingested radioisotopes to the imaging of selected non-radioactive elements, such as Gd, Cd, Hg, and B, and has the great potential to be used in Neutron Cancer Therapy to monitor neutron distribution and neutron-capture agent distribution. This approach consists of irradiating small animals in the thermal neutron beam of a nuclear reactor to produce prompt gamma rays from the elements in the sample by the radiative capture (n, gamma) reaction. These prompt gamma rays are emitted in energies that are characteristic of each element and they are also produced in characteristic coincident chains. After measuring these prompt gamma rays by surrounding spectrometry array, the distribution of each element of interest in the sample is reconstructed from the mapping of each detected signature gamma ray by either electronic collimations or mechanical collimations. In addition, the transmitted neutrons from the beam can be simultaneously used for very sensitive anatomical imaging, which provides the registration for the elemental distributions obtained from PGI. The primary approach is to use Monte Carlo simulation methods either with the specific purpose code CEARCPG, developed at NC State University or with the general purpose

  17. Wavelet-based techniques for the gamma-ray sky

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    McDermott, Samuel D.; Fox, Patrick J.; Cholis, Ilias

    2016-07-01

    Here, we demonstrate how the image analysis technique of wavelet decomposition can be applied to the gamma-ray sky to separate emission on different angular scales. New structures on scales that differ from the scales of the conventional astrophysical foreground and background uncertainties can be robustly extracted, allowing a model-independent characterization with no presumption of exact signal morphology. As a test case, we generate mock gamma-ray data to demonstrate our ability to extract extended signals without assuming a fixed spatial template. For some point source luminosity functions, our technique also allows us to differentiate a diffuse signal in gamma-rays from darkmore » matter annihilation and extended gamma-ray point source populations in a data-driven way.« less

  18. Time Domain Filtering of Resolved Images of Sgr A∗

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shiokawa, Hotaka; Gammie, Charles F.; Doeleman, Sheperd S.

    2017-09-01

    The goal of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is to provide spatially resolved images of Sgr A*, the source associated with the Galactic Center black hole. Because Sgr A* varies on timescales that are short compared to an EHT observing campaign, it is interesting to ask whether variability contains information about the structure and dynamics of the accretion flow. In this paper, we introduce “time-domain filtering,” a technique to filter time fluctuating images with specific temporal frequency ranges and to demonstrate the power and usage of the technique by applying it to mock millimeter wavelength images of Sgr A*. The mock image data is generated from the General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulation and the general relativistic ray-tracing method. We show that the variability on each line of sight is tightly correlated with a typical radius of emission. This is because disk emissivity fluctuates on a timescale of the order of the local orbital period. Time-domain filtered images therefore reflect the model dependent emission radius distribution, which is not accessible in time-averaged images. We show that, in principle, filtered data have the power to distinguish between models with different black-hole spins, different disk viewing angles, and different disk orientations in the sky.

  19. GeV-gamma-ray emission regions

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-12-08

    NASA's Fermi Closes on Source of Cosmic Rays New images from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope show where supernova remnants emit radiation a billion times more energetic than visible light. The images bring astronomers a step closer to understanding the source of some of the universe's most energetic particles -- cosmic rays. Fermi mapped GeV-gamma-ray emission regions (magenta) in the W44 supernova remnant. The features clearly align with filaments detectable in other wavelengths. This composite merges X-rays (blue) from the Germany-led ROSAT mission, infrared (red) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and radio (orange) from the Very Large Array near Socorro, N.M. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, ROSAT, JPL-Caltech, and NRAO/AUI For more information: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/cosmic-rays-source....

  20. Method for efficient, narrow-bandwidth, laser compton x-ray and gamma-ray sources

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Barty, Christopher P. J.

    A method of x-ray and gamma-ray generation via laser Compton scattering uses the interaction of a specially-formatted, highly modulated, long duration, laser pulse with a high-frequency train of high-brightness electron bunches to both create narrow bandwidth x-ray and gamma-ray sources and significantly increase the laser to Compton photon conversion efficiency.

  1. Observation of pulsed hard X-rays/gamma-rays from PSR 1509-58

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gunji, S.; Hirayama, M.; Kamae, T.; Miyazaki, S.; Sekimoto, Y.; Takahashi, T.; Tamura, T.; Tanaka, M.; Yamasaki, N.; Yamagami, T.; Nomachi, M.; Murakami, H.; Braga, J.; Neri, J. A.

    1994-06-01

    We observed a young rotation-powered pulsar, PSR 1509-58, in the hard X-ray/gamma-ray or the soft gamma-ray band with a balloon-borne detector in Brazil on 1991 November 19 (UT). With a timing analysis we detected pulsations in the energy band 94-240 keV at the 150.687 ms period determined from radio observations. The pulsating flux is (7.1 +/- 1.7) x 10-4 per sq cm per sec in this band, and the energy spectrum follows a power law with photon index alpha = 1.64 +/- 0.4. The averaged pulse profile shows a broad single peak with a sharp rise and has a duty cycle around 50% or higher: these features are similar to what have been observed in the X-ray band by the Ginga satellite. Based on the data available now, the fraction of energy transformed from rotational energy loss to pulsed/nonpulsed soft gamma-ray radiation is estimated. If the solid angle swept by the pulsed beam is about the same as for the Crab pulsar (PSR 0531+21) and the Vela pulsar (PSR 0833-45), PSR 1509-58 turn out to be an extremely efficient pulsar, converting a large fraction of its rotational energy loss to radiation, as the outer gap model predicts. The observed pulsed spectrum, however, is strong in the soft gamma-ray band, in a sharp contrast to what has been observed in the Vela pulsar, a pulsar expected to be similar PSR 1509-58 in the outer gap model. The fact that the pulse profile remains broad and single-peaked in the soft gamma-ray band is also new for Crab-like pulsars. In these regards, PSR 1509-58 may require some alteration to the standard outer gap model or even a new model for gamma-ray emission in pulsars.

  2. Gamma ray astronomy and black hole astrophysics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Liang, Edison P.

    1990-01-01

    The study of soft gamma emissions from black-hole candidates is identified as an important element in understanding black-hole phenomena ranging from stellar-mass black holes to AGNs. The spectra of Cyg X-1 and observations of the Galactic Center are emphasized, since thermal origins and MeV gamma-ray bumps are evident and suggest a thermal-pair cloud picture. MeV gamma-ray observations are suggested for studying black hole astrophysics such as the theorized escaping pair wind, the anticorrelation between the MeV gamma bump and the soft continuum, and the relationship between source compactness and temperature.

  3. Venus Measurements by the MESSENGER Gamma-Ray and X-Ray Spectrometers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rhodes, E. A.; Starr, R. D.; Goldsten, J. O.; Schlemm, C. E.; Boynton, W. V.

    2007-12-01

    The Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS), which is a part of the Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer Instrument, and the X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) on the MESSENGER spacecraft made calibration measurements during the Venus flyby on June 5, 2007. The purpose of these instruments is to determine elemental abundances on the surface of Mercury. The GRS measures gamma-rays emitted from element interactions with cosmic rays impinging on the surface, while the XRS measures X-ray emissions induced on the surface by the incident solar flux. The GRS sensor is a high-resolution high-purity Ge detector cooled by a Stirling cryocooler, surrounded by a borated-plastic anticoincidence shield. The GRS is sensitive to gamma-rays up to ~10 MeV and can identify most major elements, sampling down to depths of about ten centimeters. Only the shield was powered on for this flyby in order to conserve cooler lifetime. Gamma-rays were observed coming from Venus as well as from the spacecraft. Although the Venus gamma-rays originate from its thick atmosphere rather than its surface, the GRS data from this encounter will provide useful calibration data from a source of known composition. In particular, the data will be useful for determining GRS sensitivity and pointing options for the Mercury flybys, the first of which will be in January 2008. The X-ray spectrum of a planetary surface is dominated by a combination of the fluorescence and scattered solar X-rays. The most prominent fluorescent lines are the Kα lines from the major elements Mg, Al, Si, S, Ca, Ti, and Fe (1-10 keV). The sampling depth is less than 100 u m. The XRS is similar in design to experiments flown on Apollo 15 and 16 and the NEAR-Shoemaker mission. Three large-area gas-proportional counters view the planet, and a small Si-PIN detector mounted on the spacecraft sunshade monitors the Sun. The energy resolution of the gas proportional counters (~850 eV at 5.9 keV) is sufficient to resolve the X-ray lines above 2 keV, but Al and Mg

  4. Search for gamma ray lines from supernovae and supernova remnants

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chupp, E. L.; Forrest, D. J.; Suri, A. N.; Adams, R.; Tsai, C.

    1974-01-01

    A gamma ray monitor with a NaI crystal shielded with a cup-shaped CsI cover was contained in the rotating wheel compartment of the OSO-7 spacecraft for measuring the gamma ray spectra from 0.3 to 10 MeV in search for gamma ray lines from a possible remnant in the Gum Nebula and the apparent Type I supernovae in NGC5253. A brief analysis of data yielded no positive indications for X-rays, gamma ray lines, or continuum from these sources.

  5. Gammapy: Python toolbox for gamma-ray astronomy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Deil, Christoph; Donath, Axel; Owen, Ellis; Terrier, Regis; Bühler, Rolf; Armstrong, Thomas

    2017-11-01

    Gammapy analyzes gamma-ray data and creates sky images, spectra and lightcurves, from event lists and instrument response information; it can also determine the position, morphology and spectra of gamma-ray sources. It is used to analyze data from H.E.S.S., Fermi-LAT, and the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA).

  6. Fiber fed x-ray/gamma ray imaging apparatus

    DOEpatents

    Hailey, C.J.; Ziock, K.P.

    1992-06-02

    X-ray/gamma ray imaging apparatus is disclosed for detecting the position, energy, and intensity of x-ray/gamma ray radiation comprising scintillation means disposed in the path of such radiation and capable of generating photons in response to such radiation; first photodetection means optically bonded to the scintillation means and capable of generating an electrical signal indicative of the intensity, and energy of the radiation detected by the scintillation means; second photodetection means capable of generating an electrical signal indicative of the position of the radiation in the radiation pattern; and means for optically coupling the scintillation means to the second photodetection means. The photodetection means are electrically connected to control and storage means which may also be used to screen out noise by rejecting a signal from one photodetection means not synchronized to a signal from the other photodetection means; and also to screen out signals from scattered radiation. 6 figs.

  7. Gamma-Ray Bursts: A Mystery Story

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Parsons, Ann

    2007-01-01

    With the success of the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer currently in orbit, this is quite an exciting time in the history of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). The study of GRBs is a modern astronomical mystery story that began over 30 years ago with the serendipitous discovery of these astronomical events by military satellites in the late 1960's. Until the launch of BATSE on the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory, astronomers had no clue whether GRBs originated at the edge of our solar system, in our own Milky Way Galaxy or incredibly far away near the edge of the observable Universe. Data from BATSE proved that GRBs are distributed isotropically on the sky and thus could not be the related to objects in the disk of our Galaxy. Given the intensity of the gamma-ray emission, an extragalactic origin would require an astounding amount of energy. Without sufficient data to decide the issue, a great debate continued about whether GRBs were located in the halo of our own galaxy or were at extragalactic - even cosmological distances. This debate continued until 1997 when the BeppoSAX mission discovered a fading X-ray afterglow signal in the same location as a GRB. This discovery enabled other telescopes, to observe afterglow emission at optical and radio wavelengths and prove that GRBs were at cosmological distances by measuring large redshifts in the optical spectra. Like BeppoSAX Swift, slews to new GRB locations to measure afterglow emission. In addition to improved GRB sensitivity, a significant advantage of Swift over BeppoSAX and other missions is its ability to slew very quickly, allowing x-ray and optical follow-up measurements to be made as early as a minute after the gamma-ray burst trigger rather than the previous 6-8 hour delay. Swift afterglow measurements along with follow-up ground-based observations, and theoretical work have allowed astronomers to identify two plausible scenarios for the creation of a GRB: either through core collapse of super massive stars or

  8. ESA's Integral solves thirty-year old gamma-ray mystery

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Integral solves mystery hi-res Size hi-res: 60 kb Credits: Credit: ESA, F. Lebrun (CEA-Saclay). ESA's Integral solves thirty-year old gamma-ray mystery The central regions of our galaxy, the Milky Way, as seen by Integral in gamma rays. With its superior ability to see faint details, Integral correctly reveals the individual sources that comprised the foggy, gamma-ray background seen by previous observatories. The brightest 91 objects seen in this image were classified by Integral as individual sources, while the others appear too faint to be properly characterized at this stage. During the spring and autumn of 2003, Integral observed the central regions of our Galaxy, collecting some of the perpetual glow of diffuse low-energy gamma rays that bathe the entire Galaxy. These gamma rays were first discovered in the mid-1970s by high-flying balloon-borne experiments. Astronomers refer to them as the 'soft' Galactic gamma-ray background, with energies similar to those used in medical X-ray equipment. Initially, astronomers believed that the glow was caused by interactions involving the atoms of the gas that pervades the Galaxy. Whilst this theory could explain the diffuse nature of the emission, since the gas is ubiquitous, it failed to match the observed power of the gamma rays. The gamma rays produced by the proposed mechanisms would be much weaker than those observed. The mystery has remained unanswered for decades. Now Integral's superb gamma-ray telescope IBIS, built for ESA by an international consortium led by Principal Investigator Pietro Ubertini (IAS/CNR, Rome, Italy), has seen clearly that, instead of a fog produced by the interstellar medium, most of the gamma-rays are coming from individual celestial objects. In the view of previous, less sensitive instruments, these objects appeared to merge together. In a paper published today in "Nature", Francois Lebrun (CEA Saclay, Gif sur Yvette, France) and his collaborators report the discovery of 91 gamma-ray

  9. Giant collimated gamma-ray flashes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Benedetti, Alberto; Tamburini, Matteo; Keitel, Christoph H.

    2018-06-01

    Bright sources of high-energy electromagnetic radiation are widely employed in fundamental research, industry and medicine1,2. This motivated the construction of Compton-based facilities planned to yield bright gamma-ray pulses with energies up to3 20 MeV. Here, we demonstrate a novel mechanism based on the strongly amplified synchrotron emission that occurs when a sufficiently dense ultra-relativistic electron beam interacts with a millimetre-thickness conductor. For electron beam densities exceeding approximately 3 × 1019 cm-3, electromagnetic instabilities occur, and the ultra-relativistic electrons travel through self-generated electromagnetic fields as large as 107-108 gauss. This results in the production of a collimated gamma-ray pulse with peak brilliance above 1025 photons s-1 mrad-2 mm-2 per 0.1% bandwidth, photon energies ranging from 200 keV to gigaelectronvolts and up to 60% electron-to-photon energy conversion efficiency. These findings pave the way to compact, high-repetition-rate (kilohertz) sources of short (≲30 fs), collimated (milliradian) and high-flux (>1012 photons s-1) gamma-ray pulses.

  10. Recommended Priorities for NASA's Gamma Ray Astronomy Program 1999-2013

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Carol, Ladd

    1999-01-01

    The Gamma-Ray Astronomy Program Working Group (GRAPWG) recommends priorities for the NASA Gamma-Ray Astronomy Program. The highest priority science topic is nuclear astrophysics and sites of gamma ray line emission. Other high priority topics are gamma ray bursts, hard x-ray emission from accreting black holes and neutron stars, the Advanced Compton Telescope (ACT), the High-resolution Spectroscopic Imager (HSI), and the Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST). The recommendations include special consideration for technology development, TeV astronomy, the ultra-long duration balloon (ULDB) program, the International Space Station, optical telescope support, and data analysis and theory.

  11. Gamma-ray Pulsars: Models and Predictions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harding Alice K.; White, Nicholas E. (Technical Monitor)

    2000-01-01

    Pulsed emission from gamma-ray pulsars originates inside the magnetosphere, from radiation by charged particles accelerated near the magnetic poles or in the outer gaps. In polar cap models, the high energy spectrum is cut off by magnetic pair production above an energy that is, dependent on the local magnetic field strength. While most young pulsars with surface fields in the range B = 10(exp 12) - 10(exp 13) G are expected to have high energy cutoffs around several GeV, the gamma-ray spectra of old pulsars having lower surface fields may extend to 50 GeV. Although the gamma-ray emission of older pulsars is weaker, detecting pulsed emission at high energies from nearby sources would be an important confirmation of polar cap models. Outer gap models predict more gradual high-energy turnovers of the primary curvature emission around 10 GeV, but also predict an inverse Compton component extending to TeV energies. Detection of pulsed TeV emission, which would not survive attenuation at the polar caps, is thus an important test of outer gap models. Next-generation gamma-ray telescopes sensitive to GeV-TeV emission will provide critical tests of pulsar acceleration and emission mechanisms.

  12. Probing Intrinsic Properties of Short Gamma-Ray Bursts with Gravitational Waves.

    PubMed

    Fan, Xilong; Messenger, Christopher; Heng, Ik Siong

    2017-11-03

    Progenitors of short gamma-ray bursts are thought to be neutron stars coalescing with their companion black hole or neutron star, which are one of the main gravitational wave sources. We have devised a Bayesian framework for combining gamma-ray burst and gravitational wave information that allows us to probe short gamma-ray burst luminosities. We show that combined short gamma-ray burst and gravitational wave observations not only improve progenitor distance and inclination angle estimates, they also allow the isotropic luminosities of short gamma-ray bursts to be determined without the need for host galaxy or light-curve information. We characterize our approach by simulating 1000 joint short gamma-ray burst and gravitational wave detections by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. We show that ∼90% of the simulations have uncertainties on short gamma-ray burst isotropic luminosity estimates that are within a factor of two of the ideal scenario, where the distance is known exactly. Therefore, isotropic luminosities can be confidently determined for short gamma-ray bursts observed jointly with gravitational waves detected by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. Planned enhancements to Advanced LIGO will extend its range and likely produce several joint detections of short gamma-ray bursts and gravitational waves. Third-generation gravitational wave detectors will allow for isotropic luminosity estimates for the majority of the short gamma-ray burst population within a redshift of z∼1.

  13. The Mystery of Gamma-Ray Bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fishman, Gerald J.

    1998-01-01

    Gamma-ray bursts remain on of the greatest mysteries in astrophysics in spite of recent observational advances and intense theoretical work. Although some of the basic properties of bursts were known 25 years ago, new and more detailed observations have been made by the BATSE (Burst and Transient Source Experiment) experiment on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory in the past five years. Recent observations of bursts and some proposed models will be discussed.

  14. The SWIFT Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hill, J. E.; Burrows, D. N.; Nousek, J. A.; Wells, A.; Chincarini, G.; Abbey, A. F.; Angelini, L.; Beardmore, A.; Brauninger, H. W.; Chang, W.

    2006-01-01

    The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer is designed to make prompt multi-wavelength observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts and GRB afterglows. The X-ray Telescope enables Swift to determine GRB positions with a few arcseconds accuracy within 100 seconds of the burst onset. The XRT utilizes a mirror set built for JET-X and an XMM-Newton/ EPIC MOS CCD detector to provide a sensitive broad-band (0.2-10 keV) X-ray imager with an effective area of more than 120 sq cm at 1.5 keV, a field of view of 23.6 x 23.6 arcminutes, and an angular resolution of 18 arcseconds (HPD). The detection sensitivity is 2x10(exp 14) erg/sq cm/s in 10(exp 4) seconds. The instrument provides automated source detection and position reporting within 5 seconds of target acquisition. It can also measure the redshifts of GRBs with Iron line emission or other spectral features. The XRT operates in an auto-exposure mode, adjusting the CCD readout mode automatically to optimize the science return as the source intensity fades. The XRT measures spectra and lightcurves of the GRB afterglow beginning about a minute after the burst and follows each burst for days or weeks. We provide an overview of the X-ray Telescope scientific background from which the systems engineering requirements were derived, with specific emphasis on the design and qualification aspects from conception through to launch. We describe the impact on cleanliness and vacuum requirements for the instrument low energy response and to maintain the high sensitivity to the fading signal of the Gamma-ray Bursts.

  15. Multiwavelength observations of unidentified high energy gamma ray sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Halpern, Jules P.

    1993-01-01

    As was the case for COS B, the majority of high-energy (greater than 100 MeV) gamma-ray sources detected by the EGRET instrument on GRO are not immediately identifiable with cataloged objects at other wavelengths. These persistent gamma-ray sources are, next to the gamma-ray bursts, the least understood objects in the universe. Even a rudimentary understanding of their nature awaits identifications and follow-up work at other wavelengths to tell us what they are. The as yet unidentified sources are potentially the most interesting, since they may represent unrecognized new classes of astronomical objects, such as radio-quiet pulsars or new types of active galactic nuclei (AGN's). This two-year investigation is intended to support the analysis, correlation, and theoretical interpretation of data that we are obtaining at x ray, optical, and radio wavelengths in order to render the gamma-ray data interpretable. According to plan, in the first year concentration was on the identification and study of Geminga. The second year will be devoted to studies of similar unidentified gamma-ray sources which will become available in the first EGRET catalogs. The results obtained so far are presented in the two papers which are reproduced in the Appendix. In these papers, we discuss the pulse profiles of Geminga, the geometry and efficiency of the magnetospheric accelerator, the distance to Geminga, the implications for theories of polar cap heating, the effect of the magnetic field on the surface emission and environment of the neutron star, and possible interpretations of a radio-quiet Geminga. The implications of the other gamma-ray pulsars which were discovered to have high gamma-ray efficiency are also discussed, and the remaining unidentified COS B sources are attributed to a population of efficient gamma-ray sources, some of which may be radio quiet.

  16. Swift J1822.3-1606: Optical spectroscopy of the counterpart candidates from the 10.4m GTC

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Ugarte Postigo, A.; Munoz-Darias, T.

    2011-07-01

    We have performed optical spectroscopy of the two objects (S1 and S2; ATEL #3496, #3502) present within the Swift/XRT error circle of the Soft Gamma-ray Repeater (SGR) candidate, Swift J1822.3-1606 (ATEL #3488, #3489, #3490, #3491, #3493, #3501, #3503). Observations were performed on July 20, 2011 using the OSIRIS spectrograph at the 10.4m Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC) telescope in La Palma, Spain.

  17. Simulating Gamma-Ray Emission in Star-forming Galaxies

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Pfrommer, Christoph; Pakmor, Rüdiger; Simpson, Christine M.

    Star-forming galaxies emit GeV and TeV gamma-rays that are thought to originate from hadronic interactions of cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei with the interstellar medium. To understand the emission, we have used the moving-mesh code Arepo to perform magnetohydrodynamical galaxy formation simulations with self-consistent CR physics. Our galaxy models exhibit a first burst of star formation that injects CRs at supernovae. Once CRs have sufficiently accumulated in our Milky Way–like galaxy, their buoyancy force overcomes the magnetic tension of the toroidal disk field. As field lines open up, they enable anisotropically diffusing CRs to escape into the halo and to accelerate amore » bubble-like, CR-dominated outflow. However, these bubbles are invisible in our simulated gamma-ray maps of hadronic pion-decay and secondary inverse-Compton emission because of low gas density in the outflows. By adopting a phenomenological relation between star formation rate (SFR) and far-infrared emission and assuming that gamma-rays mainly originate from decaying pions, our simulated galaxies can reproduce the observed tight relation between far-infrared and gamma-ray emission, independent of whether we account for anisotropic CR diffusion. This demonstrates that uncertainties in modeling active CR transport processes only play a minor role in predicting gamma-ray emission from galaxies. We find that in starbursts, most of the CR energy is “calorimetrically” lost to hadronic interactions. In contrast, the gamma-ray emission deviates from this calorimetric property at low SFRs due to adiabatic losses, which cannot be identified in traditional one-zone models.« less

  18. Simulating Gamma-Ray Emission in Star-forming Galaxies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pfrommer, Christoph; Pakmor, Rüdiger; Simpson, Christine M.; Springel, Volker

    2017-10-01

    Star-forming galaxies emit GeV and TeV gamma-rays that are thought to originate from hadronic interactions of cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei with the interstellar medium. To understand the emission, we have used the moving-mesh code Arepo to perform magnetohydrodynamical galaxy formation simulations with self-consistent CR physics. Our galaxy models exhibit a first burst of star formation that injects CRs at supernovae. Once CRs have sufficiently accumulated in our Milky Way-like galaxy, their buoyancy force overcomes the magnetic tension of the toroidal disk field. As field lines open up, they enable anisotropically diffusing CRs to escape into the halo and to accelerate a bubble-like, CR-dominated outflow. However, these bubbles are invisible in our simulated gamma-ray maps of hadronic pion-decay and secondary inverse-Compton emission because of low gas density in the outflows. By adopting a phenomenological relation between star formation rate (SFR) and far-infrared emission and assuming that gamma-rays mainly originate from decaying pions, our simulated galaxies can reproduce the observed tight relation between far-infrared and gamma-ray emission, independent of whether we account for anisotropic CR diffusion. This demonstrates that uncertainties in modeling active CR transport processes only play a minor role in predicting gamma-ray emission from galaxies. We find that in starbursts, most of the CR energy is “calorimetrically” lost to hadronic interactions. In contrast, the gamma-ray emission deviates from this calorimetric property at low SFRs due to adiabatic losses, which cannot be identified in traditional one-zone models.

  19. Investigation of gamma rays from the galactic center

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Helmken, H. F.

    1973-01-01

    Data from Argentine balloon flights made to investigate gamma ray emission from the galactic center are summarized. Data are also summarized from a Palestine, Texas balloon flight to measure gamma rays from NP 0532 and Crab Nebulae.

  20. Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope: Highlights of the GeV Sky

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thomspon, D. J.

    2011-01-01

    Because high-energy gamma rays can be produced by processes that also produce neutrinos. the gamma-ray survey of the sky by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope offers a view of potenl ial targds for neutrino observations. Gamma-ray bursts. active galactic nuclei, and supernova remnants are all sites where hadronic, neutrino-producing interactions are plausible. Pulsars, pulsar wind nebulae, and binary sources are all phenomena that reveal leptonic particle acceleration through their gamma-ray emission. \\Vhile important to gamma-ray astrophysics. such sources are of less interest to neutrino studies. This talk will present a broad overview of the constantly changing sky seen with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi spacecraft.

  1. NuSTAR Observations of Two New Black Hole X-ray Binary Candidates within 1 pc of Sgr A*

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hord, Benjamin; Hailey, Charles; Mori, Kaya; Mandel, Shifra

    2018-01-01

    Remarkably, two new X-ray transients were discovered in outburst within ~1 pc of the Galactic Center by the Swift X-ray Telescope in the first half of 2016. A few weeks after each outburst began, NuSTAR ToO observations were triggered for both of the objects. These sources have no known counterparts at other energies. Both objects exhibit relativistically broadened Fe lines in their spectra and possible quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO) in their power spectra, which are features seen in many black hole X-ray binaries. Combined with the fact that there have been no previously observed large outbursts at these positions over the decade of the Swift X-ray Telescope galactic center monitoring campaign, these sources make for prime black hole binary candidates (BHC) rather than neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (NS-LMXB), which have a known short (<~5 year) recurrence time. We will present 3-79 keV NuSTAR spectra and timing analysis of these sources that supports a black hole binary interpretation over a neutron star scenario. These new BHC, combined with at least one other previously discovered BHC near the Galactic Center, hint at a potentially substantive black hole population in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole at Sgr A*.

  2. Very high energy gamma ray extension of GRO observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Weekes, Trevor C.

    1992-01-01

    This has been an exiciting year for high energy gamma-ray astronomy, both from space and from ground-based observatories. It has been a particularly active period for the Whipple Observatory gamma-ray group. In phase 1 of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), there has not been too much opportunity for overlapping observations with the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) and the other GRO telescopes; however, significant progress was made in the development of data analysis techniques and in improving the sensitivity of the technique which will have direct application in correlative observations in phase 2. Progress made during the period 1 Jul. 1991 - 31 Dec. 1991 is presented.

  3. Thermal-neutron capture gamma-rays. Volume 1

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tuli, J.K.

    1997-05-01

    The energy and photon intensity of gamma rays as seen in thermal-neutron capture are presented in ascending order of gamma energy. All those gamma-rays with intensity of {ge} 2% of the strongest transition are included. The two strongest transitions seen for the target nuclide are indicated in each case. Where the target nuclide mass number is indicated as nat the natural target was used. The gamma energies given are in keV. The gamma intensities given are relative to 100 for the strongest transition. All data for A > 44 are taken from Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (4/97), a computermore » file of evaluated nuclear structure data maintained by the National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, on behalf of the Nuclear Structure and Decay and Decay Data network, coordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna. These data are published in Nuclear Data Sheets, Academic Press, San Diego, CA. The data for A {le} 44 is taken from ``Prompt Gamma Rays from Thermal-Neutron Capture,`` M.A. Lone, R.A. Leavitt, D.A. Harrison, Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables 26, 511 (1981).« less

  4. Energy spectrum of extragalactic gamma-ray sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Protheroe, R. J.

    1985-01-01

    The result of Monte Carlo electron photon cascade calculations for propagation of gamma rays through regions of extragalactic space containing no magnetic field are given. These calculations then provide upper limits to the expected flux from extragalactic sources. Since gamma rays in the 10 to the 14th power eV to 10 to the 17th power eV energy range are of interest, interactions of electrons and photons with the 3 K microwave background radiation are considered. To obtain an upper limit to the expected gamma ray flux from sources, the intergalactic field is assumed to be so low that it can be ignored. Interactions with photons of the near-infrared background radiation are not considered here although these will have important implications for gamma rays below 10 to the 14th power eV if the near infrared background radiation is universal. Interaction lengths of electrons and photons in the microwave background radiation at a temperature of 2.96 K were calculated and are given.

  5. Pulsar gamma-rays: Spectra luminosities and efficiencies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harding, A. K.

    1980-01-01

    The general characteristics of pulsar gamma ray spectra are presented for a model where the gamma rays are produced by curvature radiation from energetic particles above the polar cap and attenuated by pair production. The shape of the spectrum is found to depend on pulsar period, magnetic field strength, and primary particle energy. By a comparison of numerically calculated spectra with the observed spectra of the Crab and Vela pulsars, it is determined that primary particles must be accelerated to energies of about 3 x 10 to the 7th power mc sq. A genaral formula for pulsar gamma ray luminosity is determined and is found to depend on period and field strength.

  6. Propagation of Cosmic Rays and Diffuse Galactic Gamma Rays

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moskalenko, Igor V.

    2004-01-01

    This paper presents an introduction to the astrophysics of cosmic rays and diffuse gamma-rays and discusses some of the puzzles that have emerged recently due to more precise data and improved propagation models: the excesses in Galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission, secondary antiprotons and positrons, and the flatter than expected gradient of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. These also involve the dark matter, a challenge to modern physics, through its indirect searches in cosmic rays. Though the final solutions are yet to be found, I discuss some ideas and results obtained mostly with the numerical propagation model GALPROP. A fleet of spacecraft and balloon experiments targeting these specific issues is set to lift off in a few years, imparting a feeling of optimism that a new era of exciting discoveries is just around the corner. A complete and comprehensive discussion of all the recent results is not attempted here due to the space limitations.

  7. Gamma-ray irradiation enhanced boron-10 compound accumulation in murine tumors.

    PubMed

    Liu, Yong; Nagata, Kenji; Masunaga, Shin-ichiro; Suzuki, Minoru; Kashino, Genro; Kinashi, Yuko; Tanaka, Hiroki; Sakurai, Yoshinori; Maruhashi, Akira; Ono, Koji

    2009-11-01

    Previous studies have demonstrated that X-ray irradiation affects angiogenesis in tumors. Here, we studied the effects of gamma-ray irradiation on boron-10 compound accumulation in a murine tumor model. The mouse squamous cell carcinoma was irradiated with gamma-ray before BSH ((10)B-enriched borocaptate sodium) administration. Then, the boron-10 concentrations in tumor and normal muscle tissues were measured by prompt gamma-ray spectrometry (PGA). A tumor blood flow assay was performed, and cell killing effects of neutron irradiation with various combinations of BSH and gamma-rays were also examined. BSH concentrations of tumor tissues were 16.1 +/- 0.6 microg/g, 16.7 +/- 0.5 microg/g and 17.8 +/- 0.5 microg/g at 72 hours after gamma-ray irradiation at doses of 5, 10, and 20 Gy, compared with 13.1 +/- 0.5 microg/g in unirradiated tumor tissues. The enhancing inhibition of colony formation by neutron irradiation with BSH was also found after gamma-ray irradiation. In addition, increasing Hoechst 33342 perfusion was also observed. In this study, we demonstrated that gamma-ray irradiation enhances BSH accumulation in tumors. The present results suggest that the enhancement of (10)B concentration that occurs after gamma-ray irradiation may be due to the changes in the extracellular microenvironment, including in tumor vessels, induced by gamma-ray irradiation.

  8. Computational techniques in gamma-ray skyshine analysis

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    George, D.L.

    1988-12-01

    Two computer codes were developed to analyze gamma-ray skyshine, the scattering of gamma photons by air molecules. A review of previous gamma-ray skyshine studies discusses several Monte Carlo codes, programs using a single-scatter model, and the MicroSkyshine program for microcomputers. A benchmark gamma-ray skyshine experiment performed at Kansas State University is also described. A single-scatter numerical model was presented which traces photons from the source to their first scatter, then applies a buildup factor along a direct path from the scattering point to a detector. The FORTRAN code SKY, developed with this model before the present study, was modified tomore » use Gauss quadrature, recent photon attenuation data and a more accurate buildup approximation. The resulting code, SILOGP, computes response from a point photon source on the axis of a silo, with and without concrete shielding over the opening. Another program, WALLGP, was developed using the same model to compute response from a point gamma source behind a perfectly absorbing wall, with and without shielding overhead. 29 refs., 48 figs., 13 tabs.« less

  9. Method and System for Gamma-Ray Localization Induced Spacecraft Navigation Using Celestial Gamma-Ray Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hisamoto, Chuck (Inventor); Arzoumanian, Zaven (Inventor); Sheikh, Suneel I. (Inventor)

    2015-01-01

    A method and system for spacecraft navigation using distant celestial gamma-ray bursts which offer detectable, bright, high-energy events that provide well-defined characteristics conducive to accurate time-alignment among spatially separated spacecraft. Utilizing assemblages of photons from distant gamma-ray bursts, relative range between two spacecraft can be accurately computed along the direction to each burst's source based upon the difference in arrival time of the burst emission at each spacecraft's location. Correlation methods used to time-align the high-energy burst profiles are provided. The spacecraft navigation may be carried out autonomously or in a central control mode of operation.

  10. Apollo-Soyuz pamphlet no. 2: X-rays, gamma-rays. [experimental design

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Page, L. W.; From, T. P.

    1977-01-01

    The nature of high energy radiation and its penetration through earth's atmosphere is examined with emphasis on X-rays, gamma rays, and cosmic radiation and the instruments used in their detection. The history of radio astronomy and the capabilities of the Uhuru satellite are summarized. The ASTP soft X-ray experiment (MA-048) designed to study the spectra in the range from 0.1 to 10 keV and survey the background over a large section of the sky is described, as well as the determination of SMC C-1 as an X-ray pulsar. The crystal activation experiment (MA-151) used to measure the radioactive isotopes created by cosmic rays in crystals used for gamma ray detectors is also discussed.

  11. Fermi: The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope Mission Status

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McEnery, Julie E

    2014-01-01

    Following its launch in June 2008, high-energy gamma-ray observations by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have unveiled over 1000 new sources and opened an important and previously unexplored window on a wide variety of phenomena. These have included the discovery of a population of pulsars pulsing only in gamma rays; the detection of photons up to 10s of gigaelectronvolts from gamma-ray bursts, enhancing our understanding of the astrophysics of these powerful explosions; the detection of hundreds of active galaxies; a measurement of the high energy cosmic-ray electron spectrum which may imply the presence of nearby astrophysical particle accelerators; the determination of the diffuse gamma-ray emission with unprecedented accuracy and the constraints on phenomena such as super-symmetric dark-matter annihilations and exotic relics from the Big Bang. Continuous monitoring of the high-energy gamma-ray sky has uncovered numerous outbursts from active galaxies and the discovery of transient sources in our galaxy. In this talk I will describe the current status of the Fermi observatory and review the science highlights from Fermi.

  12. A TIGHT CONNECTION BETWEEN GAMMA-RAY OUTBURSTS AND PARSEC-SCALE JET ACTIVITY IN THE QUASAR 3C 454.3

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jorstad, Svetlana G.; Marscher, Alan P.; Agudo, Ivan

    2013-08-20

    We analyze the multi-frequency behavior of the quasar 3C 454.3 during three prominent {gamma}-ray outbursts: 2009 Autumn, 2010 Spring, and 2010 Autumn. The data reveal a repeating pattern, including a triple flare structure, in the properties of each {gamma}-ray outburst, which implies similar mechanism(s) and location for all three events. The multi-frequency behavior indicates that the lower frequency events are co-spatial with the {gamma}-ray outbursts, although the {gamma}-ray emission varies on the shortest timescales. We determine that the variability from UV to IR wavelengths during an outburst results from a single synchrotron component whose properties do not change significantly overmore » the different outbursts. Despite a general increase in the degree of optical linear polarization during an outburst, the polarization drops significantly at the peak of the {gamma}-ray event, which suggests that both shocks and turbulent processes are involved. We detect two disturbances (knots) with superluminal apparent speeds in the parsec-scale jet associated with the outbursts in 2009 Autumn and 2010 Autumn. The kinematic properties of the knots can explain the difference in amplitudes of the {gamma}-ray events, while their millimeter-wave polarization is related to the optical polarization during the outbursts. We interpret the multi-frequency behavior within models involving either a system of standing conical shocks or magnetic reconnection events located in the parsec-scale millimeter-wave core of the jet. We argue that {gamma}-ray outbursts with variability timescales as short as {approx}3 hr can occur on parsec scales if flares take place in localized regions such as turbulent cells.« less

  13. Observation of fluctuation of gamma-ray count rate accompanying thunderstorm activity and energy spectrum of gamma rays in the atmosphere up to several kilometers altitude from the ground

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Torii, T.; Sanada, Y.; Watanabe, A.

    2017-12-01

    In the vicinity of the tops of high mountains and in the coastal areas of the Sea of Japan in winter, the generation of high energy photons that lasts more than 100 seconds at the occurrence of thunderclouds has been reported. At the same time, 511 keV gamma rays are also detected. On the other hand, we irradiated a radiosonde equipped with gamma-ray detectors at the time of thunderstorm and observed fluctuation in gamma-ray count-rate. As a result, we found that the gamma-ray count-rate increases significantly near the top of the thundercloud. Therefore, in order to investigate the fluctuation of the energy of the gamma rays, we developed a radiation detector for radiosonde to observe the fluctuation of the low energy gamma-ray spectrum and observed the fluctuation of the gamma-ray spectrum. We will describe the counting rate and spectral fluctuation of gamma-ray detectors for radiosonde observed in the sky in Fukushima prefecture, Japan.

  14. Development of the instruments for the Gamma Ray Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Madden, J. J.; Kniffen, D. A.

    1986-01-01

    The Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) is to be launched in 1988 by the STS. The GRO will feature four very large instruments: the Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (OSSE), the Imaging Compton Telescope (COMPTEL), the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) and the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE). The instruments weigh from 900-1200 kg each, and required the development of specialized lifting and dolly devices to permit their assembly, manipulation and testing. The GRO is intended a{s a tool for studying discrete celestial objects such as black holes, neutron stars and other gamma-ray emitting objects, scanning for nucleosynthesis processes, mapping the Galaxy and other, high energy galaxies in terms of gamma rays, searching for cosmological effects and observing gamma ray bursts. The instruments will be sensitive from the upper end mof X-rya wavelengths to the highest energies possible. Details of the hardware and performance specifications of each of the instruments are discussed.

  15. AGIS: A Next-generation TeV Gamma-ray Observatory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vandenbroucke, Justin

    2010-05-01

    The Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System (AGIS) is a next-generation array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes for gamma-ray astronomy in the 100 GeV to 100 TeV band. TeV astronomy has flourished in the last few years. Together with the extremely successful first year of the Fermi LAT telescope for GeV gamma-ray astronomy, we are now in a golden age of gamma-ray astronomy. AGIS seeks to continue the success of gamma-ray astronomy by discovering hundreds of new TeV sources and improving our understanding of known sources, as well as searching for signals from dark matter annihilation. AGIS will feature 36 Schwarzschild-Couder (SC) telescopes spanning 1 km2. The two-mirror SC design allows a wide field of view (8 deg diameter) and high-resolution (0.05 deg diameter) pixellation. I will present the science capabilities of the AGIS observatory as well as the technical design and current status of the project.

  16. The large area high resolution gamma ray astrophysics facility - HR-GRAF

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fenyves, E. J.; Chaney, R. C.; Hoffman, J. H.; Cline, D. B.; Atac, M.; Park, J.; White, S. R.; Zych, A. D.; Tumer, Q. T.; Hughes, E. B.

    1990-03-01

    The long-term program is described in terms of its equipment, scientific objectives, and long-range scientific studies. A prototype of a space-based large-area high-resolution gamma-ray facility (HR-GRAF) is being developed to examine pointlike and diffuse gamma-ray sources in the range 1 MeV-100 GeV. The instrument for the facility is proposed to have high angular and energy resolution and very high sensitivity to permit the study of the proposed objects. The primary research targets include the mapping of galactic gamma radiation, observing the angular variations of diffuse gamma rays, and studying the Galactic center with particular emphasis on the hypothetical black hole. Also included in the research plans are obtaining data on gamma-ray bursters, investigating the transmission of gamma rays from cold dark matter, and studying nuclear gamma-ray lines.

  17. Statistical properties of the time histories of cosmic gamma-ray bursts detected by the BATSE experiment of the Compton gamma-ray observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sagdeev, Roald

    1995-01-01

    The main scientific objectives of the project were: (1) Calculation of average time history for different subsets of BATSE gamma-ray bursts; (2) Comparison of averaged parameters and averaged time history for different Burst And Transient Source Experiments (BASTE) Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB's) sets; (3) Comparison of results obtained with BATSE data with those obtained with APEX experiment at PHOBOS mission; and (4) Use the results of (1)-(3) to compare current models of gamma-ray bursts sources.

  18. Cosmic-ray physics with the milagro gamma-ray observatory

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sinnis, Gus

    2008-01-01

    The Milagro gamma-ray observatory is a water Cherenkov detector with an energy response between 100 GeV and 100 TeV. While the major scientific goals of Milagro were to detect and study cosmic sources of TeV gamma rays, Milagro has made measurements important to furthering our understanding of the cosmic radiation that pervades our Galaxy. Milagro has made the first measurement of the Galactic diffuse emission in the TeV energy band. In the Cygnus Region we measure a flux {approx}2.7 times that predicted by GALPROP. Milagro has also made measurements of the anisotropy of the arrival directions of the local cosmicmore » radiation. On large scales the measurements made by Milagro agree with those previously reported by the Tibet AS{gamma} array. However, we have also discovered a time dependence to this anisotropy, perhaps due to solar modulation. On smaller scales, {approx}10 degrees, we have detected two regions of excess. These excesses have a spectrum that is inconsistent with the local cosmic-ray spectrum.« less

  19. Search for Sub-TeV Gamma Rays Coincident with BATSE Gamma Ray Bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    D'Andrea, C. P.; D'Andrea, Christopher; Gress, Joseph; Race, Doran

    2003-07-01

    project GRAND is a 100m × 100m air shower array of proportional wire chambers (PWCs). There are 64 stations each with eight 1.29 m2 PWC planes arranged in four orthogonal pairs placed vertically above one another to geometrically measure the angles of charged secondaries. A steel plate above the bottom pair of PWCs differentiates muons (which pass undeflected through the steel) from non-p enetrating particles. FLUKA Monte Carlo studies show that a TeV gamma ray striking the atmosphere at normal incidence produces 0.23 muons which reach ground level where their angles and identities are measured. Thus, paradoxically, secondary muons are used as a signature for gamma ray primaries. The data are examined for possible angular and time coincidences with eight gamma ray bursts (GRBs) detected by BATSE. Seven of the GRBs were selected because of their good acceptance by GRAND and high BATSE fluence. The eighth GRB was added due to its possible coincident detection by Milagrito. For each of the eight candidate GRBs, the number of excess counts during the BATSE T90 time interval and within ±5° of BATSE's direction was obtained. The highest statistical significance reported in this paper (2.7σ ) is for the event that was predicted to be the most likely to be observed (GRB 971110).

  20. Exploring the Extreme Universe with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, D. J.

    2010-01-01

    Because high-energy gamma rays are produced by powerful sources, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope provides a window on extreme conditions in the Universe. Some key observations of the constantly changing gamma-ray sky include: (1) Gamma-rays from pulsars appear to come from a region well above the surface of the neutron star; (2) Multiwavelength studies of blazars show that simple models of jet emission are not always adequate to explain what is seen; (3) Gamma-ray bursts can constrain models of quantum gravity; (4) Cosmic-ray electrons at energies approaching 1 TeV suggest a local source for some of these particles.

  1. Day-Scale Variability of 3C 279 and Searches for Correlations in Gamma-Ray, X-Ray and Optical Bands

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hartman, R. C.; Villata, M.; Balonek, T. J.; Bertsch, D. L.; Bock, H.; Boettcher, M.; Carini, M. T.; Collmar, W.; DeFrancesco, G.; Ferrera, E. C.; hide

    2001-01-01

    Light curves of 3C 279 are presented in optical (R-band), X-rays (RXTE/PCA), and gamma rays (CGRO/EGRET) for 1999 Jan-Feb and 2000 Jan-Mar. During both of those epochs the gamma-ray levels were high, and all three observed bands demonstrated substantial variation, on time scales as short as one day. Correlation analyses provided no consistent pattern, although a rather significant optical/gamma-ray correlation was seen in 1999, with a gamma-ray lag of approximately 2.5 days, and there are other suggestions of correlations in the light curves. For comparison, correlation analysis is also presented for the gamma-ray and X-ray light curves during the large gamma-ray flare in 1996 Feb and the two gamma-bright weeks leading up to it; the correlation at that time was strong, with a gamma-ray/X-ray offset of no more than one day.

  2. Research in cosmic and gamma ray astrophysics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stone, Edward C.; Mewaldt, Richard A.; Prince, Thomas A.

    1992-01-01

    Discussed here is research in cosmic ray and gamma ray astrophysics at the Space Radiation Laboratory (SRL) of the California Institute of Technology. The primary activities discussed involve the development of new instrumentation and techniques for future space flight. In many cases these instrumentation developments were tested in balloon flight instruments designed to conduct new investigations in cosmic ray and gamma ray astrophysics. The results of these investigations are briefly summarized. Specific topics include a quantitative investigation of the solar modulation of cosmic ray protons and helium nuclei, a study of cosmic ray positron and electron spectra in interplanetary and interstellar space, the solar modulation of cosmic rays, an investigation of techniques for the measurement and interpretation of cosmic ray isotopic abundances, and a balloon measurement of the isotopic composition of galactic cosmic ray boron, carbon, and nitrogen.

  3. The AGILE Mission and Gamma-Ray Bursts

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Longo, Francesco; INFN, section of Trieste; Tavani, M.

    2007-05-01

    The AGILE Mission will explore the gamma-ray Universe with a very innovative instrument combining for the first time a gamma-ray imager and a hard X-ray imager. AGILE will be operational at the beginning of 2007 and it will provide crucial data for the study of Active Galactic Nuclei, Gamma-Ray Bursts, unidentified gamma-ray sources, Galactic compact objects, supernova remnants, TeV sources, and fundamental physics by microsecond timing. The AGILE instrument is designed to simultaneously detect and image photons in the 30 MeV - 50 GeV and 15 - 45 keV energy bands with excellent imaging and timing capabilities, and a largemore » field of view covering {approx} 1/5 of the entire sky at energies above 30 MeV. A CsI calorimeter is capable of GRB triggering in the energy band 0.3-50 MeV. The broadband detection of GRBs and the study of implications for particle acceleration and high energy emission are primary goals of the mission. AGILE can image GRBs with 2-3 arcminute error boxes in the hard X-ray range, and provide broadband photon-by photon detection in the 15-45 keV, 03-50 MeV, and 30 MeV-30 GeV energy ranges. Microsecond on-board photon tagging and a {approx} 100 microsecond gamma-ray detection deadtime will be crucial for fast GRB timing. On-board calculated GRB coordinates and energy fluxes will be quickly transmitted to the ground by an ORBCOMM transceiver. AGILE is now (January 2007) undergoing final satellite integration and testing. The PLS V launch is planned in spring 2007. AGILE is then foreseen to be fully operational during the summer of 2007.« less

  4. The sensitivity of EGRET to gamma ray polarization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mattox, John R.

    1990-05-01

    A Monte Carlo simulation shows that EGRET (Energetic Gamma-Ray Experimental Telescope) does not even have sufficient sensitivity to detect 100 percent polarized gamma-rays. This is confirmed by analysis of calibration data. A Monte Carlo study shows that the sensitivity of EGRET to polarization peaks around 100 MeV. However, more than 10 5 gamma-ray events with 100 percent polarization would be required for a 3 sigma significance detection - more than available from calibration, and probably more than will result from a single score source during flight. A drift chamber gamma ray telescope under development (Hunter and Cuddapah 1989) will offer better sensitivity to polarization. The lateral position uncertainty will be improved by an order of magnitude. Also, if pair production occurs in the drift chamber gas (xenon at 2 bar) instead of tantalum foils, the effects of multiple Coulomb scattering will be reduced.

  5. Time correlation between the radio and gamma-ray activity in blazars and the production site of the gamma-ray emission

    DOE PAGES

    Max-Moerbeck, W.; Hovatta, T.; Richards, J. L.; ...

    2014-09-22

    In order to determine the location of the gamma-ray emission site in blazars, we investigate the time-domain relationship between their radio and gamma-ray emission. Light-curves for the brightest detected blazars from the first 3 years of the mission of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope are cross-correlated with 4 years of 15GHz observations from the OVRO 40-m monitoring program. The large sample and long light-curve duration enable us to carry out a statistically robust analysis of the significance of the cross-correlations, which is investigated using Monte Carlo simulations including the uneven sampling and noise properties of the light-curves. Modeling the light-curvesmore » as red noise processes with power-law power spectral densities, we find that only one of 41 sources with high quality data in both bands shows correlations with significance larger than 3σ (AO0235+164), with only two more larger than even 2.25σ (PKS 1502+106 and B2 2308+34). Additionally, we find correlated variability in Mrk 421 when including a strong flare that occurred in July-September 2012. These results demonstrate very clearly the difficulty of measuring statistically robust multiwavelength correlations and the care needed when comparing light-curves even when many years of data are used. This should be a caution. In all four sources the radio variations lag the gamma-ray variations, suggesting that the gamma-ray emission originates upstream of the radio emission. Continuous simultaneous monitoring over a longer time period is required to obtain high significance levels in cross-correlations between gamma-ray and radio variability in most blazars.« less

  6. THE EINSTEIN@HOME GAMMA-RAY PULSAR SURVEY. I. SEARCH METHODS, SENSITIVITY, AND DISCOVERY OF NEW YOUNG GAMMA-RAY PULSARS

    DOE PAGES

    Clark, C. J.; Wu, J.; Pletsch, H. J.; ...

    2017-01-05

    Here, we report on the results of a recent blind search survey for gamma-ray pulsars in Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data being carried out on the distributed volunteer computing system, Einstein@Home. The survey has searched for pulsations in 118 unidentified pulsar-like sources, requiring about 10,000 years of CPU core time. In total, this survey has resulted in the discovery of 17 new gamma-ray pulsars, of which 13 are newly reported in this work, and an accompanying paper. These pulsars are all young, isolated pulsars with characteristic ages between 12 kyr and 2 Myr, and spin-down powers between 10 34 and 4 × 10 36 erg s -1. Two of these are the slowest spinning gamma-ray pulsars yet known. One pulsar experienced a very large glitchmore » $${\\rm{\\Delta }}f/f\\approx 3.5\\times {10}^{-6}$$ during the Fermi mission. In this, the first of two associated papers, we describe the search scheme used in this survey, and estimate the sensitivity of our search to pulsations in unidentified Fermi-LAT sources. One such estimate results in an upper limit of 57% for the fraction of pulsed emission from the gamma-ray source associated with the Cas A supernova remnant, constraining the pulsed gamma-ray photon flux that can be produced by the neutron star at its center. Lastly, we also present the results of precise timing analyses for each of the newly detected pulsars.« less

  7. THE EINSTEIN@HOME GAMMA-RAY PULSAR SURVEY. I. SEARCH METHODS, SENSITIVITY, AND DISCOVERY OF NEW YOUNG GAMMA-RAY PULSARS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Clark, C. J.; Wu, J.; Pletsch, H. J.

    Here, we report on the results of a recent blind search survey for gamma-ray pulsars in Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data being carried out on the distributed volunteer computing system, Einstein@Home. The survey has searched for pulsations in 118 unidentified pulsar-like sources, requiring about 10,000 years of CPU core time. In total, this survey has resulted in the discovery of 17 new gamma-ray pulsars, of which 13 are newly reported in this work, and an accompanying paper. These pulsars are all young, isolated pulsars with characteristic ages between 12 kyr and 2 Myr, and spin-down powers between 10 34 and 4 × 10 36 erg s -1. Two of these are the slowest spinning gamma-ray pulsars yet known. One pulsar experienced a very large glitchmore » $${\\rm{\\Delta }}f/f\\approx 3.5\\times {10}^{-6}$$ during the Fermi mission. In this, the first of two associated papers, we describe the search scheme used in this survey, and estimate the sensitivity of our search to pulsations in unidentified Fermi-LAT sources. One such estimate results in an upper limit of 57% for the fraction of pulsed emission from the gamma-ray source associated with the Cas A supernova remnant, constraining the pulsed gamma-ray photon flux that can be produced by the neutron star at its center. Lastly, we also present the results of precise timing analyses for each of the newly detected pulsars.« less

  8. The Einstein@Home Gamma-ray Pulsar Survey. I. Search Methods, Sensitivity, and Discovery of New Young Gamma-Ray Pulsars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Clark, C. J.; Wu, J.; Pletsch, H. J.; Guillemot, L.; Allen, B.; Aulbert, C.; Beer, C.; Bock, O.; Cuéllar, A.; Eggenstein, H. B.; Fehrmann, H.; Kramer, M.; Machenschalk, B.; Nieder, L.

    2017-01-01

    We report on the results of a recent blind search survey for gamma-ray pulsars in Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data being carried out on the distributed volunteer computing system, Einstein@Home. The survey has searched for pulsations in 118 unidentified pulsar-like sources, requiring about 10,000 years of CPU core time. In total, this survey has resulted in the discovery of 17 new gamma-ray pulsars, of which 13 are newly reported in this work, and an accompanying paper. These pulsars are all young, isolated pulsars with characteristic ages between 12 kyr and 2 Myr, and spin-down powers between 1034 and 4 × 1036 erg s-1. Two of these are the slowest spinning gamma-ray pulsars yet known. One pulsar experienced a very large glitch {{Δ }}f/f≈ 3.5× {10}-6 during the Fermi mission. In this, the first of two associated papers, we describe the search scheme used in this survey, and estimate the sensitivity of our search to pulsations in unidentified Fermi-LAT sources. One such estimate results in an upper limit of 57% for the fraction of pulsed emission from the gamma-ray source associated with the Cas A supernova remnant, constraining the pulsed gamma-ray photon flux that can be produced by the neutron star at its center. We also present the results of precise timing analyses for each of the newly detected pulsars.

  9. Modulated method for efficient, narrow-bandwidth, laser Compton X-ray and gamma-ray sources

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Barty, Christopher P. J.

    A method of x-ray and gamma-ray generation via laser Compton scattering uses the interaction of a specially-formatted, highly modulated, long duration, laser pulse with a high-frequency train of high-brightness electron bunches to both create narrow bandwidth x-ray and gamma-ray sources and significantly increase the laser to Compton photon conversion efficiency.

  10. Fermi Sees the Gamma Ray Sky

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2009-10-30

    This view of the gamma-ray sky constructed from one year of Fermi LAT observations is the best view of the extreme universe to date. The map shows the rate at which the LAT detects gamma rays with energies above 300 million electron volts -- about 120 million times the energy of visible light -- from different sky directions. Brighter colors equal higher rates. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration Full story: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/first_year.html

  11. Gamma-ray line afterglow from burst environments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fencl, H. S.; Boyd, R. N.; Hartmann, Dieter

    1992-01-01

    We consider photoerosion and direct pair production in a medium surrounding a gamma-ray burst. The resulting secondary gamma-rays may provide diagnostic tools of these environments and, in turn, of the nature of the bursters themselves. In some instances short-lived nuclides are formed; the beta-delayed gamma-rays produced from their decays provide the signatures of the photoerosion. In addition, annihilation radiation produced from positrons resulting from direct pair production is related to the plasma conditions in the medium. We investigate the plausibility of detecting the various radiations. Under extremely favorable conditions, the photoerosion afterglow might be detectable with the present generation of detectors. However, the positron annihilation line should be detectable under a fairly wide range in the conditions of the medium.

  12. Gamma rays from pulsar wind shock acceleration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harding, Alice K.

    1990-01-01

    A shock forming in the wind of relativistic electron-positron pairs from a pulsar, as a result of confinement by surrounding material, could convert part of the pulsar spin-down luminosity to high energy particles through first order Fermi acceleration. High energy protons could be produced by this mechanism both in supernova remnants and in binary systems containing pulsars. The pion-decay gamma-rays resulting from interaction of accelerated protons with surrounding target material in such sources might be observable above 70 MeV with EGRET (Energetic Gamma-Ray Experimental Telescope) and above 100 GeV with ground-based detectors. Acceleration of protons and expected gamma-ray fluxes from SN1987A, Cyg X-3 type sources and binary pulsars are discussed.

  13. Population Synthesis of Radio & Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Frederick, Sara; Gonthier, P. L.; Harding, A. K.

    2014-01-01

    In recent years, the number of known gamma-ray millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in the Galactic disk has risen substantially thanks to confirmed detections by Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi). We have developed a new population synthesis of gamma-ray and radio MSPs in the galaxy which uses Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques to explore the large and small worlds of the model parameter space and allows for comparisons of the simulated and detected MSP distributions. The simulation employs empirical radio and gamma-ray luminosity models that are dependent upon the pulsar period and period derivative with freely varying exponents. Parameters associated with the birth distributions are also free to vary. The computer code adjusts the magnitudes of the model luminosities to reproduce the number of MSPs detected by a group of ten radio surveys, thus normalizing the simulation and predicting the MSP birth rates in the Galaxy. Computing many Markov chains leads to preferred sets of model parameters that are further explored through two statistical methods. Marginalized plots define confidence regions in the model parameter space using maximum likelihood methods. A secondary set of confidence regions is determined in parallel using Kuiper statistics calculated from comparisons of cumulative distributions. These two techniques provide feedback to affirm the results and to check for consistency. Radio flux and dispersion measure constraints have been imposed on the simulated gamma-ray distributions in order to reproduce realistic detection conditions. The simulated and detected distributions agree well for both sets of radio and gamma-ray pulsar characteristics, as evidenced by our various comparisons.

  14. Dissecting the Gamma-Ray Background in Search of Dark Matter

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Cholis, Ilias; Hooper, Dan; McDermott, Samuel D.

    2014-02-01

    Several classes of astrophysical sources contribute to the approximately isotropic gamma-ray background measured by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. In this paper, we use Fermi's catalog of gamma-ray sources (along with corresponding source catalogs at infrared and radio wavelengths) to build and constrain a model for the contributions to the extragalactic gamma-ray background from astrophysical sources, including radio galaxies, star-forming galaxies, and blazars. We then combine our model with Fermi's measurement of the gamma-ray background to derive constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section, including contributions from both extragalactic and galactic halos and subhalos. The resulting constraints are competitivemore » with the strongest current constraints from the Galactic Center and dwarf spheroidal galaxies. As Fermi continues to measure the gamma-ray emission from a greater number of astrophysical sources, it will become possible to more tightly constrain the astrophysical contributions to the extragalactic gamma-ray background. We project that with 10 years of data, Fermi's measurement of this background combined with the improved constraints on the astrophysical source contributions will yield a sensitivity to dark matter annihilations that exceeds the strongest current constraints by a factor of ~ 5 - 10.« less

  15. Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope: Science Highlights for the First 8 Months

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moiseev, Alexander

    2010-01-01

    The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was launched on June 11, 2008 and since August 2008 has successfully been conducting routine science observations of high energy phenomena in the gamma-ray sky. A number of exciting discoveries have been made during its first year of operation, including blazar flares, high-energy gamma-ray bursts, and numerous new,gamma-ray sources of different types, among them pulsars and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). fermi-LAT also performed accurate mea.<;urement of the diffuse gamma-radiation which clarifies the Ge V excess reported by EGRET almost 10 years ago, high precision measurement of the high energy electron spectrum, and other observations. An overview of the observatory status and recent results as of April 30, 2009, are presented. Key words: gamma-ray astronomy, cosmic rays, gamma-ray burst, pulsar, blazar. diffuse gamma-radiation

  16. The self-absorption effect of gamma rays in /sup 239/Pu

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hsu, Hsiao-Hua

    1989-01-01

    Nuclear materials assay with gamma-ray spectrum measurement is a well-established method for safeguards. However, for a thick source, the self-absorption of characteristic low-energy gamma rays has been a handicap to accurate assay. I have carried out Monte Carlo simulations to study this effect using the /sup 239/Pu ..cap alpha..-decay gamma-ray spectrum as an example. The thickness of a plutonium metal source can be considered a function of gamma-ray intensity ratios. In a practical application, gamma-ray intensity ratios can be obtained from a measured spectrum. With the help of calculated curves, scientists can find the source thickness and make corrections tomore » gamma-ray intensities, which then lead to an accurate quantitative determination of radioactive isotopes in the material. 2 refs., 9 figs.« less

  17. The goals of gamma-ray spectroscopy in high energy astrophysics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lingenfelter, Richard E.; Higdon, James C.; Leventhal, Marvin; Ramaty, Reuven; Woosley, Stanford E.

    1990-01-01

    The use of high resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy in astrophysics is discussed with specific attention given to the application of the Nuclear Astrophysics Explorer (NAE). The gamma-ray lines from nuclear transitions in radionucleic decay and positron annihilation permits the study of current sites, rates and models of nucleosynthesis, and galactic structure. Diffuse galactic emission is discussed, and the high-resolution observations of gamma-ray lines from discrete sites are also described. Interstellar mixing and elemental abundances can also be inferred from high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy of nucleosynthetic products. Compact objects can also be examined by means of gamma-ray emissions, allowing better understanding of neutron stars and the accreting black hole near the galactic center. Solar physics can also be investigated by examining such features as solar-flare particle acceleration and atmospheric abundances.

  18. Helios-2 Vela-Ariel-5 gamma-ray burst source position

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cline, T. L.; Trainor, J. H.; Desai, U. D.; Klebesadel, R. W.; Ricketts, M.; Heluken, H.

    1979-01-01

    The gamma-ray burst of 28 January 1976, one of 18 events thus far detected in interplanetary space with Helios-2, was also observed with the Vela-5A, -6A and the Ariel-5 satellites. A small source field is obtained from the intersection of the region derived from the observed time delays between Helios-2 and Vela-5A and -6A with the source region independently found with the Ariel-5 X-ray detector. This area contains neither any steady X-ray source as scanned by HEAO-A nor any previously catalogued X-ray, radio or infrared sources, X-ray transients, quasars, seyferts, globular clusters, flare stars, pulsars, white dwarfs or high energy gamma-ray sources. The region is however, within the source field of a gamma-ray transient observed in 1974, which exhibited nuclear gamma-ray line structure.

  19. Origin of X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Emission from the Galactic Central Region

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chernyshov, D. O.; Dogiel, V. A.; Cheng, K.-S.

    We study a possible connection between different non-thermal emissions from the inner few parsecs of the Galaxy. We analyze the origin of the gamma-ray source 2FGL J1745.6−2858 (or 3FGL J1745.6−2859c) in the Galactic Center (GC) and the diffuse hard X-ray component recently found by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array , as well as the radio emission and processes of hydrogen ionization from this area. We assume that a source in the GC injected energetic particles with power-law spectrum into the surrounding medium in the past or continues to inject until now. The energetic particles may be protons, electrons, or amore » combination of both. These particles diffuse to the surrounding medium and interact with gas, magnetic field, and background photons to produce non-thermal emissions. We study the spectral and spatial features of the hard X-ray emission and gamma-ray emission by the particles from the central source. Our goal is to examine whether the hard X-ray and gamma-ray emissions have a common origin. Our estimations show that, in the case of pure hadronic models, the expected flux of hard X-ray emission is too low. Despite the fact that protons can produce a non-zero contribution in gamma-ray emission, it is unlikely that they and their secondary electrons can make a significant contribution in hard X-ray flux. In the case of pure leptonic models, it is possible to reproduce both X-ray and gamma-ray emissions for both transient and continuous supply models. However, in the case of the continuous supply model, the ionization rate of molecular hydrogen may significantly exceed the observed value.« less

  20. Millisecond Pulsars at Gamma-Ray Energies: Fermi Detections and Implications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harding, Alice K.

    2011-01-01

    The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has revolutionized the study of pulsar physics with the discovery of new populations of radio quiet and millisecond gamma-ray pulsars. The Fermi Large Area Telescope has so far discovered approx.20 new gamma-ray millisecond pulsars (MSPs) by both folding at periods of known radio MSPs or by detecting them as gamma-ray sources that are followed up by radio pulsar searches. The second method has resulted in a phenomenally successful synergy, with -30 new radio MSPs (to date) having been discovered at Fermi unidentified source locations and the gamma-ray pulsations having then been detected in a number of these using the radio timing solutions. Many of the newly discovered MSPs may be suitable for addition to the collection of very stable MSPs used for gravitational wave detection. Detection of such a large number of MSPs was surprising, given that most have relatively low spin-down luminosity and surface field strength. I will discuss their properties and the implications for pulsar particle acceleration and emission, as well as their potential contribution to gamma-ray backgrounds and Galactic cosmic rays.

  1. Ultralow-dose, feedback imaging with laser-Compton X-ray and laser-Compton gamma ray sources

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Barty, Christopher P. J.

    Ultralow-dose, x-ray or gamma-ray imaging is based on fast, electronic control of the output of a laser-Compton x-ray or gamma-ray source (LCXS or LCGS). X-ray or gamma-ray shadowgraphs are constructed one (or a few) pixel(s) at a time by monitoring the LCXS or LCGS beam energy required at each pixel of the object to achieve a threshold level of detectability at the detector. An example provides that once the threshold for detection is reached, an electronic or optical signal is sent to the LCXS/LCGS that enables a fast optical switch that diverts, either in space or time the laser pulsesmore » used to create Compton photons. In this way, one prevents the object from being exposed to any further Compton x-rays or gamma-rays until either the laser-Compton beam or the object are moved so that a new pixel location may be illumination.« less

  2. Gamma-ray burst theory: Back to the drawing board

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Harding, Alice K.

    1994-01-01

    Gamma-ray bursts have always been intriguing sources to study in terms of particle acceleration, but not since their discovery two decades ago has the theory of these objects been in such turmoil. Prior to the launch of Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory and observations by Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), there was strong evidence pointing to magnetized Galactic neutron stars as the sources of gamma-ray bursts. However, since BATSE the observational picture has changed dramatically, requiring much more distant and possibly cosmological sources. I review the history of gamma-ray burst theory from the era of growing consensus for nearby neutron stars to the recent explosion of halo and cosmological models and the impact of the present confusion on the particle acceleration problem.

  3. Gamma-ray Astrophysics: a New Look at the Universe

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Trombka, J. I.; Fichtel, C. E.; Grindlay, J.; Hofstadter, R.

    1978-01-01

    Gamma-ray astronomy which includes the spectral region from above approximately 100 keV to greater than or equal to 1000 GeV permits investigation of the most energetic photons originating in our galaxy and beyond and provides the most direct means of studying the largest transfers of energy occurring in astrophysical processes. Of all the electromagnetic spectrum, high-energy gamma-ray astronomy measures most directly the presence and dynamic effects of the energetic charged cosmic ray particles, element synthesis, and particle acceleration. Further, gamma rays suffer negligible absorption or scatterings as they travel in straight paths; hence, they may survive billions of years and still reveal their source. The high energy processes in stellar objects (including our Sun), the dynamics of the cosmic-ray gas, the formation of clouds and nebulae, galactic evolution and even certain aspects of cosmology and the origin of the universe may be explored by gamma-ray observations.

  4. Radioactivities and gamma-rays from supernovae

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Woosley, S. E.

    1991-01-01

    An account is given of the implications of several calculations relevant to the estimation of gamma-ray signals from various explosive astronomical phenomena. After discussing efforts to constrain the amounts of Ni-57 and Ti-44 produced in SN 1987A, attention is given to the production of Al-27 in massive stars and SNs. A 'delayed detonation' model of type Ia SNs is proposed, and the gamma-ray signal which may be expected when a bare white dwarf collapses directly into a neutron star is discussed.

  5. Characterization of gamma rays existing in the NMIJ standard neutron field.

    PubMed

    Harano, H; Matsumoto, T; Ito, Y; Uritani, A; Kudo, K

    2004-01-01

    Our laboratory provides national standards on fast neutron fluence. Neutron fields are always accompanied by gamma rays produced in neutron sources and surroundings. We have characterised these gamma rays in the 5.0 MeV standard neutron field. Gamma ray measurement was performed using an NE213 liquid scintillator. Pulse shape discrimination was incorporated to separate the events induced by gamma rays from those by neutrons. The measured gamma ray spectra were unfolded with the HEPRO program package to obtain the spectral fluences using the response matrix prepared with the EGS4 code. Corrections were made for the gamma rays produced by neutrons in the detector assembly using the MCNP4C code. The effective dose equivalents were estimated to be of the order of 25 microSv at the neutron fluence of 10(7) neutrons cm(-2).

  6. Very-High-Energy Solar Gamma Rays From Cosmic-Ray Interactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Bei; Ng, Kenny; Beacom, John; Peter, Annika; Rott, Cartsen

    2017-01-01

    Cosmic-ray induced gamma rays from the Sun has been observed up to 100 GeV. However, there are no theoretical predictions beyond 10 GeV. We provide the first calculation of the hadronic disk component in TeV-PeV, where solar magnetic fields can be ignored. We also consider the leptonic gamma-ray halo, taking into account electrons from local pulsars. With Fermi and soon HAWC & LHAASO observations, our results provide new insights on local cosmic rays, solar magnetic fields, and solar dark matter studies. BZ is supported by OSU Fowler Fellowship. KN and FB are supported by NSF Grant PHY-1404311. AK is supported by NSF GRFP Grant No. DGE-1321846. CR is supported by the Korea Neutrino Research Center. KN is also supported by the OSU Presidential Fellowship.

  7. Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGFs) Observed with the Fermi-Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor: The First Hundred TGFs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fishman, G J.; Briggs, M. S.; Connaughton, V.; Bhat, P. N.

    2010-01-01

    The Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Observatory (Fermi) is now detecting 2.1 TGFs per week. At this rate, nearly a hundred TGFs will have been detected by the time of this Meeting. This rate has increased by a factor of 8 since new flight software was uploaded to the spacecraft in November 2009 in order to increase the sensitivity of GBM to TGFs. The high time resolution (2 microseconds) allows temporal features to be resolved so that some insight may be gained on the origin and transport of the gamma-ray photons through the atmosphere. The absolute time of the TGFs, known to several microseconds, also allows accurate correlations of TGFs with lightning networks and other lightning-related phenomena. The thick bismuth germanate (BGO) scintillation detectors of the GBM system have observed photon energies from TGFs at energies above 40 MeV. New results on the some temporal aspects of TGFs will be presented.

  8. Space-Borne Observations of Intense Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGFs) Above Thunderstorms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fishman, Gerald J.

    2011-01-01

    Intense millisecond flashes of MeV photons have been observed with space-borne detectors. These terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) were discovered with the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma- Ray Observatory (CGRO) in the early 1990s. They are now being observed with several other instruments, including the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) detectors on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Although Fermi-GBM was designed and optimized for the observation of cosmic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), it has unprecedented capabilities for these TGF observations. On several occasions, intense beams of high-energy electrons and positrons have been observed at the geomagnetic conjugate points of TGFs.

  9. Gamma ray imager on the DIII-D tokamak

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Pace, D. C., E-mail: pacedc@fusion.gat.com; Taussig, D.; Eidietis, N. W.

    2016-04-15

    A gamma ray camera is built for the DIII-D tokamak [J. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] that provides spatial localization and energy resolution of gamma flux by combining a lead pinhole camera with custom-built detectors and optimized viewing geometry. This diagnostic system is installed on the outer midplane of the tokamak such that its 123 collimated sightlines extend across the tokamak radius while also covering most of the vertical extent of the plasma volume. A set of 30 bismuth germanate detectors can be secured in any of the available sightlines, allowing for customizable coverage in experiments with runaway electronsmore » in the energy range of 1–60 MeV. Commissioning of the gamma ray imager includes the quantification of electromagnetic noise sources in the tokamak machine hall and a measurement of the energy spectrum of background gamma radiation. First measurements of gamma rays coming from the plasma provide a suitable testbed for implementing pulse height analysis that provides the energy of detected gamma photons.« less

  10. Gamma ray imager on the DIII-D tokamak

    DOE PAGES

    Pace, D. C.; Cooper, C. M.; Taussig, D.; ...

    2016-04-13

    A gamma ray camera is built for the DIII-D tokamak [J. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] that provides spatial localization and energy resolution of gamma flux by combining a lead pinhole camera with custom-built detectors and optimized viewing geometry. This diagnostic system is installed on the outer midplane of the tokamak such that its 123 collimated sightlines extend across the tokamak radius while also covering most of the vertical extent of the plasma volume. A set of 30 bismuth germanate detectors can be secured in any of the available sightlines, allowing for customizable coverage in experiments with runaway electronsmore » in the energy range of 1- 60 MeV. Commissioning of the gamma ray imager includes the quantification of electromagnetic noise sources in the tokamak machine hall and a measurement of the energy spectrum of background gamma radiation. In conclusion, first measurements of gamma rays coming from the plasma provide a suitable testbed for implementing pulse height analysis that provides the energy of detected gamma photons.« less

  11. A model for the UHE gamma-rays from Hercules X-1

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Eichler, D.; Vestrand, W. T.

    1985-01-01

    An outburst of gamma rays with energies E gamma 10 to the 12th power eV was recently detected from the X-ray pulsar Hercules X-1. The outburst had a 3 minute duration and occurred at a time during the 35 day X-ray modulation that is associated with X-ray turnon. The gamma rays also have the same 1.24 second modulation that is observed at X-ray energies. Subsequently a 40 minute outburst was detected at E gamma 10 to the 14th power eV. The interaction of ultrahigh energy particles with a precessing accretion disk explain the observed gamma ray light curve. The constraints one can place on acceleration mechanisms and the possibility that the UHE particles are accelerated by shocks in an accretion flow are explained.

  12. Thermal-neutron capture gamma-rays. Volume 2

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tuli, J.K.

    1997-05-01

    The energy and photon intensity of gamma rays as seen in thermal-neutron capture are presented ordered by Z, A of target nuclei. All gamma-rays with intensity of {ge}2% of the strongest transition are included. The strongest transition is indicated in each case. Where the target nuclide mass number is indicated as nat the natural target was used. The gamma energies given are in keV. The gamma intensities given are relative to 100 for the strongest transition. All data for A > 44 are taken from Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (4/97), a computer file of evaluated nuclear structure data maintainedmore » by the National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, on behalf of the Nuclear Structure and Decay and Decay Data network, coordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna. These data are published in Nuclear Data Sheets, Academic Press, San Diego, CA. The data for A {le} 44 is taken from ``Prompt Gamma Rays from Thermal-Neutron Capture,`` M.A. Lone, R.A. Leavitt, D.A. Harrison, Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables 26, 511 (1981).« less

  13. Recent high energy gamma-ray results from SAS-2

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, D. J.; Fichtel, C. E.; Hartman, R. C.; Kniffen, D. A.; Bignami, G. F.; Ogelman, H. B.; Ozel, M. E.; Tumer, T.; Lamb, R. C.

    1977-01-01

    Recent developments in gamma-ray astronomy due to the results from SAS-2 have focused on two areas. First, the emission from the plane of the Galaxy is the dominant feature in the gamma-ray sky. The galactic latitude and longitude distributions are consistent with the concept that the high-energy radiation originates from cosmic rays interacting with interstellar matter, and the measurements support a galactic origin for cosmic rays. Second, searches of the SAS-2 data for emission from localized sources have shown three strong discrete gamma-ray sources: the Crab nebula and PSR 0531 + 21, the Vela supernova remnant and PSR 0833-45, and a source near galactic coordinates 193 deg longitude, +3 deg latitude, which does not appear to be associated with other known celestial objects. Evidence has also been found for pulsed gamma-ray emission from two other radio pulsars, PSR 1818-04 and PSR 1747-46. A localized source near longitudes 76-80 deg may be associated with the X-ray source Cyg X-3.

  14. SOFIA FIFI-LS Observations of Sgr B1

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Simpson, Janet P.; Colgan, Sean; Cotera, Angela; Kaufman, Michael; Stolovy, Susan

    2018-01-01

    Although Sgr B1 is the third most luminous H II region in the Galactic Center, after the region ionized by the central star cluster Sgr A and the very young star-forming region Sgr B2, it has surprisingly not been well studied. Because Sgr B1 is found with Sgr B2 in a common envelope of molecular gas and far-infrared (FIR) emission, it has been assumed that the two sources are physically related, even though the ionized gas of Sgr B1 is much more extended and there are evolved-star indicators of a significantly greater age than Sgr B2. This presents a problem because the current paradigm of Galactic Center gas motions and star formation requires that the entire Sgr B complex must have reasonably similar ages. To clarify the situation, we have mapped Sgr B1 with the FIFI-LS spectrometer on SOFIA in the FIR lines of [O III] 52 and 88 micron, [O I] 146 micron, and [C II] 158 micron. For the most part, we find little correlation of the density-sensitive ratio of the [O III] lines with the radio VLA images or the FIR Herschel PACS images, from which we infer that the structures seen in those images are not due to density enhancements but are due to bubbles of gas and dust seen edge-on. The [C II] 158 micron line correlates much better with the structure seen in the Herschal PACS Blue 60-85 micron image than it does with the Red 130-210 micron image, which is dominated by the massive molecular cloud seen at higher Galactic latitude. Sgr B1 is largely covered by spectra from the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph Archive, from which we measure mid-infrared lines of [Ne II], [Ne III], [Si II], [S III], and [Ar II]. From the ratios of these lines with the observed FIR lines we find that there are at least six small regions with significantly higher excitation than their surroundings; we infer that these regions contain the stars that excite the gas. Our presentation will describe these results in further detail.

  15. Fermi-LAT detection of ongoing gamma-ray activity from the new gamma-ray source Fermi J1654-1055 (PMN J1632-1052)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kocevski, D.; Ajello, M.; Buson, S.; Buehler, R.; Giomi, M.

    2016-02-01

    During the week between February 8 and 15, 2016, the Large Area Telescope (LAT), one of the two instruments on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, observed gamma-ray activity from a new transient source, Fermi J1654-1055.

  16. Ground-based very high energy gamma ray astronomy: Observational highlights

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Turver, K. E.

    1986-01-01

    It is now more than 20 years since the first ground based gamma ray experiments involving atmospheric Cerenkov radiation were undertaken. The present highlights in observational ground-based very high energy (VHE) gamma ray astronomy and the optimism about an interesting future for the field follow progress in these areas: (1) the detection at increased levels of confidence of an enlarged number of sources so that at present claims were made for the detection, at the 4 to 5 sd level of significance, of 8 point sources; (2) the replication of the claimed detections with, for the first time, confirmation of the nature and detail of the emission; and (3) the extension of gamma ray astronomy to the ultra high energy (UHE) domain. The pattern, if any, to emerge from the list of sources claimed so far is that X-ray binary sources appear to be copious emitters of gamma rays over at least 4 decades of energy. These X-ray sources which behave as VHE and UHE gamma ray emitters are examined.

  17. Cosmic-ray effects on diffuse gamma-ray measurements.

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fishman, G. J.

    1972-01-01

    Evaluation of calculations and experimental evidence from 600-MeV proton irradiation indicating that cosmic-ray-induced radioactivity in detectors used to measure the diffuse gamma-ray background produces a significant counting rate in the energy region around 1 MeV. It is concluded that these counts may be responsible for the observed flattening of the diffuse photon spectrum at this energy.

  18. High energy X-ray observations of COS-B gamma-ray sources from OSO-8

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dolan, J. F.; Crannell, C. J.; Dennis, B. R.; Frost, K. J.; Orwig, L. E.; Caraveo, P. A.

    1985-01-01

    During the three years between satellite launch in June 1975 and turn-off in October 1978, the high energy X-ray spectrometer on board OSO-8 observed nearly all of the COS-B gamma-ray source positions given in the 2CG catalog (Swanenburg et al., 1981). An X-ray source was detected at energies above 20 keV at the 6-sigma level of significance in the gamma-ray error box containing 2CG342 - 02 and at the 3-sigma level of significance in the error boxes containing 2CG065 + 00, 2CG195 + 04, and 2CG311 - 01. No definite association between the X-ray and gamma-ray sources can be made from these data alone. Upper limits are given for the 2CG sources from which no X-ray flux was detected above 20 keV.

  19. Discovery of Giant Gamma-ray Bubbles in the Milky Way

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Meng

    Based on data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, we have discovered two gigantic gamma-ray emitting bubble structures in our Milky Way (known as the Fermi bubbles), extending ˜50 degrees above and below the Galactic center with a width of ˜40 degrees in longitude. The gamma-ray emission associated with these bubbles has a significantly harder spectrum (dN/dE ˜ E-2) than the inverse Compton emission from known cosmic ray electrons in the Galactic disk, or the gamma-rays produced by decay of pions from proton-ISM collisions. There is no significant difference in the spectrum or gamma-ray luminosity between the north and south bubbles. The bubbles are spatially correlated with the hard-spectrum microwave excess known as the WMAP haze; we also found features in the ROSAT soft X-ray maps at 1.5 -- 2 keV which line up with the edges of the bubbles. The Fermi bubbles are most likely created by some large episode of energy injection in the Galactic center, such as past accretion events onto the central massive black hole, or a nuclear starburst in the last ˜ 10 Myr. Study of the origin and evolution of the bubbles also has the potential to improve our understanding of recent energetic events in the inner Galaxy and the high-latitude cosmic ray population. Furthermore, we have recently identified a gamma-ray cocoon feature within the southern bubble, with a jet-like feature along the cocoon's axis of symmetry, and another directly opposite the Galactic center in the north. If confirmed, these jets are the first resolved gamma-ray jets ever seen.

  20. Gamma Ray Astrophysics: New insight into the universe

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fichtel, C. E.; Trombka, J. I.

    1981-01-01

    Gamma ray observations of the solar system, the galaxy and extragalactic radiation are reported. Topics include: planets, comets, and asteroids; solar observations; interstellar medium and galactic structure; compact objects; cosmology; and diffuse radiation. The instrumentation used in gamma ray astronomy in covered along with techniques for the analysis of observational spectra.

  1. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Sgr B2(N) and Sgr B2(M) IRAM 30m line survey (Belloche+, 2013)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Belloche, A.; Mueller, H. S. P.; Menten, K. M.; Schilke, P.; Comito, C.

    2013-08-01

    The list of line identifications corresponding to the blue labels in Figs. 2 to 7 where the labels are often too crowded to be easily readable are available in ASCII format. The lists are split into six files, three for Sgr B2(N) and three for Sgr B2(M). For each source, there is one file per atmospheric window (3, 2, and 1mm). Each file is ordered by increasing frequency. The observed and synthetic spectra of Sgr B2(N) and Sgr B2(M) between 80 and 116GHz are available both in ASCII and FITS formats. The synthetic spectra were resampled to the same frequency channels as the observed spectra. The blanking value is -1000K for the ASCII files. There is one ASCII file per source. There are two FITS files per source, one for the observed spectrum and one for the synthetic spectrum. The intensities are in main-beam temperature scale in K. The blanking value is 42.75234K for the observed spectrum of SgrB2(N) and 53.96533K for the observed spectrum of SgrB2(M). (9 data files).

  2. A systematic Chandra study of Sgr A⋆: II. X-ray flare statistics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yuan, Qiang; Wang, Q. Daniel; Liu, Siming; Wu, Kinwah

    2018-01-01

    The routinely flaring events from Sgr A⋆ trace dynamic, high-energy processes in the immediate vicinity of the supermassive black hole. We statistically study temporal and spectral properties, as well as fluence and duration distributions, of the flares detected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory from 1999 to 2012. The detection incompleteness and bias are carefully accounted for in determining these distributions. We find that the fluence distribution can be well characterized by a power law with a slope of 1.73^{+0.20}_{-0.19}, while the durations (τ in seconds) by a lognormal function with a mean log (τ)=3.39^{+0.27}_{-0.24} and an intrinsic dispersion σ =0.28^{+0.08}_{-0.06}. No significant correlation between the fluence and duration is detected. The apparent positive correlation, as reported previously, is mainly due to the detection bias (i.e. weak flares can be detected only when their durations are short). These results indicate that the simple self-organized criticality model has difficulties in explaining these flares. We further find that bright flares usually have asymmetric light curves with no statistically evident difference/preference between the rising and decaying phases in terms of their spectral/timing properties. Our spectral analysis shows that although a power-law model with a photon index of 2.0 ± 0.4 gives a satisfactory fit to the joint spectra of strong and weak flares, there is weak evidence for a softer spectrum of weaker flares. This work demonstrates the potential to use statistical properties of X-ray flares to probe their trigger and emission mechanisms, as well as the radiation propagation around the black hole.

  3. The 2010 May Flaring Episode of Cygnus X-3 in Radio, X-Rays, and gamma-Rays

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Williams, Peter K. G.; Tomsick, John A.; Bodaghee, Arash; Bower, Geoffrey C.; Pooley, Guy G.; Pottschmidt, Katja; Rodriguez, Jerome; Wilms, Joern; Migliari, Simone; Trushkin, Sergei A.

    2011-01-01

    In 2009, Cygnus X-3 (Cyg X-3) became the first microquasar to be detected in the GeV gamma-ray regime, via the satellites Fermi and AGILE. The addition of this new band to the observational toolbox holds promise for building a more detailed understanding of the relativistic jets of this and other systems. We present a rich dataset of radio, hard and soft X-ray, and gamma-ray observations of Cyg X-3 made during a flaring episode in 2010 May. We detect a approx.3-d softening and recovery of the X-ray emission, followed almost immediately by a approx.1-Jy radio flare at 15 GHz, followed by a 4.3sigma gamma-ray flare (E > 100 MeV) approx.1.5 d later. The radio sampling is sparse, but we use archival data to argue that it is unlikely the gamma-ray flare was followed by any significant unobserved radio flares. In this case, the sequencing of the observed events is difficult to explain in a model in which the gamma-ray emission is due to inverse Compton scattering of the companion star's radiation field. Our observations suggest that other mechanisms may also be responsible for gamma-ray emission from Cyg X-3.

  4. Low energy gamma ray emission from the Cygnus OB2 association

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chen, Wan; White, Richard L.

    1992-01-01

    According to our newly developed model of gamma-ray emission from chaotic early-type stellar winds, we predict the combined gamma-ray flux from the circumstellar winds of many very luminous early-type stars in the Cyg OB2 association can be detectable by the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) (and maybe also by OSSE) on CGRO. Due to different radiation mechanisms, the gamma-ray spectrum from stellar winds can be quite different from that of CYG X-3; this spectral difference and the time-variation of Cyg X-3 flux will help to distinguish the gamma-ray components from different sources in this small region, which is spatially unresolvable by CGRO.

  5. Modelling Hard Gamma-Ray Emission from Supernova Remnants

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Baring, Matthew G.

    1999-01-01

    The observation by the CANGAROO (Collaboration of Australia and Nippon Gamma Ray Observatory at Outback) experiment of TeV emission from SN 1006, in conjunction with several instances of non-thermal X-ray emission from supernova remnants, has led to inferences of super-TeV electrons in these extended sources. While this is sufficient to propel the theoretical community in their modelling of particle acceleration and associated radiation, the anticipated emergence in the next decade of a number of new experiments probing the TeV and sub-TeV bands provides further substantial motivation for modellers. In particular, the quest for obtaining unambiguous gamma-ray signatures of cosmic ray ion acceleration defines a "Holy Grail" for observers and theorists alike. This review summarizes theoretical developments in the prediction of MeV-TeV gamma-rays from supernova remnants over the last five years, focusing on how global properties of models can impact, and be impacted by, hard gamma-ray observational programs, thereby probing the supernova remnant environment. Properties of central consideration include the maximum energy of accelerated particles, the density of the unshocked interstellar medium, the ambient magnetic field, and the relativistic electron-to-proton ratio. Criteria for determining good candidate remnants for observability in the TeV band are identified.

  6. Gamma-Ray imaging for nuclear security and safety: Towards 3-D gamma-ray vision

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vetter, Kai; Barnowksi, Ross; Haefner, Andrew; Joshi, Tenzing H. Y.; Pavlovsky, Ryan; Quiter, Brian J.

    2018-01-01

    The development of portable gamma-ray imaging instruments in combination with the recent advances in sensor and related computer vision technologies enable unprecedented capabilities in the detection, localization, and mapping of radiological and nuclear materials in complex environments relevant for nuclear security and safety. Though multi-modal imaging has been established in medicine and biomedical imaging for some time, the potential of multi-modal data fusion for radiological localization and mapping problems in complex indoor and outdoor environments remains to be explored in detail. In contrast to the well-defined settings in medical or biological imaging associated with small field-of-view and well-constrained extension of the radiation field, in many radiological search and mapping scenarios, the radiation fields are not constrained and objects and sources are not necessarily known prior to the measurement. The ability to fuse radiological with contextual or scene data in three dimensions, in analog to radiological and functional imaging with anatomical fusion in medicine, provides new capabilities enhancing image clarity, context, quantitative estimates, and visualization of the data products. We have developed new means to register and fuse gamma-ray imaging with contextual data from portable or moving platforms. These developments enhance detection and mapping capabilities as well as provide unprecedented visualization of complex radiation fields, moving us one step closer to the realization of gamma-ray vision in three dimensions.

  7. Galactic gamma-ray sources, SNOBs, and giant H2 regions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Montmerle, T.

    1985-01-01

    Progress towards understanding the nature of the COS-B galactic gamma-ray sources was made by two recent developments. The developments are: (1) the existence of extensive wide-latitude CO surveys, from the Northern Hemisphere, and from the Southern Hemisphere which give more precise information on molecular cloud population of the Perseus, Sagittarius, and Carina spiral arms; (2) the study of the time variability of gamma-ray sources in gamma-rays but also at other wavelengths, leading to the discovery of four new variable sources in addition to the already known Crab and Vela pulsars. Three classes of gamma-ray sources are found; invariable sources, active sources, and passive sources.

  8. Fission prompt gamma-ray multiplicity distribution measurements and simulations at DANCE

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chyzh, A; Wu, C Y; Ullmann, J

    2010-08-24

    The nearly energy independence of the DANCE efficiency and multiplicity response to {gamma} rays makes it possible to measure the prompt {gamma}-ray multiplicity distribution in fission. We demonstrate this unique capability of DANCE through the comparison of {gamma}-ray energy and multiplicity distribution between the measurement and numerical simulation for three radioactive sources {sup 22}Na, {sup 60}Co, and {sup 88}Y. The prospect for measuring the {gamma}-ray multiplicity distribution for both spontaneous and neutron-induced fission is discussed.

  9. X-ray and gamma-ray line production by nonthermal ions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bussard, R. W.; Omidvar, K.; Ramaty, R.

    1977-01-01

    X-ray production was calculated at approximately 6.8 keV by the 2p to 1s transition in fast hydrogen- and helium-like iron ions, following both electron capture to excited levels and collisional excitation. A refinement of the OBK approximation was used to obtain an improved charge exchange cross section. This, and the corresponding ionization cross section were used to determine equilibrium charge fractions for iron ions as functions of their energy. The effective X-ray line production cross section was found to be sharply peaked in energy at about 8 to 12 MeV/amu. Because fast ions of similar energies can also excite nuclear levels, the ratio of selected strong gamma ray line emissivities to the X-ray line emissivity was also calculated. Limits set by this method on the intensity of gamma ray line emission from the galactic center and the radio galaxy Centaurus A are generally lower than those reported in the literature.

  10. Observations of TeV Gamma Rays from Supernova Remnants

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buckley, James H.

    1994-12-01

    Measurements of the gamma ray flux from a number of supernova remnants (SNRs) at energies above 250 GeV have been made with the Whipple Imaging air \\v Cerenkov detector. Observation of the gamma ray emission of SNRs at energies above 1 GeV should provide a sensitive test of shock acceleration models of particle acceleration in SNRs. Gamma-ray luminosities of supernova remnants are well constrained by the observed supernova rate and the cosmic ray flux if supernovae are indeed the source of cosmic rays. Drury et al. (Astron. Astrophys. 287, 959 (1994)) predict that the luminosity of nearby Sedov-phase SNRs should be observable by the Whipple telescope. In this model, diffusive shock acceleration produces energetic charged particles which interact with the ambient medium forming gamma rays. There is an indication that a number of unidentified EGRET sources may correspond to supernova remnants (G. Kanbach, private communication), although at these energies (>100 MeV) the diffuse background is somewhat uncertain. Measurements of the gamma-ray flux with the Whipple instrument have a similar sensitivity to the EGRET detector for a source spectral index of 2.15, and less sensitivity to diffuse background. A number of observations of SNRs including: Tycho, W66, IC443, and others have been made. Currently for Tycho an upper limit of 9times 10(-12) cm(-2) sec(-1) is obtained. The status of these observations will be presented, and it will be shown that these measurements combined with the EGRET observations are beginning to provide a useful constraint on models of cosmic ray origin. Gamma-ray observations may also be used to constrain models of particle acceleration in SNRs exhibiting pulser-powered synchrotron nebula (plerions). The status of observations of this class of objects, including the Crab nebula, will also be presented. Supported in part by the U.S. Dept. of Energy.

  11. SEARCH FOR GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM X-RAY-SELECTED SEYFERT GALAXIES WITH FERMI-LAT

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.

    We report on a systematic investigation of the {gamma}-ray properties of 120 hard X-ray-selected Seyfert galaxies classified as 'radio-quiet' objects, utilizing the three-year accumulation of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data. Our sample of Seyfert galaxies is selected using the Swift Burst Alert Telescope 58 month catalog, restricting the analysis to the bright sources with average hard X-ray fluxes F{sub 14-195keV} {>=} 2.5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -11} erg cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} at high Galactic latitudes (|b| > 10 Degree-Sign ). In order to remove 'radio-loud' objects from the sample, we use the 'hard X-ray radio loudness parameter', R{sub rX}, definedmore » as the ratio of the total 1.4 GHz radio to 14-195 keV hard X-ray energy fluxes. Among 120 X-ray bright Seyfert galaxies with R{sub rX} <10{sup -4}, we did not find a statistically significant {gamma}-ray excess (TS > 25) positionally coincident with any target Seyferts, with possible exceptions of ESO 323-G077 and NGC 6814. The mean value of the 95% confidence level {gamma}-ray upper limit for the integrated photon flux above 100 MeV from the analyzed Seyferts is {approx_equal} 4 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -9} photons cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} , and the upper limits derived for several objects reach {approx_equal} 1 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -9} photons cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} . Our results indicate that no prominent {gamma}-ray emission component related to active galactic nucleus activity is present in the spectra of Seyferts around GeV energies. The Fermi-LAT upper limits derived for our sample probe the ratio of {gamma}-ray to X-ray luminosities L{sub {gamma}}/L{sub X} < 0.1, and even <0.01 in some cases. The obtained results impose novel constraints on the models for high-energy radiation of 'radio-quiet' Seyfert galaxies.« less

  12. BATSE Observations of Gamma-Ray Burst Tails

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Connaughton, Valerie; Six, N. Frank (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    With the discovery of low-energy radiation appearing to come from the site of gamma-ray bursts in the hours to weeks after the initial burst of gamma rays, it would appear that astronomers have seen a cosmological imprint made by the burster on its surroundings. I discuss in this paper the phenomenon of post-burst emission in BATSE (Burst and Transient Source Experiment) gamma-ray bursts at energies traditionally associated with prompt emission. By summing the background-subtracted signals from hundreds of bursts, I find that tails out to hundreds of seconds after the trigger may be a common feature of long events (duration greater than 2s), and perhaps of the shorter bursts at a lower and shorter-lived level. The tail component appears independent of both the duration (within the long GRB sample) and brightness of the prompt burst emission, and may be softer. Some individual bursts have visible tails at gamma-ray energies and the spectrum in at least a few cases is different from that of the prompt emission. Afterglow at lower energies was detected for one of these bursts, GRB-991216, raising the possibility of afterglow observations over large energy ranges using the next generation of GRB detectors in conjunction with sensitive space or ground-based telescopes.

  13. BATSE Observations of Gamma-Ray Burst Tails

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Connaughton, Valerie

    2002-01-01

    With the observation of low-energy radiation coming from the site of gamma-ray bursts in the hours to weeks after the initial gamma ray burst, it appears that astronomers have discovered a cosmological imprint made by the burster on its surroundings. This paper discusses the phenomenon of postburst emission in Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) gamma-ray bursts at energies usually associated with prompt emission. After summing up the background-subtracted signals from hundreds of bursts, it is found that tails out to hundreds of seconds after the trigger could be a common feature of events of a duration greater than 2 seconds, and perhaps of the shorter bursts at a lower and shorter-lived level. The tail component may be softer and seems independent of the duration (within the long-GRB sample) and brightness of the prompt burst emission. Some individual bursts have visible tails at gamma-ray energies, and the spectrum in a few cases differs from that of the prompt emission. For one of these bursts, GRB 991216, afterglow at lower energies was detected, which raised the possibility of seeing afterglow observations over large energy ranges using the next generation of GRB detectors in addition to sensitive space- or ground-based telescopes.

  14. The Advanced Gamma-Ray Imaging System (AGIS)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Otte, Nepomuk

    The Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System (AGIS) is a concept for the next generation of imag-ing atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays. It has the goal of providing an order of magnitude increase in sensitivity for Very High Energy Gamma-ray ( 100 GeV to 100 TeV) astronomy compared to currently operating arrays such as CANGAROO, HESS, MAGIC, and VERITAS. After an overview of the science such an array would enable, we discuss the development of the components of the telescope system that are required to achieve the sensitivity goal. AGIS stresses improvements in several areas of IACT technology including component reliability as well as exploring cost reduction possibilities in order to achieve its goal. We discuss alterna-tives for the telescopes and positioners: a novel Schwarzschild-Couder telescope offering a wide field of view with a relatively smaller plate scale, and possibilities for rapid slewing in order to address the search for and/or study of Gamma-ray Bursts in the VHE gamma-ray regime. We also discuss options for a high pixel count camera system providing the necessary finer solid angle per pixel and possibilities for a fast topological trigger that would offer improved realtime background rejection and lower energy thresholds.

  15. A luminous gamma-ray binary in the large magellanic cloud

    DOE PAGES

    Corbet, R. H. D.; Chomiuk, L.; Coe, M. J.; ...

    2016-09-27

    Gamma-ray binaries consist of a neutron star or a black hole interacting with a normal star to produce gamma-ray emission that dominates the radiative output of the system. Previously, only a handful of such systems have been discovered, all within our Galaxy. We report the discovery of a luminous gamma-ray binary in the Large Magellanic Cloud, found with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), from a search for periodic modulation in all sources in the third Fermi LAT catalog. This is the first such system to be found outside the Milky Way. Furthermore, the system has an orbital period ofmore » 10.3 days, and is associated with a massive O5III star located in the supernova remnant DEM L241, previously identified as the candidate high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) CXOU J053600.0–673507. X-ray and radio emission are also modulated on the 10.3 day period, but are in anti-phase with the gamma-ray modulation. Optical radial velocity measurements suggest that the system contains a neutron star. The source is significantly more luminous than similar sources in the Milky Way, at radio, optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths. The detection of this extra-galactic system, but no new Galactic systems, raises the possibility that the predicted number of gamma-ray binaries in our Galaxy has been overestimated, and that HMXBs may be born containing relatively slowly rotating neutron stars.« less

  16. Effects of Shielding on Gamma Rays

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Karpius, Peter Joseph

    2017-03-13

    The interaction of gamma rays with matter results in an effect we call attenuation (i.e. ‘shielding’). Attenuation can dramatically alter the appearance of a spectrum. Attenuating materials may actually create features in a spectrum via x-ray fluorescence

  17. Current Topics in Gamma-Ray Astrophysics

    PubMed Central

    Mathews, Grant J.; Maronetti, P.; Salmonson, Jay; Wilson, J. R.

    2000-01-01

    This paper reports on recent progress toward unraveling the origin of gamma-ray bursts. It is concluded that neutron-star binaries are one of the few remaining candidates. A model is proposed based upon general relativistic hydrodynamic studies which indicate a new physical process by which to power a gamma-ray burst. Relativistically driven compression, heating, and collapse of the individual neutron stars can occur many seconds before inspiral and merger. This compression may produce a neutrino burst of ∼1053 ergs lasting several seconds. The associated thermal neutrino emission produces an e+–e − pair plasma by vv¯ annihilation. We show first results of a simulated burst which produces ∼1051 erg in γ rays of the correct spectral and temporal properties. PMID:27551592

  18. Current Topics in Gamma-Ray Astrophysics.

    PubMed

    Mathews, G J; Maronetti, P; Salmonson, J; Wilson, J R

    2000-01-01

    This paper reports on recent progress toward unraveling the origin of gamma-ray bursts. It is concluded that neutron-star binaries are one of the few remaining candidates. A model is proposed based upon general relativistic hydrodynamic studies which indicate a new physical process by which to power a gamma-ray burst. Relativistically driven compression, heating, and collapse of the individual neutron stars can occur many seconds before inspiral and merger. This compression may produce a neutrino burst of ∼10(53) ergs lasting several seconds. The associated thermal neutrino emission produces an e (+)-e (-) pair plasma by [Formula: see text] annihilation. We show first results of a simulated burst which produces ∼10(51) erg in γ rays of the correct spectral and temporal properties.

  19. SGR2, a Phospholipase-Like Protein, and ZIG/SGR4, a SNARE, Are Involved in the Shoot Gravitropism of Arabidopsis

    PubMed Central

    Kato, Takehide; Morita, Miyo Terao; Fukaki, Hidehiro; Yamauchi, Yoshiro; Uehara, Michiko; Niihama, Mitsuru; Tasaka, Masao

    2002-01-01

    In higher plants, the shoot and the root generally show negative and positive gravitropism, respectively. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in gravitropism, we have isolated many shoot gravitropism mutants in Arabidopsis. The sgr2 and zig/sgr4 mutants exhibited abnormal gravitropism in both inflorescence stems and hypocotyls. These genes probably are involved in the early step(s) of the gravitropic response. The sgr2 mutants also had misshapen seed and seedlings, whereas the stem of the zig/sgr4 mutants elongated in a zigzag fashion. The SGR2 gene encodes a novel protein that may be part of a gene family represented by bovine phosphatidic acid–preferring phospholipase A1 containing a putative transmembrane domain. This gene family has been reported only in eukaryotes. The ZIG gene was found to encode AtVTI11, a protein that is homologous with yeast VTI1 and is involved in vesicle transport. Our observations suggest that the two genes may be involved in a vacuolar membrane system that affects shoot gravitropism. PMID:11826297

  20. Models for Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Woosley, Stan

    . These stars may have been born more massive than nowadays, and certainly died more massive if mass loss depends upon metallicity. We will explore the bright signal from shock breakout in these stars, a signal that should be detectable even after traversing almost all the universe. We will also study a particular class of ultra-luminous supernovae resulting from the collisions of shells ejected by repeated thermonuclear explosions in very massive stars, the so called ``pulsational pair instability supernovae''. Shock break out will also be studied in more nearby stars using the large library of supernova models we have computed over the years. And we will study the effects that the black holes and neutron stars have on the light emitted by the supernovae that made them. If the outer layers of the star that made the black hole rotate too fast to fall straight into the hole, a long duration (minutes to days) gamma-ray burst can result. If the neutron star has an exceptionally strong magnetic field and rotates rapidly, it may contribute to the supernova light curve. In some cases the supernova would be ultraluminous. Finding compelling evidence for either of these effects would have important implications for how supernovae and gamma-ray bursts work. We are seeking support for one month's summer salary for the PI and full time support for a graduate student. The student is already at UCSC and working on similar projects.

  1. Solving the Mystery of Short Gamma Ray Bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gehrels, Neil

    2006-01-01

    Gamma-ray bursts are among the most fascinating occurrences in the cosmos. Until this year, the origin of short gamma-ray bursts was a complete mystery. A new NASA satellite named Swift has now captured the first images of these events and found that they are caused by tremendous explosions in the distant universe.

  2. Novel Chalcogenide Materials for x ray and Gamma ray Detection

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-05-01

    REPORT OF PROJECT: Novel chalcogenide materials for x - ray and - ray detection HDTRA1-09-1-0044 Mercouri Kanatzidis , PI Northwestern University...investigated semiconductor for hard radiation detection. The μτ products for electrons however are lower than those of CZT, the leading material for X - ray ...Formation of native defects in the gamma- ray detector material, Cs2Hg6S7 Semiconductor devices detecting hard radiation such as x - rays and

  3. Handheld dual thermal neutron detector and gamma-ray spectrometer

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Stowe, Ashley C.; Burger, Arnold; Bhattacharya, Pijush

    2017-05-02

    A combined thermal neutron detector and gamma-ray spectrometer system, including: a first detection medium including a lithium chalcopyrite crystal operable for detecting neutrons; a gamma ray shielding material disposed adjacent to the first detection medium; a second detection medium including one of a doped metal halide, an elpasolite, and a high Z semiconductor scintillator crystal operable for detecting gamma rays; a neutron shielding material disposed adjacent to the second detection medium; and a photodetector coupled to the second detection medium also operable for detecting the gamma rays; wherein the first detection medium and the second detection medium do not overlapmore » in an orthogonal plane to a radiation flux. Optionally, the first detection medium includes a .sup.6LiInSe.sub.2 crystal. Optionally, the second detection medium includes a SrI.sub.2(Eu) scintillation crystal.« less

  4. Cosmic Ray Studies with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Large Area Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, David J.; Baldini, L.; Uchiyama, Y.

    2012-01-01

    The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope provides both direct and indirect measurements of galactic cosmic rays (CR). The LAT high-statistics observations of the 7 GeV - 1 TeV electron plus positron spectrum and limits on spatial anisotropy constrain models for this cosmic-ray component. On a galactic scale, the LAT observations indicate that cosmic-ray sources may be more plentiful in the outer Galaxy than expected or that the scale height of the cosmic-ray diffusive halo is larger than conventional models. Production of cosmic rays in supernova remnants (SNR) is supported by the LAT gamma-ray studies of several of these, both young SNR and those interacting with molecular clouds.

  5. Cosmic Ray Studies with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Large Area Telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, D. J.; Baldini, L.; Uchiyama, Y.

    2011-01-01

    The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope provides both direct and indirect measurements of Galactic cosmic rays (CR). The LAT high-statistics observations of the 7 GeV - 1 TcV electron plus positron spectrum and limits on spatial anisotropy constrain models for this cosmic-ray component. On a Galactic scale, the LAT observations indicate that cosmic-ray sources may be more plentiful in the outer Galaxy than expected or that the scale height of the cosmic-ray diffusive halo is larger than conventional models. Production of cosmic rays in supernova remnants (SNR) is supported by the LAT gamma-ray studies of several of these, both young SNR and those interacting with molecular clouds.

  6. Evolving Nonthermal Electron Distributions in Simulations of Sgr A*

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chael, Andrew; Narayan, Ramesh

    2018-01-01

    The accretion flow around Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the black hole at the Galactic Center, produces strong variability from the radio to X-rays on timescales of minutes to hours. This rapid, powerful variability is thought to be powered by energetic particle acceleration by plasma processes like magnetic reconnection and shocks. These processes can accelerate particles into non-thermal distributions which do not quickly isothermal in the low densities found around hot accretion flows. Current state-of-the-art simulations of accretion flows around black holes assume either a single-temperature gas or, at best, a two-temperature gas with thermal ions and electrons. We present results from incorporating the self-consistent evolution of a non-thermal electron population in a GRRMHD simulation of Sgr A*. The electron distribution is evolved across space, time, and Lorentz factor in parallel with background thermal ion, electron, and radiation fluids. Energy injection into the non-thermal distribution is modeled with a sub-grid prescription based on results from particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic reconnection. The energy distribution of the non-thermal electrons shows strong variability, and the spectral shape traces the complex interplay between the local viscous heating rate, magnetic field strength, and fluid velocity. Results from these simulations will be used in interpreting forthcoming data from the Event Horizon Telescope that resolves Sgr A*'s sub-mm variability in both time and space.

  7. The First Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars

    DOE PAGES

    Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; ...

    2010-03-25

    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 sizable 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 observations at other wavelengths. The dimmest observed flux among these gamma-ray-selected pulsars is 6.0 × 10 –8 ph cm –2 s –1 (for E>100 MeV). Pulsed gamma-ray emission was discovered from 24 known pulsars by using ephemerides (timing solutions) derived from monitoring radio pulsars. Eight of these new gamma-ray pulsars are millisecond pulsars. The dimmest observed flux among the radio-selected pulsars is 1.4 × 10 –8 ph cm –2 s –1 (for E>100 MeV). The remaining six gamma-ray pulsars were known since the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory mission, or before. The limiting flux for pulse detection is non-uniform over the sky owing to different background levels, especially near the Galactic plane. The pulsed energy spectra can be described by a power law with an exponential cutoff, with cutoff energies in the range ~1-5 GeV. The rotational energy-loss rate (more » $$\\dot{E}$$) of these neutron stars spans five decades, from ~3 × 10 33 erg s –1 to 5 × 10 38 erg s –1, and the apparent efficiencies for conversion to gamma-ray emission range from ~0.1% to ~ unity, although distance uncertainties complicate efficiency estimates. The pulse shapes show substantial diversity, but roughly 75% of the gamma-ray pulse profiles have two peaks, separated by ≳0.2 of rotational phase. For most of the pulsars, gamma-ray emission appears to come mainly from the outer

  8. Gamma-ray astronomy and the origin of cosmic rays

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stecker, F. W.

    1978-01-01

    New surveys of galactic gamma ray emission together with millimeter wave radio surveys indicated that cosmic rays were produced as the result of supernova explosions in our galaxy with the most intense production occurring in a Great Galactic Ring about 35,000 light years in diameter where supernova remnants and pulsars were concentrated.

  9. Solar gamma rays. [in solar flares

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ramaty, R.; Kozlovsky, B.; Lingenfelter, R. E.

    1974-01-01

    The theory of gamma ray production in solar flares is treated in detail. Both lines and continuum are produced. Results show that the strongest line predicted at 2.225 MeV with a width of less than 100 eV and detected at 2.24 + or - 2.02 MeV, is due to neutron capture by protons in the photosphere. Its intensity is dependent on the photospheric He-3 abundance. The neutrons are produced in nuclear reactions of flare accelerated particles which also produce positrons and prompt nuclear deexcitation lines. The strongest prompt lines are at 4.43 MeV from c-12 and at approximately 6.2 from 0-16 and N-15. The gamma ray continuum, produced by electron bremsstrahlung, allows the determination of the spectrum and number of accelerated electrons in the MeV region. From the comparison of the line and continuum intensities a proton-to-electron ratio of about 10 to 100 at the same energy for the 1972, August 4 flare. For the same flare the protons above 2.5 MeV which are responsible for the gamma ray emission produce a few percent of the heat generated by the electrons which make the hard X rays above 20 keV.

  10. Fermi GBM Observations of Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Briggs, Michael S.

    2011-09-21

    Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes are short pulses of energetic radiation associated with thunderstorms and lightning. While the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on Fermi was designed to observe gamma-ray bursts, its large BGO detectors are excellent for observing TGFs. Using GBM, TGF pulses are seen to either be symmetrical or have faster rise time than fall times. Some TGFs are resolved into double, partially overlapping pulses. Using ground-based radio observations of lightning from the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), TGFs and their associated lightning are found to be simultaneous to {approx_equal}40 {mu} s. The lightning locations are typically within 300 kmmore » of the sub-spacecraft point.« less

  11. Common Gamma-ray Glows above Thunderclouds

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kelley, Nicole; Smith, David; Dwyer, Joseph; Hazelton, Bryna; Grefenstette, Brian; Lowell, Alex; Splitt, Michael; Lazarus, Steven; Rassoul, Hamid

    2013-04-01

    Gamma-ray glows are continuous, long duration gamma- and x-ray emission seen coming from thunderclouds. The Airborne for Energetic Lightning Emissions (ADELE) observed 12 gamma-ray glows during its summer 2009 flight campaign over the areas of Colorado and Florida in the United States. For these glows we shall present their spectra, relationship to lightning activity and how their duration and size changes as a function of distance. Gamma-ray glows follow the relativistic runaway electron avalanche (RREA) spectrum and have been previously measured from the ground and inside the cloud. ADELE measured most glows as it flew above the screening layer of the cloud. During the brightest glow on August 21, 2009, we can show that we are flying directly into a downward facing relativistic runaway avalanche, indicative of flying between the upper positive and negative screening layer of the cloud. In order to explain the brightness of this glow, RREA with an electric field approaching the limit for relativistic feedback must be occurring. Using all 12 glows, we show that lightning activity diminishes during the onset of the glow. Using this along with the fact that glows occur as the field approaches the level necessary for feedback, we attempt to distinguish between two possibilities: that glows are evidence that RREA with feedback, rather than lightning, is sometimes the primary channel for discharging the cloud, or else that the overall discharging is still controlled by lightning, with glows simply appearing during times when a subsidence of lightning allows the field to rise above the threshold for RREA.

  12. The Gamma-Ray Observatory: An overview

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kniffen, Donald A.

    1989-01-01

    The Gamma-Ray Observatory (GRO) is a 16,000 kg spacecraft containing four instruments which span almost six decades of energy from about 50 keV to about 30 GeV. It will provide the first opportunity to make simultaneous observations over such a broad band of gamma-ray energies. GRO is assembled and undergoing testing prior to its scheduled June 4, 1990 launch aboard the Space Shuttle. The orbit will be circular with an altitude of 450 km and with an inclination of 28 degrees. Data will be recorded at 32 kilobits per second and dumped once per orbit via the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). The spacecraft is three-axis stabilized and timing will be maintained to .1 ms. The observing schedule will begin with an all sky survey, consisting of 30 two week pointings, covering the first 15 months of science operations. Following observations will emphasize source studies and deep searches. Originally selected as a Principal Class spacecraft with a two year mission, extension of the mission to six to ten years makes a vigorous Guest Investigator Program both possible and desirable. Such a program will be fully in place by the third year of the mission, with limited opportunities earlier. Each of the four instruments has a capability for observing both gamma-ray bursts and solar flare gamma-rays, and there is some solar neutron capability. Correlated observations with those at other wavelengths is also receiving considerable attention in the mission planning.

  13. Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) Observed with the Fermi-Gamma-ray Burst Monitor: Temporal and Spectral Properties

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fishman, G. J.; Briggs, M. S.; Connaughton, W.; Wilson-Hodge, C.; Bhat, P. N.

    2010-01-01

    The Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Observatory (Fermi) was detecting 2.1 TGFs per week. This rate has increased by a factor of 8 since new flight software was uploaded to the spacecraft in November 2009 in order to increase the sensitivity of GBM to TGFs. Further upgrades to Fermi-GBM to allow observations of weaker TGFs are in progress. The high time resolution (2 s) allows temporal features to be resolved so that some insight may be gained on the origin and transport of the gamma-ray photons through the atmosphere. The absolute time of the TGFs, known to several microseconds, also allows accurate correlations of TGFs with lightning networks and other lightning-related phenomena. The thick bismuth germanate (BGO) scintillation detectors of the GBM system have observed photon energies from TGFs at energies above 40 MeV. New results on the some temporal aspects of TGFs will be presented along with spectral characteristics and properties of several electron-positron TGF events that have been identified.

  14. Gamma rays from accretion onto rotating black holes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Collins, M. S.

    1979-01-01

    Ionized matter falling onto an isolated rotating black hole will be heated sufficiently that proton-proton collisions will produce mesons, including neutral pions, which decay into gamma rays. For massive (1000-solar mass) black holes, the resulting gamma-ray luminosity may exceed 10 to the 36th erg/s with a spectrum peaked near 20 MeV.

  15. Very high gamma ray extension of GRO observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Weekes, Trevor C.

    1994-12-01

    The membership, progress, and invited talks, publications, and proceedings made by the Whipple Gamma Ray Collaboration is reported for june 1990 through May 1994. Progress was made in the following areas: the May 1994 Markarian Flare at Whipple and EGRET (Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope) energies; AGN's (Active Galactic Nuclei); bursts; supernova remnants; and simulations and energy spectra.

  16. Arcsec source location measurements in gamma-ray astronomy from a lunar observatory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Koch, D. G.; Hughes, B. E.

    1990-03-01

    The physical processes typically used in the detection of high energy gamma-rays do not permit good angular resolution, which makes difficult the unambiguous association of discrete gamma-ray sources with objects emitting at other wavelengths. This problem can be overcome by placing gamma-ray detectors on the moon and using the horizon as an occulting edge to achieve arcsec resolution. For the purpose of discussion, this concept is examined for gamma rays above about 20 MeV for which pair production dominates the detection process and locally-generated nuclear gamma rays do not contribute to the background.

  17. Long duration gamma-ray emission from thunderclouds

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kelley, Nicole A.

    Gamma-ray glows are long duration emission coming from thunderclouds. They are one example of high-energy atmospheric physics, a relatively new field studying high-energy phenomena from thunderstorms and lightning. Glows arise from sustained relativistic runaway electron avalanches (RREA). Gamma-ray instruments on the ground, balloons and airplanes have detected glows. The Airborne Detector for Energetic Lightning Emissions (ADELE) is an array of gamma-ray detectors, built at the University of California, Santa Cruz. ADELE detected 12 gamma-ray glows during its summer 2009 campaign. ADELE was designed to study another type of high-energy atmospheric physics, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). TGFs are incredibly bright, sub-millisecond bursts of gamma-rays coming from thunderstorms. ADELE was installed on NCAR's Gulfstream V for the summer of 2009. While many glows were detected, only one TGF was observed. In this thesis I present a detailed explanation of the 2009 version of ADELE along with the results of the 2009 campaign. ADELE was modified to become a smaller, autonomous instrument to fly on the NASA drone, a Global Hawk. This was a piggyback to NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel mission. These flights took place during the summer of 2013. The following summer, ADELE flew on an Orion P3 as a piggyback of NOAA's Hurricane Hunters. This newer, modified instrument is discussed in detail in this thesis. The 12 gamma-ray glows from the 2009 campaign are presented, with information about nearby lightning activity. I show that lightning activity is suppressed after a glow. This could be from the glow causing the cloud to discharge and therefore reduce the lightning activity. It is also possible that glows can only occur once lightning activity has diminished. Lightning is also used to find a distance to the glow. Using this distance, it is found that the brightness of glow cannot be explained as a function of distance while the duration of the glow is

  18. ESA's Integral detects closest cosmic gamma-ray burst

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    2004-08-01

    5 August 2004 A gamma-ray burst detected by ESA's Integral gamma-ray observatory on 3 December 2003 has been thoroughly studied for months by an armada of space and ground-based observatories. Astronomers have now concluded that this event, called GRB 031203, is the closest cosmic gamma-ray burst on record, but also the faintest. This also suggests that an entire population of sub-energetic gamma-ray bursts has so far gone unnoticed... Gamma ray burst model hi-res Size hi-res: 22 KB Credits: CXC/M. Weiss Artist impression of a low-energy gamma-ray burst This illustration describes a model for a gamma-ray burst, like the one detected by Integral on 3 December 2003 (GRB 031203). A jet of high-energy particles from a rapidly rotating black hole interacts with surrounding matter. Observations with Integral on 3 December 2003 and data on its afterglow, collected afterwards with XMM-Newton, Chandra and the Very Large Array telescope, show that GRB 031203 radiated only a fraction of the energy of normal gamma-ray bursts. Like supernovae, gamma-ray bursts are thought to be produced by the collapse of the core of a massive star. However, while the process leading to supernovae is relatively well understood, astronomers still do not know what happens when a core collapses to form a black hole. The discovery of 'under-energetic' gamma-ray bursts, like GRB 031203, should provide valuable clues as to links between supernovae, black holes and gamma-ray bursts. Lo-res JPG (22 Kb) Hi-res TIFF (5800 Kb) Cosmic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are flashes of gamma rays that can last from less than a second to a few minutes and occur at random positions in the sky. A large fraction of them is thought to result when a black hole is created from a dying star in a distant galaxy. Astronomers believe that a hot disc surrounding the black hole, made of gas and matter falling onto it, somehow emits an energetic beam parallel to the axis of rotation. According to the simplest picture, all GRBs

  19. Albedo gamma-rays observation at energies above 30 MeV

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galper, A. M.; Grachev, V. M.; Dmitrenko, V. V.; Kirillov-Ugriumov, V. G.; Liakhov, V. A.; Prokhorova, L. A.; Riumin, V. V.; Ulin, S. E.

    Albedo gamma-ray observations are presented, which were carried out with the small gamma-ray telescope Elena-F on Salyut-6 at the 30-410 MeV and 50-420 MeV energy ranges. For the equatorial region from 15.0-17.5 GV, the albedo gamma-ray fluxes are 40 plus or minus 20 ph/sq m-s-sr, and the measured power law index of the differential energy spectrum is 1.6 plus or minus 0.5. The orbital station data are compared with simultaneous observations performed on a balloon, and the power law index of the differential energy spectrum of albedo gamma-rays measured by the balloon amounts to 2.1 plus or minus 0.4.

  20. Dense gamma-ray and pair creation using ultra-intense lasers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liang, Edison; Lo, Willie; Hasson, Hannah; Dyer, Gilliss; Clarke, Taylor; Fasanelli, Fabio; Yao, Kelly; Marchenka, Ilija; Henderson, Alexander; Dashko, Andriy; Zhang, Yuling; Ditmire, Todd

    2016-10-01

    We report recent results of gamma-ray and e +e- pair creation experiments using the Texas Petawatt laser (TPW) in Austin and the Trident laser at LANL irradiating solid high-Z targets. In addition to achieving record high densities of emerging gamma-rays and pairs at TPW, we measured in detail the spectra of hot electrons, positrons, and gamma-rays, and studied their spectral variation with laser and target parameters. A new type of gamma-ray spectrometer, called the scintillator attenuation spectrometer (SAS), was successfully demonstrated in Trident experiments in 2015. We will discuss the design and results of the SAS. Preliminary results of new experiments at TPW carried out in the summer of 2016 will also be presented.

  1. Time Domain Filtering of Resolved Images of Sgr A{sup ∗}

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Shiokawa, Hotaka; Doeleman, Sheperd S.; Gammie, Charles F.

    The goal of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is to provide spatially resolved images of Sgr A*, the source associated with the Galactic Center black hole. Because Sgr A* varies on timescales that are short compared to an EHT observing campaign, it is interesting to ask whether variability contains information about the structure and dynamics of the accretion flow. In this paper, we introduce “time-domain filtering,” a technique to filter time fluctuating images with specific temporal frequency ranges and to demonstrate the power and usage of the technique by applying it to mock millimeter wavelength images of Sgr A*. Themore » mock image data is generated from the General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulation and the general relativistic ray-tracing method. We show that the variability on each line of sight is tightly correlated with a typical radius of emission. This is because disk emissivity fluctuates on a timescale of the order of the local orbital period. Time-domain filtered images therefore reflect the model dependent emission radius distribution, which is not accessible in time-averaged images. We show that, in principle, filtered data have the power to distinguish between models with different black-hole spins, different disk viewing angles, and different disk orientations in the sky.« less

  2. Cosmic gamma-rays and cosmic nuclei above 1 TeV

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Watson, A. A.

    1986-01-01

    Work on cosmic gamma rays and cosmic nuclei above I TeV is described and evaluated. The prospect that gamma ray astronomy above I TeV will give new insights into high energy cosmic ray origin within our galaxy is particularly bright.

  3. Discovery of localized TeV gamma-ray sources and diffuse TeV gamma-ray emission from the galactic plane with Milagro using a new background rejection technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abdo, Aws Ahmad

    2007-08-01

    Very high energy gamma-rays can be used to probe some of the most powerful astrophysical objects in the universe, such as active galactic nuclei, supernova remnants and pulsar-powered nebulae. The diffuse gamma radiation arising from the interaction of cosmic-ray particles with matter and radiation in the Galaxy is one of the few probes available to study the origin of cosmic- rays. Milagro is a water Cherenkov detector that continuously views the entire overhead sky. The large field-of-view combined with the long observation time makes Milagro the most sensitive instrument available for the study of large, low surface brightness sources such as the diffuse gamma radiation arising from interactions of cosmic radiation with interstellar matter. In this thesis I present a new background rejection technique for the Milagro detector through the development of a new gamma hadron separation variable. The Abdo variable, A 4 , coupled with the weighting analysis technique significantly improves the sensitivity of the Milagro detector. This new analysis technique resulted in the first discoveries in Milagro. Four localized sources of TeV gamma-ray emission have been discovered, three of which are in the Cygnus region of the Galaxy and one closer to the Galactic center. In addition to these localized sources, a diffuse emission of TeV gamma-rays has been discovered from the Cygnus region of the Galaxy as well. However, the TeV gamma-ray flux as measured at ~12 TeV from the Cygnus region exceeds that predicted from a conventional model of cosmic-ray production and propagation. This observation indicates the existence of either hard-spectrum cosmic-ray sources and/or other sources of TeV gamma rays in the region. Other TeV gamma-ray source candidates with post-trial statistical significances of > 4s have also been observed in the Galactic plane.

  4. Nuclear Forensics using Gamma-ray Spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Norman, E. B.

    2016-09-01

    Much of George Dracoulis's research career was devoted to utilising gamma-ray spectroscopy in fundamental studies in nuclear physics. This same technology is useful in a wide range of applications in the area of nuclear forensics. Over the last several years, our research group has made use of both high- and low-resolution gamma-ray spectrometers to: identify the first sample of plutonium large enough to be weighed; determine the yield of the Trinity nuclear explosion; measure fission fragment yields as a function of target nucleus and neutron energy; and observe fallout in the U. S. from the Fukushima nuclear reactor accident.

  5. An improved time of flight gamma-ray telescope to monitor diffuse gamma-ray in the energy range 5 MeV - 50 MeV

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dacostafereiraneri, A.; Bui-Van, A.; Lavigne, J. M.; Sabaud, C.; Vedrenne, G.; Agrinier, B.; Gouiffes, C.

    1985-01-01

    A time of flight measuring device is the basic triggering system of most of medium and high energy gamma-ray telescopes. A simple gamma-ray telescope has been built in order to check in flight conditions the functioning of an advanced time of flight system. The technical ratings of the system are described. This telescope has been flown twice with stratospheric balloons, its axis being oriented at various Zenital directions. Flight results are presented for diffuse gamma-rays, atmospheric secondaries, and various causes of noise in the 5 MeV-50 MeV energy range.

  6. Modeling X-ray and gamma-ray emission in the intrabinary shock of pulsar binaries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    An, H.

    2017-10-01

    We present broadband SED and light curve, and a wind interaction model for the gamma-ray binary 1FGL J1018.6-5856 (J1018) which exhibits double peaks in the X-ray light curve. Assuming that the X-ray to low-energy gamma-ray emission is produced by synchrotron radiation and high-energy gamma rays by inverse Compton scattering in the intrabinary shock (IBS), we model the broadband SED and light curve of J1018 using a two-component model having slow electrons in the shock and fast bulk-accelerated electrons at the skin of the shock. The model explains the broadband SED and light curve of J1018 qualitatively well. In particular, modeling the synchrotron emission constrains the orbital geometry. We discuss potential use of the model for other pulsar binaries.

  7. Nova Eruptions from Radio to Gamma-raysówith AAVSO Data in the Middle (Abstract)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mukai, K.; Kafka, S.; Chomiuk, L.; Li, R.; Finzell, T.; Linford, J.; Sokoloski, J.; Nelson, T.; Rupen, M.; Mioduszewski, A.; Weston, J.

    2018-06-01

    (Abstract only) Novae are among the longest-known class of optical transients. In recent years, V1369 Cen in the south reached magnitude 3.3 in late 2013, and had repeated (but not periodic) cycles of re-brightening. Earlier in 2013, V339 Del almost reached magnitude 4.0 during the northern summer. An expanding ball of gas, at about 10,000 K, expelled by a nuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf, can explain much of the visible light outputs of novae. But these spectacular visible light displays turn out to be just a small part of the show. Novae are also transient objects in the radio through gamma-raysóin addition to the warm, visible light-emitting gas, we need cold dust particles that emit in the infra-red, 10 million degree shock-heated gas that emits hard X-rays, and the exposed surface of the nuclear-burning white dwarf that emits soft X-rays. Last but not least, we need an exotic process of particle acceleration to explain the gamma-rays and some radio data.

  8. QUASI-STAR JETS AS UNIDENTIFIED GAMMA-RAY SOURCES

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Czerny, Bozena; Sikora, Marek; Janiuk, Agnieszka

    2012-08-10

    Gamma-ray catalogs contain a considerable amount of unidentified sources. Many of these are located out of the Galactic plane and therefore may have extragalactic origin. Here we assume that the formation of massive black holes in galactic nuclei proceeds through a quasi-star stage and consider the possibility of jet production by such objects. Those jets would be the sources of collimated synchrotron and Compton emission, extending from radio to gamma rays. The expected lifetimes of quasi-stars are of the order of million of years while the jet luminosities, somewhat smaller than that of quasar jets, are sufficient to account formore » the unidentified gamma-ray sources. The jet emission dominates over the thermal emission of a quasi-star in all energy bands, except when the jet is not directed toward an observer. The predicted synchrotron emission peaks in the IR band, with the flux close to the limits of the available IR all sky surveys. The ratio of the gamma-ray flux to the IR flux is found to be very large ({approx}60), much larger than in BL Lac objects but reached by some radio-loud quasars. On the other hand, radio-loud quasars show broad emission lines while no such lines are expected from quasi-stars. Therefore, the differentiation between various scenarios accounting for the unidentified gamma-ray sources will be possible at the basis of the photometry and spectroscopy of the IR/optical counterparts.« less

  9. Novel Chalcogenide Materials for X-ray and Gamma-ray Detection

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-05-01

    53 Novel Chalcogenide Materials for x-ray and y-ray Detection Distribution Statement A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. 0...TITLE AND SUBTITLE Sa. CONTRACT NUMBER Novel Chalcogenide Materials for x-ray and y-ray Detection Sb. GRANT NUMBER HDTRA 1-09-1-0044 Sc. PROGRAM...heavy atom chalcogenide family of semiconductors for room temperature gamma radiation detection . Its goal was to accelerate nuclear detector material

  10. ICF Gamma-Ray measurements on the NIF

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Herrmann, Hans; Kim, Y.; Hoffman, N. M.; Batha, S. H.; Stoeffl, W.; Church, J. A.; Sayre, D. B.; Liebman, J. A.; Cerjan, C. J.; Carpenter, A. C.; Grafil, E. M.; Khater, H. Y.; Horsfield, C. J.; Rubery, M.

    2013-10-01

    The primary objective of the NIF Gamma Reaction History (GRH) diagnostic is to provide bang time and burn width information in order to constrain implosion simulation parameters such as shell velocity and confinement time. This is accomplished by measuring DT fusion gamma-rays with energy-thresholded Gas Cherenkov detectors that convert MeV gamma-rays into UV/visible photons for high-bandwidth optical detection. Burn-weighted CH ablator areal density is also inferred based on measurement of the 12C(n,n') gammas emitted at 4.44 MeV from DT neutrons inelastically scattering off carbon nuclei as they pass through the plastic ablator. This requires that the four independent GRH gas cells be set to differing Cherenkov thresholds (e.g., 2.9, 4.5, 8 & 10 MeV) in order to be able to unfold the primary spectral components predicted to be in the gamma ray energy spectrum (i.e., DT γ 27Al & 28Si (n,n') γ from the thermo-mechanical package (TMP); and 12C(n,n' γ from the ablator). The GRH response to 12C(n,n') γ is calibrated in-situ by placing a known areal density of carbon in the form of a puck placed ~6 cm from a DT exploding pusher implosion. Comparisons between inferred gamma fluences and simulations based on the nuclear cross sections databases will be presented. Supported by US DOE NNSA.

  11. Dark Matter Indirect Detection with Gamma Rays

    DOE PAGES

    Patrick Harding, J.

    2017-07-27

    Searches for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter with gamma-ray instruments are a way to get a unique observational handle on the particle nature of dark matter. I will discuss the details of how to perform these searches, both for annihilating and decaying WIMPs. I will discuss the calculation of the gamma-ray flux from possible sources of dark matter annihilation or decay and show examples of limits which have been calculated using these techniques.

  12. Gamma-ray tracking method for pet systems

    DOEpatents

    Mihailescu, Lucian; Vetter, Kai M.

    2010-06-08

    Gamma-ray tracking methods for use with granular, position sensitive detectors identify the sequence of the interactions taking place in the detector and, hence, the position of the first interaction. The improved position resolution in finding the first interaction in the detection system determines a better definition of the direction of the gamma-ray photon, and hence, a superior source image resolution. A PET system using such a method will have increased efficiency and position resolution.

  13. Fermi/GBM Results of Magnetars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kouveliotou, chryssa

    2011-01-01

    Magnetars are magnetically powered rotating neutron stars with extreme magnetic fields (over 10(exp 14) Gauss). They were discovered in the X- and gamma-rays where they predominantly emit their radiation. Very few sources (roughly 18) have been found since their discovery in 1987. NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was launched June 11,2009; since then the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) recorded emission from four magnetar sources. Two of these were brand new sources, SGR J0501 +4516, discovered with Swift and extensively monitored with Swift and GBM, SGR J0418+5729, discovered with GBM and the Interplanetary Network (IPN). A third was SGR Jl550-5418, a source originally classified as an Anomalous X-ray Pulsar (AXP IEI547.0-5408), but exhibiting a very prolific outburst with over 400 events recorded in January 2009. In my talk I will give a short history of magnetars and describe how this, once relatively esoteric field, has emerged as a link between several astrophysical areas including Gamma-Ray Bursts. Finally, I will describe the exciting new results of Fermi in this field and the current status of our knowledge of the magnetar population properties and magnetic fields.

  14. Gamma ray bursts of black hole universe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, T. X.

    2015-07-01

    Slightly modifying the standard big bang theory, Zhang recently developed a new cosmological model called black hole universe, which has only a single postulate but is consistent with Mach's principle, governed by Einstein's general theory of relativity, and able to explain existing observations of the universe. In the previous studies, we have explained the origin, structure, evolution, expansion, cosmic microwave background radiation, quasar, and acceleration of black hole universe, which grew from a star-like black hole with several solar masses through a supermassive black hole with billions of solar masses to the present state with hundred billion-trillions of solar masses by accreting ambient matter and merging with other black holes. This study investigates gamma ray bursts of black hole universe and provides an alternative explanation for the energy and spectrum measurements of gamma ray bursts according to the black hole universe model. The results indicate that gamma ray bursts can be understood as emissions of dynamic star-like black holes. A black hole, when it accretes its star or merges with another black hole, becomes dynamic. A dynamic black hole has a broken event horizon and thus cannot hold the inside hot (or high-frequency) blackbody radiation, which flows or leaks out and produces a GRB. A star when it collapses into its core black hole produces a long GRB and releases the gravitational potential energy of the star as gamma rays. A black hole that merges with another black hole produces a short GRB and releases a part of their blackbody radiation as gamma rays. The amount of energy obtained from the emissions of dynamic star-like black holes are consistent with the measurements of energy from GRBs. The GRB energy spectra derived from this new emission mechanism are also consistent with the measurements.

  15. Fast transient X-rays and gamma ray bursts - Are they stellar flares?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rao, A. R.; Vahia, M. N.

    Short period transient X-ray emissions (FTX) have been observed from several sources in the sky and the largest single group of objects identified with such sources are active stars: flare stars, and RS CVn binaries. The study of the number, source and flux distribution of the fast transient X-ray sources shows that all the FTX emission can be treated as flares in the interbinary regions of active stars. It is suggested that the FTX emission is a common feature of the gamma ray bursts (GRBs). The evidence for the similarity between the hard X-ray flares and GRBs is discussed, and the possibility that the gamma ray bursts are the impulsive precursors of FTX originating from active stars with large scale magnetic activity is examined.

  16. Designing a Gamma-Ray Telescope on a Budget

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kohler, Susanna

    2017-05-01

    Major space-based observatories are imperative in astronomy, but they take a long time to plan, build, and launch and they arent cheap. A new study examines an interesting compromise: a low-cost, space-based gamma-ray detector that we could use while we wait for the next big observatory to launch.Coverage and sensitivity of past and future missions for the X-ray to gamma-ray energy range (click for a better look!). The only past mission to explore the 1 MeV region was COMPTEL, on board CGRO. e-ASTROGAM is a proposed future space mission that would explore this range. [Lucchetta et al. 2017]A Gap in CoverageIn the last few decades, weve significantly expanded our X-ray and gamma-ray viewof the sky. One part of the electromagnetic spectrum remains poorly explored, however: the approximate transition point between X-rays and gamma rays near 1 MeV.Space-based gamma-ray telescopes have been proposed for the future to better explore this energy range. But these major observatories have costs of around half a billion Euros and will take roughly a decade to build and launch. Is there a way to get eyes on this energy range sooner?Scaling Down with CubeSatA team of scientists led by Giulio Lucchetta (University of Padova and INFN Padova, Italy) has proposed an intriguing solution for the more immediate future: a nano-satellite telescope based on the CubeSat standard.Structure of the proposed gamma-ray detector, in a 2U CubeSat design. [Lucchetta et al. 2017]A CubeSat is a miniaturized satellite design that can be easily deployed in space, either from the International Space Station or by hitching a ride as a secondary payload on a large rocket. The size of a CubeSat is a standardized unit of measurement: a single CubeSat unit, or 1U, is a mere 10x10x10 cm and a maximum of 1.33 kg in weight.The gamma-ray telescope proposed by Lucchetta and collaborators would use a 2U standard for the instrument, so the instrument would be only 10x10x20 cm in size! The design for the

  17. Future Gamma-Ray Observations of Pulsars and their Environments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, David J.

    2006-01-01

    Pulsars and pulsar wind nebulae seen at gamma-ray energies offer insight into particle acceleration to very high energies under extreme conditions. Pulsed emission provides information about the geometry and interaction processes in the magnetospheres of these rotating neutron stars, while the pulsar wind nebulae yield information about high-energy particles interacting with their surroundings. During the next decade, a number of new and expanded gamma-ray facilities will become available for pulsar studies, including Astro-rivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero (AGILE) and Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) in space and a number of higher-energy ground-based systems. This review describes the capabilities of such observatories to answer some of the open questions about the highest-energy processes involving neutron stars.

  18. The second fermi large area telescope catalog of gamma-ray pulsars

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Abdo, A. A.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.

    2013-09-19

    This catalog summarizes 117 high-confidence ≥0.1 GeV gamma-ray pulsar detections using three years of data acquired by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi satellite. Half are neutron stars discovered using LAT data through periodicity searches in gamma-ray and radio data around LAT unassociated source positions. The 117 pulsars are evenly divided into three groups: millisecond pulsars, young radio-loud pulsars, and young radio-quiet pulsars. We characterize the pulse profiles and energy spectra and derive luminosities when distance information exists. Spectral analysis of the off-peak phase intervals indicates probable pulsar wind nebula emission for four pulsars, and off-peak magnetospheric emissionmore » for several young and millisecond pulsars. We compare the gamma-ray properties with those in the radio, optical, and X-ray bands. We provide flux limits for pulsars with no observed gamma-ray emission, highlighting a small number of gamma-faint, radio-loud pulsars. The large, varied gamma-ray pulsar sample constrains emission models. Fermi's selection biases complement those of radio surveys, enhancing comparisons with predicted population distributions.« less

  19. The second FERMI large area telescope catalog of gamma-ray pulsars

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Abdo, A. A.; Ajello, M.; Allafort, A.

    2013-09-19

    This catalog summarizes 117 high-confidence ≥0.1 GeV gamma-ray pulsar detections using three years of data acquired by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi satellite. Half are neutron stars discovered using LAT data through periodicity searches in gamma-ray and radio data around LAT unassociated source positions. The 117 pulsars are evenly divided into three groups: millisecond pulsars, young radio-loud pulsars, and young radio-quiet pulsars. We characterize the pulse profiles and energy spectra and derive luminosities when distance information exists. Spectral analysis of the off-peak phase intervals indicates probable pulsar wind nebula emission for four pulsars, and off-peak magnetospheric emissionmore » for several young and millisecond pulsars. We compare the gamma-ray properties with those in the radio, optical, and X-ray bands. We provide flux limits for pulsars with no observed gamma-ray emission, highlighting a small number of gamma-faint, radio-loud pulsars. The large, varied gamma-ray pulsar sample constrains emission models. Fermi's selection biases complement those of radio surveys, enhancing comparisons with predicted population distributions.« less

  20. Long gamma-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae have different environments.

    PubMed

    Fruchter, A S; Levan, A J; Strolger, L; Vreeswijk, P M; Thorsett, S E; Bersier, D; Burud, I; Castro Cerón, J M; Castro-Tirado, A J; Conselice, C; Dahlen, T; Ferguson, H C; Fynbo, J P U; Garnavich, P M; Gibbons, R A; Gorosabel, J; Gull, T R; Hjorth, J; Holland, S T; Kouveliotou, C; Levay, Z; Livio, M; Metzger, M R; Nugent, P E; Petro, L; Pian, E; Rhoads, J E; Riess, A G; Sahu, K C; Smette, A; Tanvir, N R; Wijers, R A M J; Woosley, S E

    2006-05-25

    When massive stars exhaust their fuel, they collapse and often produce the extraordinarily bright explosions known as core-collapse supernovae. On occasion, this stellar collapse also powers an even more brilliant relativistic explosion known as a long-duration gamma-ray burst. One would then expect that these long gamma-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae should be found in similar galactic environments. Here we show that this expectation is wrong. We find that the gamma-ray bursts are far more concentrated in the very brightest regions of their host galaxies than are the core-collapse supernovae. Furthermore, the host galaxies of the long gamma-ray bursts are significantly fainter and more irregular than the hosts of the core-collapse supernovae. Together these results suggest that long-duration gamma-ray bursts are associated with the most extremely massive stars and may be restricted to galaxies of limited chemical evolution. Our results directly imply that long gamma-ray bursts are relatively rare in galaxies such as our own Milky Way.

  1. In-Flight Calibration of the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Esposito, J. A.; Bertsch, D. L.; Chen, A. W.; Dingus, B. L.; Fichtel, C. E.; Hartman, R. C.; Hunter, S. D.; Kanbach, G.; Kniffen, D. A.; Lin, Y. C.; hide

    1998-01-01

    The Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory has been operating for over seven years since its launch in 1991 April. This span of time far exceeds the design lifetime of two years. As the instrument has aged, several changes have occurred due to spark chamber gas exchanges as well as some hardware degradation and failures, all of which have an influence on the instrument sensitivity. This paper describes post-launch measurements and analysis that are done to calibrate the instrument response functions. The updated instrument characteristics are incorporated into the analysis software.

  2. What Can Simbol-X Do for Gamma-ray Binaries?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cerutti, B.; Dubus, G.; Henri, G.; Hill, A. B.; Szostek, A.

    2009-05-01

    Gamma-ray binaries have been uncovered as a new class of Galactic objects in the very high energy sky (>100 GeV). The three systems known today have hard X-ray spectra (photon index ~1.5), extended radio emission and a high luminosity in gamma-rays. Recent monitoring campaigns of LSI +61°303 in X-rays have confirmed variability in these systems and revealed a spectral hardening with increasing flux. In a generic one-zone leptonic model, the cooling of relativistic electrons accounts for the main spectral and temporal features observed at high energy. Persistent hard X-ray emission is expected to extend well beyond 10 keV. We explain how Simbol-X will constrain the existing models in connection with Fermi Space Telescope measurements. Because of its unprecedented sensitivity in hard X-rays, Simbol-X will also play a role in the discovery of new gamma-ray binaries, giving new insights into the evolution of compact binaries.

  3. Gamma rays from accretion onto rotating black holes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Collins, M. S.

    1978-01-01

    Ionized matter falling onto an isolated, rotating black hole will be heated sufficiently that proton-proton collisions will produce mesons, including neutral pions, which decay into gamma rays. For massive (1000 M sub circled dot), black holes, the resulting gamma-ray luminosity may exceed 10 to the 36th power engs/s, with a spectrum peaked near 20 MeV.

  4. HEAO C-1 gamma-ray spectrometer. [experimental design

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mahoney, W. A.; Ling, J. C.; Willett, J. B.; Jacobson, A. S.

    1978-01-01

    The gamma-ray spectroscopy experiment to be launched on the third High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO C) will perform a complete sky search for narrow gamma-ray line emission to the level of about 00001 photons/sq cm -sec for steady point sources. The design of this experiment and its performance based on testing and calibration to date are discussed.

  5. SLAC All Access: Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

    ScienceCinema

    Romani, Roger

    2018-04-16

    Three hundred and fifty miles overhead, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope silently glides through space. From this serene vantage point, the satellite's instruments watch the fiercest processes in the universe unfold. Pulsars spin up to 700 times a second, sweeping powerful beams of gamma-ray light through the cosmos. The hyperactive cores of distant galaxies spew bright jets of plasma. Far beyond, something mysterious explodes with unfathomable power, sending energy waves crashing through the universe. Stanford professor and KIPAC member Roger W. Romani talks about this orbiting telescope, the most advanced ever to view the sky in gamma rays, a form of light at the highest end of the energy spectrum that's created in the hottest regions of the universe.

  6. Sky and Elemental Planetary Mapping Via Gamma Ray Emissions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Roland, John M.

    2011-01-01

    Low-energy gamma ray emissions ((is) approximately 30keV to (is) approximately 30MeV) are significant to astrophysics because many interesting objects emit their primary energy in this regime. As such, there has been increasing demand for a complete map of the gamma ray sky, but many experiments to do so have encountered obstacles. Using an innovative method of applying the Radon Transform to data from BATSE (the Burst And Transient Source Experiment) on NASA's CGRO (Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory) mission, we have circumvented many of these issues and successfully localized many known sources to 0.5 - 1 deg accuracy. Our method, which is based on a simple 2-dimensional planar back-projection approximation of the inverse Radon transform (familiar from medical CAT-scan technology), can thus be used to image the entire sky and locate new gamma ray sources, specifically in energy bands between 200keV and 2MeV which have not been well surveyed to date. Samples of these results will be presented. This same technique can also be applied to elemental planetary surface mapping via gamma ray spectroscopy. Due to our method's simplicity and power, it could potentially improve a current map's resolution by a significant factor.

  7. NRAO Teams With NASA Gamma-Ray Satellite

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    2007-06-01

    The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is teaming with NASA's upcoming Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) to allow astronomers to use both the orbiting facility and ground-based radio telescopes to maximize their scientific payoff. Under the new, streamlined process, astronomers can compete for coordinated observing time and support from both GLAST and NRAO's radio telescopes. GLAST satellite Artist's rendering of the GLAST spacecraft in orbit above the Earth. CREDIT: General Dynamics C4 Systems Click on Image for Larger File Images of NRAO Telescopes Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope Very Long Baseline Array Very Large Array Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array GLAST is scheduled for launch no earlier than December 14. It will perform a survey of the entire sky at gamma-ray wavelengths every 3 hours using its primary instrument, the Large Area Telescope (LAT). NRAO operates the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, the continent-wide Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), and the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia. The NRAO is a research facility of the National Science Foundation (NSF). "Coordinated gamma-ray and radio observations of celestial objects will greatly enhance the ability to fully understand those objects. Astronomy today requires such multiwavelength studies, and this agreement paves the way for exciting, cutting-edge research," said Fred K.Y. Lo, NRAO Director. GLAST will be vastly more capable than previous gamma-ray satellites, and will carry an instrument, the GLAST Burst Monitor, specifically designed to detect gamma-ray bursts. GLAST observers will study objects such as active galaxies, pulsars, and supernova remnants, which are also readily studied with radio telescopes. By working together, NASA's GLAST mission and NSF's NRAO facilities can study flares from blazars over the widest possible range of energies, which is crucial to understanding how black holes, notorious for drawing matter in, can

  8. Nucleosynthesis, neutrino bursts and gamma-rays from coalescing neutron stars

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Eichler, David; Livio, Mario; Piran, Tsvi; Schramm, David N.

    1989-01-01

    It is pointed out here that neutron-star collisions should synthesize neutron-rich heavy elements, thought to be formed by rapid neutron capture (the r-process). Furthermore, these collisions should produce neutrino bursts and resultant bursts of gamma rays; the latter should comprise a subclass of observable gamma-ray bursts. It is argued that observed r-process abundances and gamma-ray burst rates predict rates for these collisions that are both significant and consistent with other estimates.

  9. Constraining the redshift distribution of ultrahigh-energy-cosmic-ray sources by isotropic gamma-ray background

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Ruo-Yu; Taylor, Andrew; Wang, Xiang-Yu; Aharonian, Felix

    2017-01-01

    By interacting with the cosmic background photons during their propagation through intergalactic space, ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) produce energetic electron/positron pairs and photons which will initiate electromagnetic cascades, contributing to the isotropic gamma-ray background (IGRB). The generated gamma-ray flux level highly depends on the redshift evolution of the UHECR sources. Recently, the Fermi-LAT collaboration reported that 86-14+16 of the total extragalactic gamma-ray flux comes from extragalactic point sources including those unresolved ones. This leaves a limited room for the diffusive gamma ray generated via UHECR propagation, and subsequently constrains their source distribution in the Universe. Normalizing the total cosmic ray energy budget with the observed UHECR flux in the energy band of (1-4)×1018 eV, we calculate the diffuse gamma-ray flux generated through UHECR propagation. We find that in order to not overshoot the new IGRB limit, these sub-ankle UHECRs should be produced mainly by nearby sources, with a possible non-negligible contribution from our Galaxy. The distance for the majority of UHECR sources can be further constrained if a given fraction of the observed IGRB at 820 GeV originates from UHECR. We note that our result should be conservative since there may be various other contributions to the IGRB that is not included here.

  10. Characterization of uranium bearing material using x-ray fluorescence and direct gamma-rays measurement techniques

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mujaini, M., E-mail: madihah@uniten.edu.my; Chankow, N.; Yusoff, M. Z.

    2016-01-22

    Uranium ore can be easily detected due to various gamma-ray energies emitted from uranium daughters particularly from {sup 238}U daughters such as {sup 214}Bi, {sup 214}Pb and {sup 226}Ra. After uranium is extracted from uranium ore, only low energy gamma-rays emitted from {sup 235}U may be detected if the detector is placed in close contact to the specimen. In this research, identification and characterization of uranium bearing materials is experimentally investigated using direct measurement of gamma-rays from {sup 235}U in combination with the x-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique. Measurement of gamma-rays can be conducted by using high purity germanium (HPGe) detectormore » or cadmium telluride (CdTe) detector while a {sup 57}Coradioisotope-excited XRF spectrometer using CdTe detector is used for elemental analysis. The proposed technique was tested with various uranium bearing specimens containing natural, depleted and enriched uranium in both metallic and powder forms.« less

  11. Finding Sub-threshold Short Gamma-ray Bursts in Fermi GBM Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Burns, Eric; Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor Team

    2018-01-01

    The all-sky monitoring capability of Fermi GBM makes it ideal for finding transients, and the most prolific detector of short gamma-ray bursts with about 40 on-board triggers per year. Because the observed brightness of short gamma-ray bursts has no correlation with redshift, weak short gamma-ray bursts are important during the gravitational wave era. With this in mind, we discuss two searches of GBM data to find short gamma-ray which were below the on-board trigger threshold. The untargeted search looks for significant background-subtracted signals in two or more detectors at various timescales in the continuous data, detecting ~80 additional short GRB candidates per year. The targeted search is the most sensitive search for weak gamma-ray signals in GBM data and is run over limited time intervals around sources of interest like gravitational waves.

  12. Magnetic pair creation transparency in gamma-ray pulsars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Story, Sarah A.

    Magnetic pair creation, gamma → e+e- , is a key component in polar cap models of gamma-ray pulsars, and has informed assumptions about the still poorly understood radio emission. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has now detected more than 100 gamma-ray pulsars, providing rich information for the interpretation of young energetic pulsars and old millisecond pulsars. Fermi observations have established that the high-energy spectra of most of these pulsars have exponential turnovers in the 1--10 GeV range. These turnovers are too gradual to arise from magnetic pair creation in the strong magnetic fields of pulsar inner magnetospheres, so their energy can be used to provide a physically motivated lower bound to the typical altitude of GeV band emission. This work computes pair creation opacities for photon propagation in neutron star magnetospheres. It explores the constraints that can be placed on the emission location of Fermi gamma-rays due to single-photon pair creation transparency below the turnover energy, as well as the limitations of this technique. These altitude bounds are typically in the range of 2--6 neutron star radii for the Fermi pulsar sample, and provide one of the few possible constraints on the emission altitude in radio quiet pulsars that do not possess double-peaked pulse profiles.

  13. Gamma ray astrophysics and signatures of axion-like particles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Serpico, Pasquale D.

    2009-02-01

    We propose that axion-like particles (ALPs) with a two-photon vertex, consistent with all astrophysical and laboratory bounds, may lead to effects in the spectra of high-energy gamma-ray sources detectable by satellite or ground-based telescopes. We discuss two kinds of signatures: (i) a peculiar spectral depletion due to gamma rays being converted into ALPs in the magnetic fields of efficient astrophysical accelerators according to the “Hillas criterion”, such as jets of active galactic nuclei or hot spots of radio galaxies; (ii) an appearance of otherwise invisible sources in the GeV or TeV sky due to back-conversion of an ALP flux (associated with gamma-ray emitters suffering some attenuation) in the magnetic field of the Milky Way. These two mechanisms might also provide an exotic way to avoid the exponential cutoff of very high energy gamma-rays expected due to the pair production onto the extragalactic background light.

  14. Electron Acceleration and Efficiency in Nonthermal Gamma-Ray Sources

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bykov, A. M.; Meszaros, P.

    1996-04-01

    In energetic nonthermal sources such as gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, or galactic jets, etc., one expects both relativistic and transrelativistic shocks accompanied by violent motions of moderately relativistic plasma. We present general considerations indicating that these sites are electron and positron accelerators leading to a modified power-law spectrum. The electron (or e+/-) energy index is very hard, ~ gamma -1 or flatter, up to a comoving frame break energy gamma *, and becomes steeper above that. In the example of gamma-ray bursts, the Lorentz factor reaches gamma * ~ 103 for e+/- accelerated by the internal shock ensemble on subhydrodynamical timescales. For pairs accelerated on hydrodynamical timescales in the external shocks, similar hard spectra are obtained, and the break Lorentz factor can be as high as gamma * <~ 105. Radiation from the nonthermal electrons produces photon spectra with shapes and characteristic energies in qualitative agreement with observed generic gamma-ray burst and blazar spectra. The scenario described here provides a plausible way to solve one of the crucial problems of nonthermal high-energy sources, namely, the efficient transfer of energy from the proton flow to an appropriate nonthermal lepton component.

  15. Modeling the non-recycled Fermi Gamma-ray pulsar population

    DOE PAGES

    Perera, B. B. P.; McLaughlin, M. A.; Cordes, J. M.; ...

    2013-09-25

    Here, we use Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detections and upper limits on non-recycled pulsars obtained from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) to constrain how the gamma-ray luminosity L γ depends on the period P and the period derivativemore » $$\\dot{P}$$. We use a Bayesian analysis to calculate a best-fit luminosity law, or dependence of L γ on P and $$\\dot{P}$$, including different methods for modeling the beaming factor. An outer gap (OG) magnetosphere geometry provides the best-fit model, which is $$L_\\gamma \\propto P^{-a} \\dot{P}^{b}$$ where a = 1.36 ± 0.03 and b = 0.44 ± 0.02, similar to but not identical to the commonly assumed $$L_\\gamma \\propto \\sqrt{\\dot{E}} \\propto P^{-1.5} \\dot{P}^{0.5}$$. Given upper limits on gamma-ray fluxes of currently known radio pulsars and using the OG model, we find that about 92% of the radio-detected pulsars have gamma-ray beams that intersect our line of sight. By modeling the misalignment of radio and gamma-ray beams of these pulsars, we find an average gamma-ray beaming solid angle of about 3.7π for the OG model, assuming a uniform beam. Using LAT-measured diffuse fluxes, we place a 2σ upper limit on the average braking index and a 2σ lower limit on the average surface magnetic field strength of the pulsar population of 3.8 and 3.2 × 1010 G, respectively. We then predict the number of non-recycled pulsars detectable by the LAT based on our population model. Using the 2 yr sensitivity, we find that the LAT is capable of detecting emission from about 380 non-recycled pulsars, including 150 currently identified radio pulsars. Using the expected 5 yr sensitivity, about 620 non-recycled pulsars are detectable, including about 220 currently identified radio pulsars. As a result, we note that these predictions significantly depend on our model assumptions.« less

  16. Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Swift Era

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gehrels, Neil; Ramirez-Ruiz, E.; Fox, D. B.

    2010-01-01

    With its rapid-response capability and multiwavelength complement of instruments, the Swift satellite has transformed our physical understanding of gamma-ray bursts. Providing high-quality observations of hundreds of bursts, and facilitating a wide range of follow-up observations within seconds of each event, Swift has revealed an unforeseen richness in observed burst properties, shed light on the nature of short-duration bursts, and helped realize the promise of gamma-ray bursts as probes of the processes and environments of star formation out to the earliest cosmic epochs. These advances have opened new perspectives on the nature and properties of burst central engines, interactions with the burst environment from microparsec to gigaparsec scales, and the possibilities for non-photonic signatures. Our understanding of these extreme cosmic sources has thus advanced substantially; yet more than forty years after their discovery, gamma-ray bursts continue to present major challenges on both observational and theoretical fronts.

  17. Did A Galactic Gamma-Ray Burst Kill the Dinosaurs?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brecher, K.

    1997-12-01

    Gamma-ray bursts now appear to be primarily of extragalactic origin. Statistically, assuming isotropic emission, the observed event rates and fluxes imply that one event occurs per 10(4) \\ - 10(6) \\ years per galaxy, with about 10(51) \\ - 10(53) \\ ergs in gamma-rays emitted per event. Unless the Milky Way is unusual, a gamma-ray burst should occur within 10(2) \\ - 10(3) \\ pc of the Sun in a time span of order 10(8) \\ years. Independent of the underlying cause of the event, it would irradiate the solar system with a brief flash of MeV gamma-rays with a fluence as large as 10(9) - 10(11) \\ erg cm(-2) . What is the effect of such an event on the Earth and objects nearby? Ruderman (\\underbar{Science}, 184, 1079, 1974) and subsequent authors have considered a number of effects of a flash of gamma-rays from a nearby supernova explosion on the Earth's atmosphere, and on its biota. However, with regard to the demise of the dinosaurs, it appears that there was a marked increase in the deposition rate of the rare earth iridium coincident with their extinction. For this reason, an asteroid-Earth impact has been considered the leading contender for the death of the dinosaurs. Here we consider a new mechanism for mass biological extinctions, caused by small comets nudged into the inner solar system by nearby gamma-ray bursts. If comets populate the Oort cloud with a wide distribution of masses, radii and orbital eccentricities, we find that small (< 1 km), low density (10(-2) \\ gm cm(-3) ) objects in highly eccentric orbits can be injected into the inner solar system by a nearby gamma-ray burst. For a relatively brief period of time, the near Earth comet population would increase dramatically. The consequent increased probability of comet-Earth impacts of appropriate energy and material content could account for many of the characteristics of the Cretaceous-Tertiary or other terrestrial mass biological extinctions.

  18. Solar Coronal Events with Extended Hard X-ray and Gamma-ray Emission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hudson, H. S.

    2017-12-01

    A characteristic pattern of solar hard X-ray emission, first identified in SOL1969-03-31 by Frost & Dennis (1971) now has been linked to prolonged high-energy gamma-ray emission detected by the Fermi/LAT experiment, for example in SOL2014-09-01. The distinctive features of these events include flat hard X-ray spectra extending well above 100 keV, a characteristic pattern of time development, low-frequency gyrosynchrotron peaks, CME association, and gamma-rays identifiable with pion decay originating in GeV ions. The identification of these events with otherwise known solar structures nevertheless remains elusive, in spite of the wealth of imagery available from AIA. The quandary is that these events have a clear association with CMEs in the high corona, and yet the gamma-ray production implicates the photosphere itself. The vanishingly small loss cone in the nominal acceleration region makes this extremely difficult. I propose direct inward advection of a part of the SEP particle population, as created on closed field structures, as a possible resolution of this puzzle, and note that this requires retracting magnetic structures on long time scales following the flare itself.

  19. FIREFLY: A cubesat mission to study terrestrial gamma-ray flashes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Klenzing, J. H.; Rowland, D. E.; Hill, J.; Weatherwax, A. T.

    2009-12-01

    FIREFLY is small satellite mission to investigate the link between atmospheric lightning and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes scheduled to launch in late 2010. The instrumentation includes a Gamma-Ray Detector (GRD), VLF receiver, and photometer. GRD will measure the energy and arrival time of x-ray and gamma-ray photons, as well as the energetic electron flux by using a phoswitch-style layered scintillator. The current status of the instrumentation will be discussed, including laboratory tests and simulations of the GRD. FIREFLY is the second in a series of NSF-funded cubesats designed to study the upper atmosphere.

  20. GRB 050117: Simultaneous Gamma-ray and X-ray Observations with the Swift Satellite

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hill, J. E.; Morris, D. C.; Sakamoto, T.; Sato, G.; Burrows, D. N.; Angelini, L.; Pagani, C.; Moretti, A.; Abbey, A. F.; Barthelmy, S.

    2005-01-01

    The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer performed its first autonomous, X-ray follow-up to a newly detected GRB on 2005 January 17, within 193 seconds of the burst trigger by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. While the burst was still in progress, the X-ray Telescope obtained a position and an image for an un-catalogued X-ray source; simultaneous with the gamma-ray observation. The XRT observed flux during the prompt emission was 1.1 x 10(exp -8) ergs/sq cm/s in the 0.5-10 keV energy band. The emission in the X-ray band decreased by three orders of magnitude within 700 seconds, following the prompt emission. This is found to be consistent with the gamma-ray decay when extrapolated into the XRT energy band. During the following 6.3 hours, the XRT observed the afterglow in an automated sequence for an additional 947 seconds, until the burst became fully obscured by the Earth limb. A faint, extremely slowly decaying afterglow, alpha=-0.21, was detected. Finally, a break in the lightcurve occurred and the flux decayed with alpha<-1.2. The X-ray position triggered many follow-up observations: no optical afterglow could be confirmed, although a candidate was identified 3 arcsecs from the XRT position.

  1. TEMPORAL CORRELATIONS BETWEEN OPTICAL AND GAMMA-RAY ACTIVITY IN BLAZARS

    DOE PAGES

    Cohen, Daniel P.; Romani, Roger W.; Filippenko, Alexei V.; ...

    2014-12-08

    For this research, we have been using the 0.76 m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) at Lick Observatory to optically monitor a sample of 157 blazars that are bright in gamma-rays being detected with high significance (≥10σ) in one year by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. We attempt to observe each source on a three-day cadence with KAIT, subject to weather and seasonal visibility. The gamma-ray coverage is essentially continuous. KAIT observations extend over much of the five-year Fermi mission for several objects, and most have >100 optical measurements spanning the last three years.more » These blazars (flat-spectrum radio quasars and BL Lac objects) exhibit a wide range of flaring behavior. Using the discrete correlation function (DCF), here we search for temporal relationships between optical and gamma-ray light curves in the 40 brightest sources in hopes of placing constraints on blazar acceleration and emission zones. We find strong optical-gamma-ray correlation in many of these sources at time delays of ~1 to ~10 days, ranging between –40 and +30 days. A stacked average DCF of the 40 sources verifies this correlation trend, with a peak above 99% significance indicating a characteristic time delay consistent with 0 days. These findings strongly support the widely accepted leptonic models of blazar emission. However, we also find examples of apparently uncorrelated flares (optical flares with no gamma-ray counterpart and gamma-ray flares with no optical counterpart) that challenge simple, one-zone models of blazar emission. Moreover, we find that flat-spectrum radio quasars tend to have gamma-rays leading the optical, while intermediate- and high-synchrotron peak blazars with the most significant peaks have smaller lags/leads. In conclusion, it is clear that long-term monitoring at high cadence is necessary to reveal the underlying physical correlation.« less

  2. Low energy prompt gamma-ray tests of a large volume BGO detector.

    PubMed

    Naqvi, A A; Kalakada, Zameer; Al-Anezi, M S; Raashid, M; Khateeb-ur-Rehman; Maslehuddin, M; Garwan, M A

    2012-01-01

    Tests of a large volume Bismuth Germinate (BGO) detector were carried out to detect low energy prompt gamma-rays from boron and cadmium-contaminated water samples using a portable neutron generator-based Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis (PGNAA) setup. Inspite of strong interference between the sample- and the detector-associated prompt gamma-rays, an excellent agreement has been observed between the experimental and calculated yields of the prompt gamma-rays, indicating successful application of the large volume BGO detector in the PGNAA analysis of bulk samples using low energy prompt gamma-rays. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Observation of nuclear reactors on satellites with a balloon-borne gamma-ray telescope

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    O'Neill, Terrence J.; Kerrick, Alan D.; Ait-Ouamer, Farid; Tumer, O. Tumay; Zych, Allen D.

    1989-01-01

    Four Soviet nuclear-powered satellites flying over a double Compton gamma-ray telescope resulted in the detection of gamma rays with 0.3-8.0 MeV energies on April 15, 1988, as the balloonborne telescope searched, from a 35-km altitude, for celestial gamma-ray sources. The satellites included Cosmos 1900 and 1932. The USSR is the only nation currently employing moderated nuclear reactors for satellite power; reactors in space may cause significant problems for gamma-ray astronomy by increasing backgrounds, especially in the case of gamma-ray bursts.

  4. Fermi GBM: Results from the First Year +

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A.

    2009-01-01

    Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) has performed well in the first year+. GBM triggers 353 Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs), 168 SGR events, 18 TGFs, and 1 solar flare to date. Short GRBs appear contracted in time and shifted to higher energy than long GRBs. Pulsed persistent emission from SGR 1550-5418 detected. TGFs are shorter, have higher average photon energies, and much higher count rates than GRBs. GBM monitoring of accreting pulsars provides long-term spin-histories. GBM Earth occultation monitoring complements Swift.

  5. Gamma-ray Bursts May Originate in Star-Forming Regions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    2001-04-01

    New findings from two X-ray satellites suggest that gamma-ray bursts, some of the most intense blasts in the universe, may be created in the same area where stars are born. Dr. Luigi Piro of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Rome, Italy, presented data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Italian-Dutch ASI BeppoSAX observatory today at the Gamma Ray 2001 conference in Baltimore, MD. "We know that when a gamma-ray burst explodes, it produces a blast of material called a fireball, which expands at relativistic speeds like a rapidly inflating bubble," said Piro, who works within CNR's Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale. "Our team found evidence that the blast wave caused by the fireball brakes against a wall of very dense gas, which we believe is the crowded region where stars form." Several theories exist about what causes gamma-ray bursts. Among more popular theories are that gamma-ray bursts come from various combinations of merging neutron stars and black holes, or, from the explosion of massive stars, called hypernovae. "Because gamma-ray bursts are going off in extremely distant galaxies, it is difficult to 'see' the regions that harbor them," said Piro. "We can only gather circumstantial evidence as to where and how they form." Piro's observations support the hypernova model. Scientists believe that within dense star-forming regions, the massive star required for a hypernova explosion evolves extremely rapidly. On astronomical time scales, the supermassive star would evolve over the course of only about one million years. Thus, the hypernova explosion may occur in the same stellar environment that originally produced the massive star itself, and perhaps may trigger even more star formation. The hint that gamma-ray bursts can occur in dense media came during a Chandra observation of an afterglow that occurred on September 26, 2000. Prof. Gordon Garmire of Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, found X-ray emission to be greater

  6. The Highest-Energy Photons Seen by the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, D. J.; Bertsch, D. L.; ONeal, R. H., Jr.

    2005-01-01

    During its nine-year lifetime, the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGBET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) detected 1506 cosmic photons with measured energy E>10 GeV. Of this number, 187 are found within a 1 deg of sources that are listed in the Third EGRET Catalog and were included in determining the detection likelihood, flux, and spectra of those sources. In particular, five detected EGRET pulsars are found to have events above 10 GeV, and together they account for 37 events. A pulsar not included in the Third EGRET Catalog has 2 events, both with the same phase and in one peak of the lower-energy gamma-ray light-curve. Most of the remaining 1319 events appear to be diffuse Galactic and extragalactic radiation based on the similarity of the their spatial and energy distributions with the diffuse model and in the E>100, MeV emission. No significant time clustering which would suggest a burst was detected.

  7. Neutron/Gamma-ray discrimination through measures of fit

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Amiri, Moslem; Prenosil, Vaclav; Cvachovec, Frantisek

    2015-07-01

    Statistical tests and their underlying measures of fit can be utilized to separate neutron/gamma-ray pulses in a mixed radiation field. In this article, first the application of a sample statistical test is explained. Fit measurement-based methods require true pulse shapes to be used as reference for discrimination. This requirement makes practical implementation of these methods difficult; typically another discrimination approach should be employed to capture samples of neutrons and gamma-rays before running the fit-based technique. In this article, we also propose a technique to eliminate this requirement. These approaches are applied to several sets of mixed neutron and gamma-ray pulsesmore » obtained through different digitizers using stilbene scintillator in order to analyze them and measure their discrimination quality. (authors)« less

  8. Energy dependence of polarization across broad deexcitation gamma-ray line profiles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Werntz, Carl; Lang, F. L.

    1998-04-01

    The energy profiles of deexcitation gamma-ray lines from recoiling inelastically scattered nuclei exhibit detailed structure. MeV-wide gamma-ray lines from the direction of the Orion nebula have been detected (H. Bloemen, et al., Astr. and Astrophys. L5, 281 (1994).) by COMPTEL whose source is postulated to be cosmic ray carbon and oxygen nuclei shock accelerated near supernova remnants colliding with ambient hydrogen and helium. Even when the heavy ion velocity distributions are isotropic, structure characteristic of the multipolarity of the gamma transition remains (A. M. Bykov et al, Astr. and Astrophys. 607, L37 (1996); B. Kozlovsky et al, Astrophys. J. 484, (1997).). In experiments in which the energy dependent structure of the deexcitation gamma-ray profiles is not resolved, the gammas display a high degree of linear polarization that rapidly changes with gamma-beam angle. We calculate the polarization, both linear and circular, as a function of gamma-ray energy across the laboratory line profiles of C12*(4.44) and O16*(6.13) inelastically excited by protons and alphas. We then investigate the polarization in the surviving structures for isotropic energetic ions colliding with ^1H and ^4He.

  9. PKS 2123-463: A Confirmed Gamma-ray Blazar at High Redshift

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    D'Ammando, F.; Rau, A.; Schady, P.; Finke, J.; Orienti, M.; Greiner, J.; Kann, D. A.; Ojha, R.; Foley, A. R.; Stevens, J.; hide

    2013-01-01

    The flat spectrum radio quasar (FSRQ) PKS 2123-463 was associated in the first Fermi- Large Area Telescope (LAT) source catalogue with the gamma-ray source 1FGL J2126.1-4603, but when considering the full first two years of Fermi observations, no gamma-ray source at a position consistent with this FSRQ was detected, and thus PKS 2123-463 was not reported in the second Fermi-LAT source catalogue. On 2011 December 14 a gamma-ray source positionally consistent with PKS 2123-463 was detected in flaring activity by Fermi-LAT. This activity triggered radio-to-X-ray observations by the Swift,Gamma-ray Optical/Near-Infrared Detector (GROND), Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), Ceduna and Seven Dishes Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7) observatories. Results of the localization of the gamma-ray source over 41 months of Fermi-LAT operation are reported here in conjunction with the results of the analysis of radio, optical, ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray data collected soon after the gamma-ray flare. The strict spatial association with the lower energy counterpart together with a simultaneous increase of the activity in optical, UV, X-ray and gamma-ray bands led to a firm identification of the gamma-ray source with PKS 2123-463. A new photometric redshift has been estimated as z = 1.46 plus or minus 0.05 using GROND and Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) observations, in rough agreement with the disputed spectroscopic redshift of z = 1.67.We fit the broad-band spectral energy distribution with a synchrotron/external Compton model. We find that a thermal disc component is necessary to explain the optical/UV emission detected by Swift/UVOT. This disc has a luminosity of approximately 1.8 x 10(exp 46) erg s(exp -1), and a fit to the disc emission assuming a Schwarzschild (i.e. non-rotating) black hole gives a mass of approximately 2 x 10(exp 9) solar mass. This is the first black hole mass estimate for this source.

  10. Gamma-ray emission from Cataclysmic variables. 1: The Compton EGRET survey

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schlegel, Eric M.; Barrett, Paul E.; De Jager, O. C.; Chanmugam, G.; Hunter, S.; Mattox, J.

    1995-01-01

    We report the results of the first gamma-ray survey of cataclysmic variables (CVs) using observations obtained with the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) instrument on the Compton Observatory. We briefly describe the theoretical models that are applicable to gamma-ray emission from CVs. These models are particularly relevant to magnetic CVs containing asynchronously rotating white dwarfs. No magnetic CV was detected with an upper limit on the flux at 1 GeV of approximately 2 x 10(exp -8)/sq cm/sec, which corresponds to an upper limit on the gamma-ray luminosity of approximately 10(exp 31) ergs/sec, assuming a typical CV distance of 100 pc.

  11. CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS OF SGR 1627-41 NEAR QUIESCENCE

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    An, Hongjun; Kaspi, Victoria M.; Cumming, Andrew

    2012-09-20

    We report on an observation of SGR 1627-41 made with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory on 2011 June 16. Approximately three years after its outburst activity in 2008, the source's flux has been declining, as it approaches its quiescent state. For an assumed power-law spectrum, we find that the absorbed 2-10 keV flux for the source is 1.0{sup +0.3}{sub -0.2} Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -13} erg cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} with a photon index of 2.9 {+-} 0.8 (N{sub H} = 1.0 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 23} cm{sup -2}). This flux is approximately consistent with that measured at the same time after the source's outburstmore » in 1998. With measurements spanning three years after the 2008 outburst, we analyze the long-term flux and spectral evolution of the source. The flux evolution is well described by a double exponential with decay times of 0.5 {+-} 0.1 and 59 {+-} 6 days, and a thermal cooling model fit suggests that SGR 1627-41 may have a hot core (T{sub c} {approx} 2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 8} K). We find no clear correlation between flux and spectral hardness as found in other magnetars. We consider the quiescent X-ray luminosities of magnetars and the subset of rotation-powered pulsars with high magnetic fields (B {approx}> 10{sup 13} G) in relation to their spin-inferred surface magnetic field strength and find a possible trend between the two quantities.« less

  12. Search for Very-high-energy Emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts Using the First 18 Months of Data from the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alfaro, R.; Alvarez, C.; Álvarez, J. D.; Arceo, R.; Arteaga-Velázquez, J. C.; Avila Rojas, D.; Ayala Solares, H. A.; Barber, A. S.; Bautista-Elivar, N.; Becerril, A.; Belmont-Moreno, E.; BenZvi, S. Y.; Bernal, A.; Braun, J.; Brisbois, C.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Capistrán, T.; Carramiñana, A.; Casanova, S.; Castillo, M.; Cotti, U.; Cotzomi, J.; Coutiño deLeón, S.; De la Fuente, E.; De León, C.; DeYoung, T.; Diaz Hernandez, R.; Dingus, B. L.; DuVernois, M. A.; Díaz-Vélez, J. C.; Ellsworth, R. W.; Engel, K.; Fiorino, D. W.; Fraija, N.; García-González, J. A.; Garfias, F.; Gerhardt, M.; González Muñoz, A.; González, M. M.; Goodman, J. A.; Hampel-Arias, Z.; Harding, J. P.; Hernandez-Almada, A.; Hernandez, S.; Hona, B.; Hui, C. M.; Hüntemeyer, P.; Iriarte, A.; Jardin-Blicq, A.; Joshi, V.; Kaufmann, S.; Kieda, D.; Lauer, R. J.; Lee, W. H.; Lennarz, D.; León Vargas, H.; Linnemann, J. T.; Longinotti, A. L.; Raya, G. Luis; Luna-García, R.; López-Coto, R.; Malone, K.; Marinelli, S. S.; Martinez, O.; Martinez-Castellanos, I.; Martínez-Castro, J.; Martínez-Huerta, H.; Matthews, J. A.; Miranda-Romagnoli, P.; Moreno, E.; Mostafá, M.; Nellen, L.; Newbold, M.; Noriega-Papaqui, R.; Pelayo, R.; Pérez-Pérez, E. G.; Pretz, J.; Ren, Z.; Rho, C. D.; Rivière, C.; Rosa-González, D.; Rosenberg, M.; Ruiz-Velasco, E.; Salazar, H.; Salesa Greus, F.; Sandoval, A.; Schneider, M.; Schoorlemmer, H.; Sinnis, G.; Smith, A. J.; Springer, R. W.; Surajbali, P.; Taboada, I.; Tibolla, O.; Tollefson, K.; Torres, I.; Ukwatta, T. N.; Vianello, G.; Weisgarber, T.; Westerhoff, S.; Wood, J.; Yapici, T.; Younk, P. W.; Zepeda, A.; Zhou, H.; HAWC Collaboration

    2017-07-01

    The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-ray Observatory is an extensive air shower detector operating in central Mexico that has recently completed its first two years of full operations. If for a burst like GRB 130427A at a redshift of 0.34 and a high-energy component following a power law with index 1.66, the high-energy component is extended to higher energies with no cutoff other than that from extragalactic background light attenuation, HAWC would observe gamma-rays with a peak energy of ˜300 GeV. This paper reports the results of HAWC observations of 64 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by Swift and Fermi, including 3 GRBs that were also detected by the Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT). An ON/OFF analysis method is employed, searching on the timescale given by the observed light curve at keV-MeV energies and also on extended timescales. For all GRBs and timescales, no statistically significant excess of counts is found and upper limits on the number of gamma-rays and the gamma-ray flux are calculated. GRB 170206A, the third brightest short GRB detected by the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on board the Fermi satellite (Fermi-GBM) and also detected by the LAT, occurred very close to zenith. The LAT measurements can neither exclude the presence of a synchrotron self-Compton component nor constrain its spectrum. Instead, the HAWC upper limits constrain the expected cutoff in an additional high-energy component to be less than 100 {GeV} for reasonable assumptions about the energetics and redshift of the burst.

  13. Leptonic v.s. Hadronic Origin of the Gamma-ray Emission of the Fermi bubbles: Updates from Fermi-LAT and Forecast for Future Gamma-ray Telescopes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Meng

    2014-06-01

    Data from the Fermi-LAT revealed two large gamma-ray bubbles, extending 50 degrees above and below the Galactic center, with a width of about 40 degrees in longitude. Such structure has been confirmed with multi-wavelength observations. With the most up to date Fermi-LAT data analysis, I will show that the Fermi bubbles have a spectral cutoff at both low energy < 1 GeV and high energy > 150 GeV. Detailed analysis of the spectral features will help us to distinguish the leptonic origin from hadronic origin of the gamma-ray emission from the bubbles. I will also describe what we expect to learn about the bubbles from future gamma-ray telescopes after Fermi, with an emphasis on Dark Matter Particle Explorer and Pair Production Gamma-ray Unit.

  14. Search for Gravitational Wave Bursts from Six Magnetars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abadie, J.; Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abernathy, M.; Accadia, T.; Acernese, F.; Adams, C.; Adhikari, R.; Affeldt, C.; Allen, B.; Allen, G. S.; Amador Ceron, E.; Amariutei, D.; Amin, R. S.; Anderson, S. B.; Anderson, W. G.; Antonucci, F.; Arai, K.; Arain, M. A.; Araya, M. C.; Aston, S. M.; Astone, P.; Atkinson, D.; Aufmuth, P.; Aulbert, C.; Aylott, B. E.; Babak, S.; Baker, P.; Ballardin, G.; Ballmer, S.; Barker, D.; Barnum, S.; Barone, F.; Barr, B.; Barriga, P.; Barsotti, L.; Barsuglia, M.; Barton, M. A.; Bartos, I.; Bassiri, R.; Bastarrika, M.; Basti, A.; Bauchrowitz, J.; Bauer, Th. S.; Behnke, B.; Beker, M. G.; Bell, A. S.; Belletoile, A.; Belopolski, I.; Benacquista, M.; Bertolini, A.; Betzwieser, J.; Beveridge, N.; Beyersdorf, P. T.; Bilenko, I. A.; Billingsley, G.; Birch, J.; Birindelli, S.; Biswas, R.; Bitossi, M.; Bizouard, M. A.; Black, E.; Blackburn, J. K.; Blackburn, L.; Blair, D.; Bland, B.; Blom, M.; Bock, O.; Bodiya, T. P.; Bogan, C.; Bondarescu, R.; Bondu, F.; Bonelli, L.; Bonnand, R.; Bork, R.; Born, M.; Boschi, V.; Bose, S.; Bosi, L.; Bouhou, B.; Boyle, M.; Braccini, S.; Bradaschia, C.; Brady, P. R.; Braginsky, V. B.; Brau, J. E.; Breyer, J.; Bridges, D. O.; Brillet, A.; Brinkmann, M.; Brisson, V.; Britzger, M.; Brooks, A. F.; Brown, D. A.; Brummit, A.; Budzyński, R.; Bulik, T.; Bulten, H. J.; Buonanno, A.; Burguet-Castell, J.; Burmeister, O.; Buskulic, D.; Buy, C.; Byer, R. L.; Cadonati, L.; Cagnoli, G.; Cain, J.; Calloni, E.; Camp, J. B.; Campagna, E.; Campsie, P.; Cannizzo, J.; Cannon, K.; Canuel, B.; Cao, J.; Capano, C.; Carbognani, F.; Caride, S.; Caudill, S.; Cavaglià, M.; Cavalier, F.; Cavalieri, R.; Cella, G.; Cepeda, C.; Cesarini, E.; Chaibi, O.; Chalermsongsak, T.; Chalkley, E.; Charlton, P.; Chassande-Mottin, E.; Chelkowski, S.; Chen, Y.; Chincarini, A.; Christensen, N.; Chua, S. S. Y.; Chung, C. T. Y.; Chung, S.; Clara, F.; Clark, D.; Clark, J.; Clayton, J. H.; Cleva, F.; Coccia, E.; Colacino, C. N.; Colas, J.; Colla, A.; Colombini, M.; Conte, R.; Cook, D.; Corbitt, T. R.; Cornish, N.; Corsi, A.; Costa, C. A.; Coughlin, M.; Coulon, J.-P.; Coward, D. M.; Coyne, D. C.; Creighton, J. D. E.; Creighton, T. D.; Cruise, A. M.; Culter, R. M.; Cumming, A.; Cunningham, L.; Cuoco, E.; Dahl, K.; Danilishin, S. L.; Dannenberg, R.; D'Antonio, S.; Danzmann, K.; Das, K.; Dattilo, V.; Daudert, B.; Daveloza, H.; Davier, M.; Davies, G.; Daw, E. J.; Day, R.; Dayanga, T.; De Rosa, R.; DeBra, D.; Debreczeni, G.; Degallaix, J.; del Prete, M.; Dent, T.; Dergachev, V.; DeRosa, R.; DeSalvo, R.; Dhurandhar, S.; Di Fiore, L.; Di Lieto, A.; Di Palma, I.; Emilio, M. Di Paolo; Di Virgilio, A.; Díaz, M.; Dietz, A.; Donovan, F.; Dooley, K. L.; Dorsher, S.; Douglas, E. S. D.; Drago, M.; Drever, R. W. P.; Driggers, J. C.; Dumas, J.-C.; Dwyer, S.; Eberle, T.; Edgar, M.; Edwards, M.; Effler, A.; Ehrens, P.; Engel, R.; Etzel, T.; Evans, M.; Evans, T.; Factourovich, M.; Fafone, V.; Fairhurst, S.; Fan, Y.; Farr, B. F.; Fazi, D.; Fehrmann, H.; Feldbaum, D.; Ferrante, I.; Fidecaro, F.; Finn, L. S.; Fiori, I.; Flaminio, R.; Flanigan, M.; Foley, S.; Forsi, E.; Forte, L. A.; Fotopoulos, N.; Fournier, J.-D.; Franc, J.; Frasca, S.; Frasconi, F.; Frede, M.; Frei, M.; Frei, Z.; Freise, A.; Frey, R.; Fricke, T. T.; Friedrich, D.; Fritschel, P.; Frolov, V. V.; Fulda, P.; Fyffe, M.; Galimberti, M.; Gammaitoni, L.; Garcia, J.; Garofoli, J. A.; Garufi, F.; Gáspár, M. E.; Gemme, G.; Genin, E.; Gennai, A.; Ghosh, S.; Giaime, J. A.; Giampanis, S.; Giardina, K. D.; Giazotto, A.; Gill, C.; Goetz, E.; Goggin, L. M.; González, G.; Gorodetsky, M. L.; Goßler, S.; Gouaty, R.; Graef, C.; Granata, M.; Grant, A.; Gras, S.; Gray, C.; Greenhalgh, R. J. S.; Gretarsson, A. M.; Greverie, C.; Grosso, R.; Grote, H.; Grunewald, S.; Guidi, G. M.; Guido, C.; Gupta, R.; Gustafson, E. K.; Gustafson, R.; Hage, B.; Hallam, J. M.; Hammer, D.; Hammond, G.; Hanks, J.; Hanna, C.; Hanson, J.; Harms, J.; Harry, G. M.; Harry, I. W.; Harstad, E. D.; Hartman, M. T.; Haughian, K.; Hayama, K.; Hayau, J.-F.; Hayler, T.; Heefner, J.; Heitmann, H.; Hello, P.; Hendry, M. A.; Heng, I. S.; Heptonstall, A. W.; Herrera, V.; Hewitson, M.; Hild, S.; Hoak, D.; Hodge, K. A.; Holt, K.; Hong, T.; Hooper, S.; Hosken, D. J.; Hough, J.; Howell, E. J.; Huet, D.; Hughey, B.; Husa, S.; Huttner, S. H.; Ingram, D. R.; Inta, R.; Isogai, T.; Ivanov, A.; Jaranowski, P.; Johnson, W. W.; Jones, D. I.; Jones, G.; Jones, R.; Ju, L.; Kalmus, P.; Kalogera, V.; Kandhasamy, S.; Kanner, J. B.; Katsavounidis, E.; Katzman, W.; Kawabe, K.; Kawamura, S.; Kawazoe, F.; Kells, W.; Kelner, M.; Keppel, D. G.; Khalaidovski, A.; Khalili, F. Y.; Khazanov, E. A.; Kim, H.; Kim, N.; King, P. J.; Kinzel, D. L.; Kissel, J. S.; Klimenko, S.; Kondrashov, V.; Kopparapu, R.; Koranda, S.; Korth, W. Z.; Kowalska, I.; Kozak, D.; Kringel, V.; Krishnamurthy, S.; Krishnan, B.; Królak, A.; Kuehn, G.; Kumar, R.; Kwee, P.; Landry, M.; Lantz, B.; Lastzka, N.; Lazzarini, A.; Leaci, P.; Leong, J.; Leonor, I.; Leroy, N.; Letendre, N.; Li, J.; Li, T. G. F.; Liguori, N.; Lindquist, P. E.; Lockerbie, N. A.; Lodhia, D.; Lorenzini, M.; Loriette, V.; Lormand, M.; Losurdo, G.; Lu, P.; Luan, J.; Lubiński, M.; Lück, H.; Lundgren, A. P.; Macdonald, E.; Machenschalk, B.; MacInnis, M.; Mageswaran, M.; Mailand, K.; Majorana, E.; Maksimovic, I.; Man, N.; Mandel, I.; Mandic, V.; Mantovani, M.; Marandi, A.; Marchesoni, F.; Marion, F.; Márka, S.; Márka, Z.; Maros, E.; Marque, J.; Martelli, F.; Martin, I. W.; Martin, R. M.; Marx, J. N.; Mason, K.; Masserot, A.; Matichard, F.; Matone, L.; Matzner, R. A.; Mavalvala, N.; McCarthy, R.; McClelland, D. E.; McGuire, S. C.; McIntyre, G.; McKechan, D. J. A.; Meadors, G.; Mehmet, M.; Meier, T.; Melatos, A.; Melissinos, A. C.; Mendell, G.; Mercer, R. A.; Merill, L.; Meshkov, S.; Messenger, C.; Meyer, M. S.; Miao, H.; Michel, C.; Milano, L.; Miller, J.; Minenkov, Y.; Mino, Y.; Mitrofanov, V. P.; Mitselmakher, G.; Mittleman, R.; Miyakawa, O.; Moe, B.; Moesta, P.; Mohan, M.; Mohanty, S. D.; Mohapatra, S. R. P.; Moraru, D.; Moreno, G.; Morgado, N.; Morgia, A.; Mosca, S.; Moscatelli, V.; Mossavi, K.; Mours, B.; Mow-Lowry, C. M.; Mueller, G.; Mukherjee, S.; Mullavey, A.; Müller-Ebhardt, H.; Munch, J.; Murray, P. G.; Nash, T.; Nawrodt, R.; Nelson, J.; Neri, I.; Newton, G.; Nishida, E.; Nishizawa, A.; Nocera, F.; Nolting, D.; Ochsner, E.; O'Dell, J.; Ogin, G. H.; Oldenburg, R. G.; O'Reilly, B.; O'Shaughnessy, R.; Osthelder, C.; Ott, C. D.; Ottaway, D. J.; Ottens, R. S.; Overmier, H.; Owen, B. J.; Page, A.; Pagliaroli, G.; Palladino, L.; Palomba, C.; Pan, Y.; Pankow, C.; Paoletti, F.; Papa, M. A.; Parameswaran, A.; Pardi, S.; Parisi, M.; Pasqualetti, A.; Passaquieti, R.; Passuello, D.; Patel, P.; Pathak, D.; Pedraza, M.; Pekowsky, L.; Penn, S.; Peralta, C.; Perreca, A.; Persichetti, G.; Phelps, M.; Pichot, M.; Pickenpack, M.; Piergiovanni, F.; Pietka, M.; Pinard, L.; Pinto, I. M.; Pitkin, M.; Pletsch, H. J.; Plissi, M. V.; Podkaminer, J.; Poggiani, R.; Pöld, J.; Postiglione, F.; Prato, M.; Predoi, V.; Price, L. R.; Prijatelj, M.; Principe, M.; Privitera, S.; Prix, R.; Prodi, G. A.; Prokhorov, L.; Puncken, O.; Punturo, M.; Puppo, P.; Quetschke, V.; Raab, F. J.; Rabeling, D. S.; Rácz, I.; Radkins, H.; Raffai, P.; Rakhmanov, M.; Ramet, C. R.; Rankins, B.; Rapagnani, P.; Raymond, V.; Re, V.; Redwine, K.; Reed, C. M.; Reed, T.; Regimbau, T.; Reid, S.; Reitze, D. H.; Ricci, F.; Riesen, R.; Riles, K.; Roberts, P.; Robertson, N. A.; Robinet, F.; Robinson, C.; Robinson, E. L.; Rocchi, A.; Roddy, S.; Rolland, L.; Rollins, J.; Romano, J. D.; Romano, R.; Romie, J. H.; Rosińska, D.; Röver, C.; Rowan, S.; Rüdiger, A.; Ruggi, P.; Ryan, K.; Sakata, S.; Sakosky, M.; Salemi, F.; Salit, M.; Sammut, L.; Sancho de la Jordana, L.; Sandberg, V.; Sannibale, V.; Santamaría, L.; Santiago-Prieto, I.; Santostasi, G.; Saraf, S.; Sassolas, B.; Sathyaprakash, B. S.; Sato, S.; Satterthwaite, M.; Saulson, P. R.; Savage, R.; Schilling, R.; Schlamminger, S.; Schnabel, R.; Schofield, R. M. S.; Schulz, B.; Schutz, B. F.; Schwinberg, P.; Scott, J.; Scott, S. M.; Searle, A. C.; Seifert, F.; Sellers, D.; Sengupta, A. S.; Sentenac, D.; Sergeev, A.; Shaddock, D. A.; Shaltev, M.; Shapiro, B.; Shawhan, P.; Shihan Weerathunga, T.; Shoemaker, D. H.; Sibley, A.; Siemens, X.; Sigg, D.; Singer, A.; Singer, L.; Sintes, A. M.; Skelton, G.; Slagmolen, B. J. J.; Slutsky, J.; Smith, J. R.; Smith, M. R.; Smith, N. D.; Smith, R.; Somiya, K.; Sorazu, B.; Soto, J.; Speirits, F. C.; Sperandio, L.; Stefszky, M.; Stein, A. J.; Steinlechner, J.; Steinlechner, S.; Steplewski, S.; Stochino, A.; Stone, R.; Strain, K. A.; Strigin, S.; Stroeer, A. S.; Sturani, R.; Stuver, A. L.; Summerscales, T. Z.; Sung, M.; Susmithan, S.; Sutton, P. J.; Swinkels, B.; Szokoly, G. P.; Tacca, M.; Talukder, D.; Tanner, D. B.; Tarabrin, S. P.; Taylor, J. R.; Taylor, R.; Thomas, P.; Thorne, K. A.; Thorne, K. S.; Thrane, E.; Thüring, A.; Titsler, C.; Tokmakov, K. V.; Toncelli, A.; Tonelli, M.; Torre, O.; Torres, C.; Torrie, C. I.; Tournefier, E.; Travasso, F.; Traylor, G.; Trias, M.; Tseng, K.; Turner, L.; Ugolini, D.; Urbanek, K.; Vahlbruch, H.; Vaishnav, B.; Vajente, G.; Vallisneri, M.; van den Brand, J. F. J.; Van Den Broeck, C.; van der Putten, S.; van der Sluys, M. V.; van Veggel, A. A.; Vass, S.; Vasuth, M.; Vaulin, R.; Vavoulidis, M.; Vecchio, A.; Vedovato, G.; Veitch, J.; Veitch, P. J.; Veltkamp, C.; Verkindt, D.; Vetrano, F.; Viceré, A.; Villar, A. E.; Vinet, J.-Y.; Vocca, H.; Vorvick, C.; Vyachanin, S. P.; Waldman, S. J.; Wallace, L.; Wanner, A.; Ward, R. L.; Was, M.; Wei, P.; Weinert, M.; Weinstein, A. J.; Weiss, R.; Wen, L.; Wen, S.; Wessels, P.; West, M.; Westphal, T.; Wette, K.; Whelan, J. T.; Whitcomb, S. E.; White, D.; Whiting, B. F.; Wilkinson, C.; Willems, P. A.; Williams, H. R.; Williams, L.; Willke, B.; Winkelmann, L.; Winkler, W.; Wipf, C. C.; Wiseman, A. G.; Woan, G.; Wooley, R.; Worden, J.; Yablon, J.; Yakushin, I.; Yamamoto, H.; Yamamoto, K.; Yang, H.; Yeaton-Massey, D.; Yoshida, S.; Yu, P.; Yvert, M.; Zanolin, M.; Zhang, L.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, C.; Zotov, N.; Zucker, M. E.; Zweizig, J.; LIGO Scientific Collaboration; Virgo Collaboration; Aptekar, R. L.; Boynton, W. V.; Briggs, M. S.; Cline, T. L.; Connaughton, V.; Frederiks, D. D.; Gehrels, N.; Goldsten, J. O.; Golovin, D.; van der Horst, A. J.; Hurley, K. C.; Kaneko, Y.; von Kienlin, A.; Kouveliotou, C.; Krimm, H. A.; Lin, L.; Mitrofanov, I.; Ohno, M.; Pal'shin, V. D.; Rau, A.; Sanin, A.; Tashiro, M. S.; Terada, Y.; Yamaoka, K.

    2011-06-01

    Soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are thought to be magnetars: neutron stars powered by extreme magnetic fields. These rare objects are characterized by repeated and sometimes spectacular gamma-ray bursts. The burst mechanism might involve crustal fractures and excitation of non-radial modes which would emit gravitational waves (GWs). We present the results of a search for GW bursts from six galactic magnetars that is sensitive to neutron star f-modes, thought to be the most efficient GW emitting oscillatory modes in compact stars. One of them, SGR 0501+4516, is likely ~1 kpc from Earth, an order of magnitude closer than magnetars targeted in previous GW searches. A second, AXP 1E 1547.0-5408, gave a burst with an estimated isotropic energy >1044 erg which is comparable to the giant flares. We find no evidence of GWs associated with a sample of 1279 electromagnetic triggers from six magnetars occurring between 2006 November and 2009 June, in GW data from the LIGO, Virgo, and GEO600 detectors. Our lowest model-dependent GW emission energy upper limits for band- and time-limited white noise bursts in the detector sensitive band, and for f-mode ringdowns (at 1090 Hz), are 3.0 × 1044 d 2 1 erg and 1.4 × 1047 d 2 1 erg, respectively, where d_{1} = \\frac{d_{{0501}}}{1\\,{kpc}} and d 0501 is the distance to SGR 0501+4516. These limits on GW emission from f-modes are an order of magnitude lower than any previous, and approach the range of electromagnetic energies seen in SGR giant flares for the first time.

  15. A Monte Carlo modeling alternative for the API Gamma Ray Calibration Facility.

    PubMed

    Galford, J E

    2017-04-01

    The gamma ray pit at the API Calibration Facility, located on the University of Houston campus, defines the API unit for natural gamma ray logs used throughout the petroleum logging industry. Future use of the facility is uncertain. An alternative method is proposed to preserve the gamma ray API unit definition as an industry standard by using Monte Carlo modeling to obtain accurate counting rate-to-API unit conversion factors for gross-counting and spectral gamma ray tool designs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Gamma ray satellite to be launched from Africa

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Allaway, H. G.; Senstad, K.

    1972-01-01

    The announcement is presented of the launch of NASA's Small Astronomy Satellite B (SAS-B) on 2 Nov. 1972, to study gamma rays. The launch is to be from the Italian-operated San Marco Equatorial Range in the Indian Ocean for ease in acquiring an equatorial orbit. The spacecraft systems described include: stabilization and control, communication, and spark chamber gamma ray telescope. The results of Uhuru (Explorer 42) are also presented.

  17. Lightning leader models of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dwyer, J. R.; Liu, N.; Ihaddadene, K. M. A.

    2017-12-01

    Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) are bright sub-millisecond bursts of gamma rays that originate from thunderstorms. Because lightning leaders near the ground have been observed to emit x-rays, presumably due to runaway electron production in the high-field regions near the leader tips, models of TGFs have been developed by several groups that assume a similar production mechanism of runaway electrons from lightning leaders propagating through thunderclouds. However, it remains unclear exactly how and where these runaway electrons are produced, since lightning propagation at thunderstorm altitudes remains poorly understood. In addition, it is not obvious how to connect the observed behavior of the x-ray production from lightning near the ground with the properties of TGFs. For example, it is not clear how to relate the time structure of the x-ray emission near the ground to that of TGFs, since x-rays from stepped leaders near the ground are usually produced in a series of sub-microsecond bursts, but TGFs are usually observed as much longer pulses without clear substructures, at sub-microsecond timescales or otherwise. In this presentation, spacecraft observations of TGFs, ground-based observations of x-rays from lightning and laboratory sparks, and Monte Carlo and PIC simulations of runaway electron and gamma ray production and propagation will be used to constrain the lightning leader models of TGFs.

  18. Fermi Establishes Classical Novae as a Distinct Class of Gamma-ray Sources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Albert, A.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Bastieri, D.; Bellazzini, R.; Bissaldi, E.; Blandford, R. D.; Bloom, E. D.; hide

    2014-01-01

    A classical nova results from runaway thermonuclear explosions on the surface of a white dwarf that accretes matter from a low-mass main-sequence stellar companion. In 2012 and 2013, three novae were detected in gamma rays and stood in contrast to the first gamma-ray detected nova V407 Cygni 2010, which belongs to a rare class of symbiotic binary systems. Despite likely differences in the compositions and masses of their white dwarf progenitors, the three classical novae are similarly characterized as soft spectrum transient gamma-ray sources detected over 2-3 week durations. The gamma-ray detections point to unexpected high-energy particle acceleration processes linked to the mass ejection from thermonuclear explosions in an unanticipated class of Galactic gamma-ray sources.

  19. DEATH LINE OF GAMMA-RAY PULSARS WITH OUTER GAPS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Ren-Bo; Hirotani, Kouichi, E-mail: rbwang1225@gmail.com, E-mail: hirotani@tiara.sinica.edu.tw

    2011-08-01

    We analytically investigate the condition for a particle accelerator to be active in the outer magnetosphere of a rotation-powered pulsar. Within the accelerator (or the gap), the magnetic-field-aligned electric field accelerates electrons and positrons, which emit copious gamma-rays via the curvature process. If one of the gamma-rays emitted by a single pair materializes as a new pair on average, the gap is self-sustained. However, if the neutron-star spin-down rate decreases below a certain limit, the gap becomes no longer self-sustained and the gamma-ray emission ceases. We explicitly compute the multiplicity of cascading pairs and find that the obtained limit correspondsmore » to a modification of the previously derived outer-gap death line. In addition to this traditional death line, we find another death line, which becomes important for millisecond pulsars, by separately considering the threshold of photon-photon pair production. Combining these traditional and new death lines, we give predictions on the detectability of gamma-ray pulsars with Fermi and AGILE. An implication for X-ray observations of heated polar-cap emission is also discussed.« less

  20. Magnetars: Challenging the Extremes of Nature

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kouveliotou, Chryssa

    2011-01-01

    Magnetars are magnetically powered rotating neutron stars with extreme magnetic fields (over 10(exp 14) Gauss). They are discovered and emit predominantly in the X- and gamma-rays. Very few sources (roughly 15) have been found since their discovery in 1987. NASA s Fermi Observatory was launched June 11, 2009; the Fermi Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) began normal operations on July 14, about a month after launch, when the trigger algorithms were enabled. Since then, we recorded emission from four magnetar sources; of these, only one was an old magnetar: SGR 1806+20. The other three detections were two brand new sources, SGR J0501+4516, discovered with Swift and extensively monitored with both Swift and GBM, SGR J0418+5729, discovered with GBM and the Interplanetary Network (IPN), and SGR J1550-5418, a source originally classified as an Anomalous X-ray Pulsar (AXP 1E1547.0-5408). In my talk I will give a short history of the discovery of magnetars and describe how this, once relatively esoteric field, has emerged as a link between several astrophysical areas including Gamma-Ray Bursts. Finally, I will describe the properties of these sources and the current status of our knowledge of the magnetar population and birth rate.

  1. Light Dawns on Dark Gamma-ray Bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    2010-12-01

    Gamma-ray bursts are among the most energetic events in the Universe, but some appear curiously faint in visible light. The biggest study to date of these so-called dark gamma-ray bursts, using the GROND instrument on the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla in Chile, has found that these gigantic explosions don't require exotic explanations. Their faintness is now fully explained by a combination of causes, the most important of which is the presence of dust between the Earth and the explosion. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), fleeting events that last from less than a second to several minutes, are detected by orbiting observatories that can pick up their high energy radiation. Thirteen years ago, however, astronomers discovered a longer-lasting stream of less energetic radiation coming from these violent outbursts, which can last for weeks or even years after the initial explosion. Astronomers call this the burst's afterglow. While all gamma-ray bursts [1] have afterglows that give off X-rays, only about half of them were found to give off visible light, with the rest remaining mysteriously dark. Some astronomers suspected that these dark afterglows could be examples of a whole new class of gamma-ray bursts, while others thought that they might all be at very great distances. Previous studies had suggested that obscuring dust between the burst and us might also explain why they were so dim. "Studying afterglows is vital to further our understanding of the objects that become gamma-ray bursts and what they tell us about star formation in the early Universe," says the study's lead author Jochen Greiner from the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching bei München, Germany. NASA launched the Swift satellite at the end of 2004. From its orbit above the Earth's atmosphere it can detect gamma-ray bursts and immediately relay their positions to other observatories so that the afterglows could be studied. In the new study, astronomers combined Swift

  2. PKS 2123-463: A Confirmed Gamma-ray Blazar at High Redshift

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    DAmmando, F.; Rau, A.; Schady, P.; Finke, J.; Orienti, M.; Greiner, J.; Kann, D. A.; Ojha, R.; Foley, A. R.; Stevens, J.; hide

    2012-01-01

    The flat spectrum radio quasar (FSRQ) PKS 2123-463 was associated in the First Fermi-LAT source catalog with the gamma-ray source 1FGL J2126.1-4603, but when considering the full first two years of Fermi observations, no gamma-ray source at a position consistent with this FSRQ was detected, and thus PKS 2123-463 was not reported in the Second Fermi-LAT source catalog. On 2011 December 14 a gamma-ray source positionally consistent with PKS 2123-463 was detected in flaring activity by Fermi-LAT. This activity triggered radio-to-X-ray observations by the Swift, GROND, ATCA, Ceduna, and KAT-7 observatories. Results of the localization of the gamma-ray source over 41 months of Fermi-LAT operation are reported here in conjunction with the results of the analysis of radio, optical, UV and X-ray data collected soon after the gamma-ray flare. The strict spatial association with the lower energy counterpart together with a simultaneous increase of the activity in optical, UV, X-ray and gamma-ray bands led to a firm identification of the gamma-ray source with PKS 2123-463. A new photometric redshift has been estimated as z = 1.46 +/- 0.05 using GROND and Swift/UVOT observations, in rough agreement with the disputed spectroscopic redshift of z = 1.67. We fit the broadband spectral energy distribution with a synchrotron/external Compton model. We find that a thermal disk component is necessary to explain the optical/UV emis- sion detected by Swift/UVOT. This disk has a luminosity of 1.8x1046 erg s-1, and a fit to the disk emission assuming a Schwarzschild (i.e., nonrotating) black hole gives a mass of 2 x 109 M(solar mass). This is the first black hole mass estimate for this source.

  3. Noiseless coding for the Gamma Ray spectrometer

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rice, R.; Lee, J. J.

    1985-01-01

    The payload of several future unmanned space missions will include a sophisticated gamma ray spectrometer. Severely constrained data rates during certain portions of these missions could limit the possible science return from this instrument. This report investigates the application of universal noiseless coding techniques to represent gamma ray spectrometer data more efficiently without any loss in data integrity. Performance results demonstrate compression factors from 2.5:1 to 20:1 in comparison to a standard representation. Feasibility was also demonstrated by implementing a microprocessor breadboard coder/decoder using an Intel 8086 processor.

  4. Lunar elemental analysis obtained from the Apollo gamma-ray and X-ray remote sensing experiment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Trombka, J. I.; Arnold, J. R.; Adler, I.; Metzger, A. E.; Reedy, R. C.

    1974-01-01

    Gamma ray and X-ray spectrometers carried in the service module of the Apollo 15 and 16 spacecraft were employed for compositional mapping of the lunar surface. The measurements involved the observation of the intensity and characteristics energy distribution of gamma rays and X-rays emitted from the lunar surface. A large scale compositional map of over 10 percent of the lunar surface was obtained from an analysis of the observed spectra. The objective of the X-ray experiment was to measure the K spectral lines from Mg, Al, and Si. Spectra were obtained and the data were reduced to Al/Si and Mg/Si intensity ratios and ultimately to chemical ratios. The objective of the gamma-ray experiment was to measure the natural and cosmic ray induced activity emission spectrum. At this time, the elemental abundances for Th, U, K, Fe, Ti, Si, and O have been determined over a number of major lunar regions.

  5. Radio galaxies dominate the high-energy diffuse gamma-ray background

    DOE PAGES

    Hooper, Dan; Linden, Tim; Lopez, Alejandro

    2016-08-09

    It has been suggested that unresolved radio galaxies and radio quasars (sometimes referred to as misaligned active galactic nuclei) could be responsible for a significant fraction of the observed diffuse gamma-ray background. In this study, we use the latest data from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope to characterize the gamma-ray emission from a sample of 51 radio galaxies. In addition to those sources that had previously been detected using Fermi data, we report here the first statistically significant detection of gamma-ray emission from the radio galaxies 3C 212, 3C 411, and B3 0309+411B. Combining this information with the radio fluxes,more » radio luminosity function, and redshift distribution of this source class, we find that radio galaxies dominate the diffuse gamma-ray background, generating 77.2(+25.4)(-9.4)% of this emission at energies above ~1 GeV . We discuss the implications of this result and point out that it provides support for scenarios in which IceCube's high-energy astrophysical neutrinos also originate from the same population of radio galaxies.« less

  6. Gamma-ray burst models.

    PubMed

    King, Andrew

    2007-05-15

    I consider various possibilities for making gamma-ray bursts, particularly from close binaries. In addition to the much-studied neutron star+neutron star and black hole+neutron star cases usually considered good candidates for short-duration bursts, there are also other possibilities. In particular, neutron star+massive white dwarf has several desirable features. These systems are likely to produce long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), in some cases definitely without an accompanying supernova, as observed recently. This class of burst would have a strong correlation with star formation and occur close to the host galaxy. However, rare members of the class need not be near star-forming regions and could have any type of host galaxy. Thus, a long-duration burst far from any star-forming region would also be a signature of this class. Estimates based on the existence of a known progenitor suggest that this type of GRB may be quite common, in agreement with the fact that the absence of a supernova can only be established in nearby bursts.

  7. Neutron induced background in the COMPTEL detector on the Gamma Ray Observatory

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Morris, D. J.; Aarts, H.; Bennett, K.; Busetta, M.; Byrd, R.; Collmar, W.; Connors, A.; Diehl, R.; Eymann, G.; Foster, C.

    1992-01-01

    Interactions of neutrons in a prototype of the Compton imaging telescope (COMPTEL) gamma ray detector for the Gamma Ray Observatory were studied to determine COMPTEL's sensitivity as a neutron telescope and to estimate the gamma ray background resulting from neutron interactions. The IUCF provided a pulsed neutron beam at five different energies between 18 and 120 MeV. These measurements showed that the gamma ray background from neutron interactions is greater than previously expected. It was thought that most such events would be due to interactions in the upper detector modules of COMPTEL and could be distinguished by pulse shape discrimination. Rather, the bulk of the gamma ray background appears to be due to interactions in passive material, primarily aluminum, surrounding the D1 modules. In a considerable fraction of these interactions, two or more gamma rays are produced simultaneously, with one interacting in the D1 module and the other interacting in the module of the lower (D2) detector. If the neutron interacts near the D1 module, the D1 D2 time of flight cannot distinguish such an event from a true gamma ray event. In order to assess the significance of this background, the flux of neutrons in orbit has been estimated based on observed events with neutron pulse shape signature in D1. The strength of this neutron induced background is estimated. This is compared with the rate expected from the isotropic cosmic gamma ray flux.

  8. The Use of Gamma-Ray Imaging to Improve Portal Monitor Performance

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ziock, Klaus-Peter; Collins, Jeff; Fabris, Lorenzo

    2008-01-01

    We have constructed a prototype, rapid-deployment portal monitor that uses visible-light and gamma-ray imaging to allow simultaneous monitoring of multiple lanes of traffic from the side of a roadway. Our Roadside Tracker uses automated target acquisition and tracking (TAT) software to identify and track vehicles in visible light images. The field of view of the visible camera overlaps with and is calibrated to that of a one-dimensional gamma-ray imager. The TAT code passes information on when vehicles enter and exit the system field of view and when they cross gamma-ray pixel boundaries. Based on this in-formation, the gamma-ray imager "harvests"more » the gamma-ray data specific to each vehicle, integrating its radiation signature for the entire time that it is in the field of view. In this fashion we are able to generate vehicle-specific radiation signatures and avoid source confusion problems that plague nonimaging approaches to the same problem.« less

  9. A possible origin of gamma rays from the Fermi Bubbles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thoudam, Satyendra

    2014-11-01

    One of the most exciting discoveries of recent years is a pair of gigantic gamma-ray emission regions, the so-called Fermi bubbles, above and below the Galactic center. The bubbles, discovered by the Fermi space telescope, extend up to ∼50° in Galactic latitude and are ∼40° wide in Galactic longitude. The gamma-ray emission is also found to correlate with radio, microwave and X-rays emission. The origin of the bubbles and the associated non-thermal emissions are still not clearly understood. Possible explanations for the non-thermal emission include cosmic-ray injection from the Galactic center by high speed Galactic winds/jets, acceleration by multiple shocks or plasma turbulence present inside the bubbles, and acceleration by strong shock waves associated with the expansion of the bubbles. In this paper, I will discuss the possibility that the gamma-ray emission is produced by the injection of Galactic cosmic-rays mainly protons during their diffusive propagation through the Galaxy. The protons interact with the bubble plasma producing π°-decay gamma rays, while at the same time, radio and microwave synchrotron emissions are produced by the secondary electrons/positrons resulting from the π± decays.

  10. Search for Cosmic-Ray-Induced Gamma-Ray Emission in Galaxy Clusters

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Albert, A.; Allafort, A.; Atwood, W. B.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bechtol, K.; hide

    2014-01-01

    Current theories predict relativistic hadronic particle populations in clusters of galaxies in addition to the already observed relativistic leptons. In these scenarios hadronic interactions give rise to neutral pions which decay into gamma rays that are potentially observable with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi space telescope. We present a joint likelihood analysis searching for spatially extended gamma-ray emission at the locations of 50 galaxy clusters in four years of Fermi-LAT data under the assumption of the universal cosmic-ray (CR) model proposed by Pinzke & Pfrommer. We find an excess at a significance of 2.7 delta, which upon closer inspection, however, is correlated to individual excess emission toward three galaxy clusters: A400, A1367, and A3112. We discuss these cases in detail and conservatively attribute the emission to unmodeled background systems (for example, radio galaxies within the clusters).Through the combined analysis of 50 clusters, we exclude hadronic injection efficiencies in simple hadronic models above 21% and establish limits on the CR to thermal pressure ratio within the virial radius, R(sub 200), to be below 1.25%-1.4% depending on the morphological classification. In addition, we derive new limits on the gamma-ray flux from individual clusters in our sample.

  11. Development and Evaluation of Real-Time Volumetric Compton Gamma-Ray Imaging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Barnowski, Ross Wegner

    An approach to gamma-ray imaging has been developed that enables near real-time volumetric (3D) imaging of unknown environments thus improving the utility of gamma-ray imaging for source-search and radiation mapping applications. The approach, herein dubbed scene data fusion (SDF), is based on integrating mobile radiation imagers with real time tracking and scene reconstruction algorithms to enable a mobile mode of operation and 3D localization of gamma-ray sources. The real-time tracking allows the imager to be moved throughout the environment or around a particular object of interest, obtaining the multiple perspectives necessary for standoff 3D imaging. A 3D model of the scene, provided in real-time by a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm, can be incorporated into the image reconstruction reducing the reconstruction time and improving imaging performance. The SDF concept is demonstrated in this work with a Microsoft Kinect RGB-D sensor, a real-time SLAM solver, and two different mobile gamma-ray imaging platforms. The first is a cart-based imaging platform known as the Volumetric Compton Imager (VCI), comprising two 3D position-sensitive high purity germanium (HPGe) detectors, exhibiting excellent gamma-ray imaging characteristics, but with limited mobility due to the size and weight of the cart. The second system is the High Efficiency Multimodal Imager (HEMI) a hand-portable gamma-ray imager comprising 96 individual cm3 CdZnTe crystals arranged in a two-plane, active-mask configuration. The HEMI instrument has poorer energy and angular resolution than the VCI, but is truly hand-portable, allowing the SDF concept to be tested in multiple environments and for more challenging imaging scenarios. An iterative algorithm based on Compton kinematics is used to reconstruct the gamma-ray source distribution in all three spatial dimensions. Each of the two mobile imaging systems are used to demonstrate SDF for a variety of scenarios, including

  12. The First FERMI-LAT Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Asano, K.; Axelsson, M.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bechtol, K.; Bellazzini, R.; hide

    2013-01-01

    In three years of observations since the beginning of nominal science operations in 2008 August, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has observed high-energy great than (20 MeV) gamma-ray emission from 35 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Among these, 28 GRBs have been detected above 100 MeV and 7 GRBs above approximately 20 MeV. The first Fermi-LAT catalog of GRBs is a compilation of these detections and provides a systematic study of high-energy emission from GRBs for the first time. To generate the catalog, we examined 733 GRBs detected by the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on Fermi and processed each of them using the same analysis sequence. Details of the methodology followed by the LAT collaboration for the GRB analysis are provided. We summarize the temporal and spectral properties of the LAT-detected GRBs. We also discuss characteristics of LAT-detected emission such as its delayed onset and longer duration compared with emission detected by the GBM, its power-law temporal decay at late times, and the fact that it is dominated by a power-law spectral component that appears in addition to the usual Band model.

  13. Real time gamma-ray signature identifier

    DOEpatents

    Rowland, Mark [Alamo, CA; Gosnell, Tom B [Moraga, CA; Ham, Cheryl [Livermore, CA; Perkins, Dwight [Livermore, CA; Wong, James [Dublin, CA

    2012-05-15

    A real time gamma-ray signature/source identification method and system using principal components analysis (PCA) for transforming and substantially reducing one or more comprehensive spectral libraries of nuclear materials types and configurations into a corresponding concise representation/signature(s) representing and indexing each individual predetermined spectrum in principal component (PC) space, wherein an unknown gamma-ray signature may be compared against the representative signature to find a match or at least characterize the unknown signature from among all the entries in the library with a single regression or simple projection into the PC space, so as to substantially reduce processing time and computing resources and enable real-time characterization and/or identification.

  14. Gamma-ray emission from black holes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ling, James C.

    1991-01-01

    Strong continuum gamma-ray emission at about 1 MeV possibly correlated with a narrow annihilation line at 511 keV has been observed from both Cygnus X-1 and the Galactic center. Such correlated emission has been interpreted as a unique gamma-ray signature for theoretically predicted relativistic, positron-electron pair-dominated plasma in regions surrounding the black holes. In this paper, the Cygnus X-1 results, which have provided important new insights about the source, are reviewed. Cygnus X-1 may be considered a canonical reference stellar black hole whose spectral and temporal characteristics can be used for comparison with those of other black-hole candidates including the Galactic center and AGN.

  15. The gamma ray north-south effect

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    White, R. S.; O'Neill, T. J.; Tumer, O. T.; Zych, A. D.

    1988-01-01

    Theoretical calculations are presented that explain the balloon observations by O'Neill et al. (1987) of a strong north-south anisotropy of atmospheric gamma rays over the Southern Hemisphere, and to predict the north-south ratios. It is shown that the gamma rays that originate at the longest distances from the telescopes give the largest north-south ratios. Comparisons are made of the experimental north-south ratios measured on balloons launched from Alice Springs, Australia, and from Palestine, Texas, U.S., and predictions are made for ratios at other geomagnetic latitudes and longitudes. It is pointed out that observers who measure backgrounds for celestial sources may be misled unless they correct for the north-south effect.

  16. Benchmark gamma-ray skyshine experiment

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Nason, R.R.; Shultis, J.K.; Faw, R.E.

    1982-01-01

    A benchmark gamma-ray skyshine experiment is descibed in which /sup 60/Co sources were either collimated into an upward 150-deg conical beam or shielded vertically by two different thicknesses of concrete. A NaI(Tl) spectrometer and a high pressure ion chamber were used to measure, respectively, the energy spectrum and the 4..pi..-exposure rate of the air-reflected gamma photons up to 700 m from the source. Analyses of the data and comparison to DOT discrete ordinates calculations are presented.

  17. The structure and content of the galaxy and galactic gamma rays. [conferences

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fichtel, C. E.; Stecker, F. W.

    1976-01-01

    Papers are presented dealing with galactic structure drawing on all branches of galactic astronomy with emphasis on the implications of the new gamma ray observations. Topics discussed include: (1) results from the COS-B gamma ray satellite; (2) results from SAS-2 on gamma ray pulsar, Cygnus X-3, and maps of the galactic diffuse flux; (3) recent data from CO surveys of the galaxy; (4) high resolution radio surveys of external galaxies; (5) results on the galactic distribution of pulsars; and (6) theoretical work on galactic gamma ray emission.

  18. Astrophysical gamma-ray production by inverse Compton interactions of relativistic electrons

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schlickeiser, R.

    1979-01-01

    The inverse Compton scattering of background photon gases by relativistic electrons is a good candidate for the production of high-energy gamma rays in the diffuse interstellar medium as well as in discrete sources. By discussing the special case of the scattering of the diffuse starlight in the interstellar medium by cosmic ray electrons, we demonstrate that previous derivations of the gamma ray source function for this process on the basis of the Thomson limit of the Klein-Nishina cross section lead to incorrect values for gamma-ray energies above 100 MeV. It is shown that the Thomson limit is not applicable for the calculation of gamma-ray source functions in astrophysical circumstances in which target photons with energies greater than 1 eV are scattered by relativistic electrons.

  19. Developments in high-precision gamma-ray burst source studies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cline, T. L.

    1982-01-01

    The source location data analyzed by the first and second interplanetary gamma ray burst spacecraft networks are reviewed. The possibilities of additional networks and of related studies in other disciplines, and the prospects for real time optical transient observations and for the definition of gamma ray burst sources by optical transient astronomy are also reviewed.

  20. OVERVIEW OF MONO-ENERGETIC GAMMA-RAY SOURCES & APPLICATIONS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hartemann, F V; Albert, F; Anderson, G G

    2010-05-18

    Recent progress in accelerator physics and laser technology have enabled the development of a new class of tunable gamma-ray light sources based on Compton scattering between a high-brightness, relativistic electron beam and a high intensity laser pulse produced via chirped-pulse amplification (CPA). A precision, tunable Mono-Energetic Gamma-ray (MEGa-ray) source driven by a compact, high-gradient X-band linac is currently under development and construction at LLNL. High-brightness, relativistic electron bunches produced by an X-band linac designed in collaboration with SLAC NAL will interact with a Joule-class, 10 ps, diode-pumped CPA laser pulse to generate tunable {gamma}-rays in the 0.5-2.5 MeV photon energymore » range via Compton scattering. This MEGa-ray source will be used to excite nuclear resonance fluorescence in various isotopes. Applications include homeland security, stockpile science and surveillance, nuclear fuel assay, and waste imaging and assay. The source design, key parameters, and current status are presented, along with important applications, including nuclear resonance fluorescence. In conclusion, we have optimized the design of a high brightness Compton scattering gamma-ray source, specifically designed for NRF applications. Two different parameters sets have been considered: one where the number of photons scattered in a single shot reaches approximately 7.5 x 10{sup 8}, with a focal spot size around 8 {micro}m; in the second set, the spectral brightness is optimized by using a 20 {micro}m spot size, with 0.2% relative bandwidth.« less