Direct demodulation imaging of the γ-ray burst GRB 910601

The COMPTEL observation of the γ-ray burst GRB 910601 has been reanalyzed using a direct demodulation method. The imaging result indicates that the location of GRB 910601 is closer to the annulus obtained by the Ulysses-BATSE system than that with the maximum-likelihood method. This confirms the feasibility of processing γ-ray bursts, a kind of transient source with good signal-to-noise ratio but poor statistics, with a direct demodulation method. The precision of locating γ-ray bursts by imaging can also be improved using this method.     

A new γ-ray pulsar: PSR 0740-28

We made a period folding analysis on two sets of COS-B observations and obtained a clearly pulsed phase structure in the γ-ray photons from the direction of PSR 0740-28. The phase diagrams from the two different data sets have a similar structure and the period and period rate are close to radio expectations. The probability of the two phase structures arising by chance is less than 2×10⁻⁵. Hence we believe PSR 0740-28 is a new γ-ray pulsar.     

The luminosity of γ-ray pulsars

We point out that in the polar cap model, the visible part is only part of the cap and this fact should be taken into account when calculating the pulsar luminosity. When this is done, the calculated luminosities are in basic agreement with the observed values. Based on our calculations we give a list of 12 possible γ-ray candidates.     

Observational Characteristics of γ-ray Bursts and Their Early X-ray Afterglows

Data obtained by the on-board X-ray telescope of the Swift satellite show that a shallow decay component is present in the light curve of the early X-ray afterglows of some γ-ray bursts (GRBs), but not in others. The physical mechanism of this component is debatable. We have made a comparative study on the observational characteristics of the two kinds of GRBs for a sample of 29 GRBs. Our results demonstrate that the two kinds of GRBs have no significant difference in the burst duration, γ-ray flux, spectral index, hardness ratio and peak energy. However, a significant difference exists in the early X-ray afterglows of the bursts: the bursts with a shallow decay component tend to have a softer and fainter X-ray afterglow than those without a shallow decay component. The efficiency of the γ-ray radiation is also very different for the two kinds of bursts: it is obviously higher for the bursts with a shallow decay component than those without. These results seem to suggest that the progenitors and central engines of the two kinds of GRBs are similar, and that the appearance of the shallow decay component is probably due to the surrounding medium.     

General relativistic effects in the γ-ray radiation from pulsars

General relativistic and quantum-mechanical effects in the γ-ray radiation from neutron stars are studied in this paper. For three values of the magnetic dipole moment, we calculated the upper limit of the escaping energy of the γ-photon as a function of the angle between the line of sight and the magnetic axis, with and without these effects. We conclude that for low magnetic moments, the quantum-mechanical effects are unimportant but the general relativistic effects are to reduce significantly the upper limit. For high magnetic moments, the two effects nearly cancel out and the net effect is small. We discuss the implications of these results on the γ-ray spectrum.     

脉冲星参数的取值对γ暴火球余辉的影响

用中心有脉冲星的γ射线暴的火球模型计算出GRB970228和GRB000301c两个γ射线暴的余辉辐射流，计算结果与观测结果相比较，符合的很好，解释了GRB970228和GRB000301c光学R波段余辉的光变曲线带‘拐折’的特征，讨论了中心脉冲星参数的取值对余辉的光曲线起的重要作用。     

Evolutionary relationship between the γ-ray flares and millimeter wave outbursts in PKS 0528+134

During the period of 1991–1993 two strong high energy γ-ray flares were observed by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory in the flat spectrum radio source PKS 0528+134. They were associated with strong mm-radio outbursts with a few months time-delays. In this paper the spectral energy distributions (SED) of the radiations in the γ-hand X-ray and the IR-optical bands are analysed. It is shown that the high energy γ-ray radiation may be due to the inverse Compton scattering of the ambient UV and soft X-ray photons by the relativistic electrons in the jet. Basing on the comparison between the properties of the synchrotron radiation of the γ-ray source and the spectral evolution of the mm-radio outbursts, the evolutional relationship between the γ-ray emitting blobs and the mm-radio emitting blobs is discussed.     

The pionic contribution to diffuse γ-rays: upper limits

Diffuse γ-rays probe the highest-energy processes at the largest scales. Here we derive model-independent constraints on the hadronic contribution to the Galactic and extragalactic γ-ray spectra at in the energy range 50 MeVE_γ10 GeV. The hadronic component is dominated by emission from neutral pions, with a characteristic spectrum symmetric about m_π⁰/2. We exploit the well-defined properties of the pion decay spectrum to quantify the maximum pionic fraction of the observed γ-ray intensity. We find that the Galactic spectrum above 30 MeV can be atmost about 50% pionic. The maximum pionic contribution to the extragalactic spectrum is energy dependent; it also depends on the redshift range over which the sources are distributed, ranging from as low as about 20% for pions generated very recently, to as much as 90% if the pions are generated around redshift 10. The implications of these constraints for models of γ-ray and neutrino emission are briefly discussed.     

Relationship between pulse width and energy in GRB 060124: from X-ray to γ-ray bands

GRB 060124 is the first event that both prompt and afterglow emission were observed simultaneously by the three Swift instruments. Its main peak also triggered Konus-Wind and HETE-II. Therefore, investigation on both the temporal and spectral properties of the prompt emission can be extended to X-ray bands. We perform a detailed analysis on the two well identified pulses of this burst, and find that the pulses are narrower at higher energies, and both X-rays and γ-rays follow the same w–E relation for an individual pulse. However, there is no a universal power-law index of the w–E relation among pulses. We find also that the rise-to-decay ratio r/d seems not to evolve with E and the r/d values are well consistent with that observed in typical GRBs. The broadband spectral energy distribution also suggests that the X-rays are consistent with the spectral behavior of the γ-rays. These results indicate that the X-ray emission tracks the γ-ray emission and the emissions in the two energy bands are likely to be originated from the same physical mechanism.     

A statistical analysis of gamma-ray bursts based on the beaming model

We assume that gamma-ray bursts come from relativistic beaming in random directions, with the bursts being standard candles in their own rest frames and following a power-law distribution, and that the rate of occurrence is a constant in the comoving frame of the Ω = 1, Λ = 0 Friedmann universe. This model is very sensitive to the beaming velocity. For a Lorentz factor Γ < 10 and a power-law index n < 1.0 our calculated statistics agree with the BATSE data of weak bursts and the PVO data of strong bursts.     

Beaming Effects in GRBs and Orphan Afterglows

The overall dynamical evolution and radiation mechanism of γ-ray burst (GRB) jets are briefly introduced. Various interesting topics concerning beaming in GRBs are discussed, including jet structures, orphan afterglows and cylindrical jets. The possible connection between GRBs and neutron stars is also addressed.     

Probing pulsar winds using inverse Compton scattering

We investigate the effects of inverse Compton scattering by electrons and positrons in the unshocked winds of rotationally-powered binary pulsars. This process can scatter low energy target photons to produce gamma rays with energies from MeV to TeV. The binary radio pulsars PSR B1259−63 and PSR J0045−73 are both in close eccentric orbits around bright main sequence stars which provide a huge density of low energy target photons. The inverse Compton scattering process transfers momentum from the pulsar wind to the scattered photons, and therefore provides a drag which tends to decelerate the pulsar wind. We present detailed calculations of the dynamics of a pulsar wind which is undergoing inverse Compton scattering, showing that the deceleration of the wind of PSR B1259−63 due to ‘inverse Compton drag' is small, but that this process may confine the wind of PSR J0045−73 before it attains pressure balance with the outflow of its companion star. We calculate the spectra and light curves of the resulting inverse Compton emission from PSR B1259−63 and show that if the size of the pulsar wind nebula is comparable to the binary separation, then the γ-ray emission from the unshocked wind may be detectable by atmospheric Cherenkov detectors or by the new generation of satellite-borne γ-ray detectors such as INTEGRAL and GLAST. This mechanism may therefore provide a direct probe of the freely-expanding regions of pulsar winds, previously thought to be invisible.     

Gamma-ray bursts: post-burst evolution of fireballs

The post-burst evolution of fireballs that produce γ-ray bursts (GRBs) is studied, assuming the expansion of fireballs to be adiabatic and relativistic. Numerical results as well as an approximate analytic solution for the evolution are presented. Owing to the adoption of a new relation between t R and γ, our results differ markedly from previous studies. Synchrotron radiation from the shocked interstellar medium is carefully calculated, using a conventional set of equations. The observed X-ray flux of GRB afterglows can be reproduced easily. Although the optical afterglows seem much more complicated, our results can still present a rather satisfactory agreement with observations. We also find that the expansion will no longer be highly relativistic about 4 d after the main GRB. We thus suggest that the marginally relativistic phase of the expansion should be investigated so as to check the afterglows observed a week or more later.     

Fitting X-ray Afterglow Light curves of Gamma-ray Bursts by Using the Magnetar Energy Injection Model

The central compact object for some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) may be a strongly magnetized millisecond pulsar. It can inject energy to the outer shock of the GRB by through the magnetic dipole radiation, and therefore causes the shallow decay of the early afterglow. Recently, from a large number of GRB X-ray afterglows observed by Swift/XRT(X-ray telescope), it is revealed that many of them exhibit the shallow decay about 10²∼10⁴ s after the burst prompt emission. We have fitted the X-ray afterglow light curves of 11 GRBs by using the energy injection model of a magnetar with the rotation period in the millisecond order of magnitude. The obtained result shows the validity and universality of the magnetar energy injection model in explaining the shallow decay of afterglows, and simultaneously provides some constraints on the magnetic field strength and rotation period of the central magnetar.     

Gamma–hadron separation methods for the VERITAS array of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes

Ground-based arrays of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes have emerged as the most sensitive γ-ray detectors in the energy range of about 100 GeV and above. The strengths of these arrays are a very large effective collection area on the order of 10⁵ m², combined with excellent single photon angular and energy resolutions. The sensitivity of such detectors is limited by statistical fluctuations in the number of Cosmic-ray initiated air showers that resemble γ-ray air showers in many ways. In this paper, we study the performance of simple event reconstruction methods when applied to simulated data of the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) experiment. We review methods for reconstructing the arrival direction and the energy of the primary photons, and examine means to improve on their performance. For a software threshold energy of 300 GeV (100 GeV), the methods achieve point source angular and energy resolutions of σ_63% = 0.1° (0.2°) and σ_68% = 15% (22%), respectively. The main emphasis of the paper is the discussion of γ–hadron separation methods for the VERITAS experiment. We find that the information from several methods can be combined based on a likelihood ratio approach and the resulting algorithm achieves a γ–hadron suppression with a quality factor that is substantially higher than that achieved with the standard methods used so far.     

A brief description of observational results from the supersoft X-ray detector aboard Shenzhou-2

Observational results from the supersoft X-ray detector (SD) aboard the spacecraft Shenzhou-2 are briefly described. The resultspertain to cosmic γ-ray bursts solar x-ray bursts, high-energy charged particles and soft X-ray background radiation. The detector is a proportional counter with a polypropylene thin-film window of 50 mm diameter, it operates in the energy range 0.23–3.0keV covered by six energy channels. Two grades of time resolution are used: 40 ms for recording burst events and 520 ms when there is no triggering signal resulted from a burst event. Figures 1 and 2 show the light curves and energy spectra of two cosmic γ-ray bursts (starting time 2001 Jan 17, 09:37:25.21 UT and 2001 Mar 9, 12:33:55.692 UT), and Figures 3 and 4, the results on two solar X-ray burst (2001 Apr 6, 19:14:09.11 UT, and 2001 May 20, 06:02:12.58 UT). The detector records the ambient high-energy charged particles when there is no burst event and the shutter of the window is closed. 110 data sets of high-energy charged particles along the spacecraft orbit have been collected. As examples, the variations of the particle counting rate along the orbit are shown in Figs. 6a, 6b, 8e, 8f and 7. More than 10 events of particle precipitation induced by solar proton events have also been recorded, some of which are displayed in Figs.6c–6f and 7. Some of the data of soft X-ray background radiation shown in Fig. 8 were obtained when the shutter was open, and they are important for the data processing of the burst events.     

On-axis orphan afterglows

In many GRB inner engine models the highly relativistic GRB jets are engulfed by slower moving matter. This could result in different beaming for the prompt γ-ray emission and for the lower energy afterglow. In this case we should expect that some observer will see on-axis orphan afterglows: X-ray, optical and radio afterglows within the initial relativistic ejecta with no preceding GRB; the prompt γ-ray emission is pointing elsewhere. We show that the observations of the WFC on BeppoSAX constrain with high certainty the prompt X-ray beaming factor to be less than twice the prompt γ-ray beaming. The results of Ariel 5 are consistent with this interpretation. The RASS from ROSAT and HEAO-1 constrain the X-ray beaming factor at 400 and 20 min after the burst, respectively, to be comparable and certainly not much larger than the γ-ray beaming factor. There is no direct limit on the optical beaming. However, we show that observations of several months with existing hardware could result in a useful limit on the optical beaming factor of GRB afterglows.     

伽玛暴及其早期X射线余辉的观测特征

Swift卫星的X射线望远镜观测揭示部分伽玛暴的早期余辉光变曲线有一个缓慢衰减的成分,而相当一部分却没有这样的成分.研究比较这两种暴的观测性质发现两类暴的持续时间、伽玛辐射总流量、谱指数、谱硬度比峰值能量等物理量均没有显著差异.然而有该成分的那些伽玛暴谱比较软、早期X射线余辉比较弱、伽玛射线辐射效率显著高于没有这个成分的那些暴.结果表明两类暴的前身星和中心机制一致,是否呈现这个缓慢衰减成分可能取决于外部介质.     

A mini-supernova model for optical afterglows of gamma-ray bursts

An energy deposition of ∼10⁵⁰ erg into the exterior 10⁻³ M⊙ layers of a red giant is calculated to produce an optical phenomenon similar to afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRB) recently observed. This mechanism can be realized if a GRB is generated by some mechanism in a close binary system. In contrast to a 'hypernova' scenario for GRB recently proposed by Paczyński, this model does not require huge kinetic energy in the expanding shell to explain optical afterglows of GRB.     

Search for TeV gamma-rays from Geminga pulsar

We present the results of observation of the Geminga pulsar carried out in the TeV energy band during the 6 year period spanning 2000–2006 using the Pachmarhi Array of Cherenkov Telescopes (PACT). A long stretch of data, new computer codes and the “Tempo” package have been used in the present analysis. We have searched for evidence of pulsed emission of γ-rays from the Geminga pulsar using the post-glitch pulsar elements obtained by Jackson and Halpern from X-ray/γ-ray satellite data. We do not see any significant evidence for pulsed emission from the Geminga pulsar at a threshold energy of 825 GeV. In this paper we present our results on the light curve in the TeV energy band, set an upper limit on the time averaged flux of γ-rays, and compare our results with other ground based observations.