Optical characteristics of the whipple observatory TeV gamma-ray imaging telescope

In TeV -ray astronomy, large mirrors are used to collect erenkov light from electromagnetic cascades in the atmosphere in order to obtain low energy thresholds. The flux sensitivity of TeV -ray detectors is limited by background due to erenkov light bursts from isotropic, cosmic-ray showers which are much more numerous than -ray showers. It has recently been established that most of this background can be eliminated on the basis of the shapes of erenkov light images on the focal plane of a telescope. In order for this technique to work, the light collector must have adequate resolution over a relatively wide field of view. In this paper, the optical characteristics of the 10 m reflector used in the imaging detection of the Crab Nebula are examined and contrasted with those of a standard parabolic design. This 10 m reflector has a unique (Davies-Cotton) design with small spherical facet mirrors placed on spherical support structure with radius equal to exactly 1/2 the curvature radius of the facet mirrors. The off-axis focusing properties of this type of telescope have not been examined previously.     

The cosmic γ-ray spectrum from secondary particle production in cosmic-ray interactions

The cosmic -ray spectrum below 1 GeV arising from cosmic ray p-p interactions is calculated. Its characteristics are determined by the properties of secondary neutral pion production occurring at accelerator energies. A model is chosen for numerical calculations in which the two dominant modes of neutral pion production at accelerator energies are the production of the (1.238) isobar and one fireball. The effect of -p and p- interactions on the cosmic -ray spectrum is also calculated. The final results are given in terms of both differential and integral -ray energy spectra.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOLAR FLARE GAMMA-RAY EMISSION AND NEUTRON PRODUCTION

We have examined six solar neutron events measured by satellite instruments and/or neutron monitors (NM) to understand the relationship between the intensity–time profiles of the -ray lines, the pion-related -rays, and the neutron production. In all six events the solar neutron production was clearly time-extended. We find that neutron emission as detected by NMs most closely follows the emission of pion-related -rays, whereas lower energy neutron production may follow that of nuclear -ray line emissions. Although this distinction is not unexpected, it is safe to say that the 2.223 MeV -ray line from neutron capture on hydrogen is a poor measure of the neutron production at energies >200 MeV. During the three events on 1982, June 3, 1990, May 24 and 1991, June 4 solar neutrons with energies greater than 200 MeV were recorded by NMs. The NM increases on 1982, June 3 and 1990, May 24 can be modeled using the time profile of the pion-related -rays. For the 1991, June 4 event the NM signal was small but lasted for 60 min and the high-energy -ray data available to us are insufficient to conclude unambiguously that the high-energy neutron production followed the pion-related -rays. In the other three events on 1991, June 9, 11, and 15 solar neutrons with energies 10–100 MeV were observed by the COMPTEL -ray instrument on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The duration of the low-energy neutron production on 1991, June 9 corresponded clearly to the high-energy and not to the low-energy -ray emission.     

Sensitivity of γ-ray detectors to polarization

Previous studies have shown that the largest -ray detector to date, EGRET, does not have useful polarization sensitivity. We have explored here some improved approaches to analyzing -ray pair production events, leading to important gains in sensitivity to polarization. The performance of the next generation -ray instrument GLAST is investigated using a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the complete detector.     

Estimates of the γ-ray flux from Sagittarius A

Analysis of the anisotropy of the -ray background observed by Clarket al. (1968) has lead to the suggestion that part of the anisotropy be due to a source at the Galactic Centre. The complex structure of radio and infrared emission of the region of Sgr A is considered. The -ray flux arising from Compton scattering and ₀ decay is calculated. For a value of the magnetic field H10^–4 Gauss, corresponding to equipartition, the -ray flux above 100 MeV at Earth from the Sgr A source is expected to lie between 10^–6 and 10^–5 gamma/cm² sec. Such a source should be detectable in the near future.     

Plasma acceleration by radiation in X-ray pulsars

Charged particle acceleration is considered by a radiation flux from a star or hot spot in X-ray pulsars. It is shown that for any distance from the star there exists the upper velocity limit up to which a particle can be accelerated by radiation. This critical velocity does not depend on the luminosity of the spot. Near the hot spot surface the critical velocityv0.65c. These results are applied to plasma acceleration inX-ray pulsars. The mechanism is advanced, of -ray generation in the course of plasma accretion, onto a neutron star. It is shown that in the presence of a large magnetic field and high luminosity of the spot the relativistic electron-position avalanche may appear. The optical depth of the electron-positron cloud achieves the value of order one. The X-ray quanta emitted by the spot are scattered by relativistic (2.6) electron-positron pairs and are transformed into -radiation. Hard quanta with energy 1 MeV leave the generation region in the narrow cone 0.25.     

Viscous Fluid Cosmological Models in a Bianchi Type I Universe

Exact solutions of the gravitational field equations for a Bianchi type I anisotropic space-time, filled with a viscous cosmological fluid obeying an equation of state of the form p = , 0 1, are obtained. We investigate both the viscous Zeldovich ( = 1) and < 1 fluid cases, with constant and time varying (proportional to the mean Hubble factor) shear and bulk viscosity coefficients. It is shown that independently of the matter content, the equation of state and the time dependence of the shear and bulk viscosity coefficients, a viscous Bianchi type I universe experiences a transition to an inflationary era. Due to dissipative processes, the mean anisotropy and the shear of the Bianchi type I universe tend very rapidly to zero.     

Equilibrium spectra of secondary cosmic-ray positrons in the galaxy and the spectrum of cosmic gamma-rays resulting from their annihilation

A general formula is derived for calculating the -ray spectrum resulting from the annihilation of cosmic-ray positrons. This formula is used to calculate annihilation--ray spectra from various equilibrium spectra of secondary galactic positrons. These spectra are then compared with the -ray spectra produced by other astrophysical processes.Particular attention is paid to the form of the -ray spectrum resulting from the annihilation of positrons having kinetic energies below 5 keV. It is found that for mean leakage times out of the galaxy of less than 400 million years, most of the positrons annihilating near rest come from the -decay of unstable nuclei produced in cosmic-ray p-C¹², p-N¹⁴, and p-O¹⁶ interactions, rather than from pi-meson decay. It is further found that the large majority of these positrons will annihilate from an S state of positronium and that 3/4 of these will produce a three-photon annihilation continuum rather than the two-photon line spectrum at 0.51 MeV. The results of numerical calculations of the -ray fluxes from these processes are given. It is concluded that annihilation -rays from the galactic halo may remain forever masked by a metagalactic continuum. However, an 0.51 MeV line from the disk may well be detectable. It is most reasonable to assume that this line is formed predominantly by the annihilation of the CNO -decay positrons. Under this assumption, the intensity of the line becomes a sensitive measure of the galactic cosmic-ray flux below 1000 MeV/nucleon.     

A theory for gamma ray and X-ray burst sources

A common mechanism for both X-ray and-ray bursters is proposed on the basis that a window can be created transiently in the polar cap of a degenerate star, a white dwarf for X-ray bursts and a neutron star for-ray bursts. The window exposes transiently a hot degenerate sub-layer of the star at shallow depth, from which escapes blackbody flux for a source at temperature 3 kev with window radius 10 km in the case of X-ray bursts and for a source at temperature 300 kev with window radius 0.5 km in the case of-ray bursts.     

Statistical data analysis for gamma-ray astronomy

Significance testing, parameter estimation and sensitivity calculations for -ray telescopes are discussed for single on-off astronomical observations. Four widely used significance test methods are examined by Monte-Carlo simulations. The Maximum Likelihood Ratio Method is found to consistently over-estimate the significance of an observation by a few percents whereas the Fisher's Exact Test is shown to be slightly conservative and always under-estimates the significance by about the same amount when the reported significance is about 3 and therefore it is preferred for -ray astronomy applications. Two methods for constructing a confidence interval and an upper limit for -ray source counts are discussed. It is found that the method based on the Smooth Transformation provides slightly better estimations. A new formula for the calculation of the sensitivity of a -ray telescope is presented, in contrast to the widely accepted one, and their statistical meanings are explained in detail.     

A momentum distribution of high energy particles around Crab pulsar

We determine the momentum distribution of the relativistic particles near the Crab pulsar from the observed X- and -ray spectra (10³10⁹ eV), provided that the curvature radiation is responsible for it. The power law spectrum for the relativistic electrons,f() ^–5, reproduces a close fit to the observed high-energy photon spectrum. The theoretically determined upper limit to the momentum (due to radiation damping), _M 8×10⁶, corresponds to the upper cut-off energy of the -ray spectrum, 10⁹ eV. The lower limit to the momentum, _m 1.8×10⁵, is chosen such that flattening of the X-ray spectrum below 10 keV is simulated. The number density of these electrons is found to be much higher than the Goldreich-Julian density. We also discuss pulse shape and polarization of high-energy photons. The extremely high density of particles and the steep momentum spectrum are difficult to understand. This may imply that another, more efficient, mechanism is in operation.     

Symmetric periodic orbits in Størmer's problem

The hypothesis on the -ray burst generation in the process of the collapse of surpermassive bodies in the nuclei of active galaxies is considered. It is shown that -ray burst properties observed may be interpreted within the frames of the given model. A statistical test for choosing a hypotheses on -ray burst nature is discussed.     

Seyfert galaxies and the cosmic γ-ray diffuse background

Three active galaxies, generally classified as Seyferts, have been discovered recently to be powerful, low energy -ray sources. The similarity between their spectral characteristics and those of the cosmic background at -ray energies suggests that these objects could make a significant contribution to this diffuse flux. This contribution has been assessed using two different number densities of -ray-emitting Seyfert galaxies based on optical and X-ray data. The comparison of the estimated and measured diffuse -ray background intensities is used to gain a deeper understanding of the metabolism of Seyfert galaxies.     

Estimates of proton energies in extragalactic radio sources

It is shown that inelastic proton collisions in extragalactic radio sources can account for their radio and -ray emissions. The proton Lorentz-factor _p responsible for -ray emission is estimated to lie between 1.4 and 86. But for the radio emission (with _e ~ 10³-10⁴) the estimated _p values lie between 7 to 300. The estimates of total particle and magnetic energy for a typical radio source is in agreement with equipartition theory.     

Time variation of the spectrum of Gyro-synchrotron emission from the Sun

The emission spectra and their time variations of gyro-synchrotron emission from an ensemble of energetic electrons are computed for some initial power-law distributions of the electron energies N()d= ^– with =2 or 4. The spectra and decay curves of the emission are compared with solar microwave bursts in order to separately estimate the magnetic field H and . From a limited number of observations, we have 3 and H 10³ gauss for the microwave impulsive bursts, and 2 and H (500–1000) gauss for the microwave type-IV bursts.     

Constraints on the high-energy properties of active galactic nuclei

Number-flux relations at -ray energies for active galactic nuclei have been computed, starting from their X-ray luminosity function and making different assumptions on the spectral shape and cosmological evolution of these sources.The radiation resulting from their integrated emission has been computed and compared to the observed intensity and spectrum of the extragalactic -ray diffuse background (0.3–20 MeV), in order to derive quantitative constraints on the evolution and spectral properties of active galactic nuclei at -ray energies.Paper presented at the 11th European Regional Astronomical Meetings of the IAU on New Windows to the Universe, held 3–8 July, 1989, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.     

Immediate reports of GRBs in progress from HETE

The High Energy Transient Experiment (HETE) will be able to perform multiwavelength observations of-ray and X-ray bursts. HETE will potentially be able to localize-ray bursts to a precision of 20 arc-minutes if significant X-ray flux is detected from the burst; a precision of 20 arc-seconds is possible if there is also significant UV radiation from the burst. HETE will broadcast information about bursts detected within seconds of their detection. This VHF-band broadcast will be received at a number of secondary ground stations (SGS) dedicated to HETE, and forwarded to a central distribution site at MIT, from which it is sent to interested observers via Internet.     

Morphological study of the time histories of gamma-ray bursts

Time histories of -ray bursts have revealed a great diversity, both in total duration and in the details of fine time structure. Results of the -ray experiment on the Helios-2 spacecraft have suggested some similarities in time profiles of events. The possibility of some characteristic separation times in events may also be indicated.Paper presented at the Symposium on Cosmic gamma-Ray Bursts, held at Toulouse, France, 26–29 November, 1979.     

The empirical determination of damping constants in the solar photosphere

We determine empirical damping constants for 73 selected Fe i lines following the method of Gurtovenko and Kondrashova (1980), employing high-quality observations and the accurate list of Fe i oscillator strengths by Gurtovenko and Kostik (1980).The results show: (i) No increase of the enhancement factor to van der Waals broadening with excitation potential, as predicted by Edmunds (1975), and with the frequency of the transition (Figure 1); (ii) a substantial part of the commonly-used enhancement factor for weaker lines is not due to collisional damping (Figure 2), but to a misrepresentation of the inhomogeneous structure of the deep photosphere. This false damping effect is not seen in the stronger lines which yield an average damping constant : 1.3₆ 1.5 ₆.     

On a new class of impulsive flares with no nuclear γ-ray line emission

The new class of -ray spectra from impulsive flares without nuclear -ray lines is compared with bremsstrahlung spectra of energetic electrons undergoing stochastic acceleration, Coulomb and synchrotron losses. The remarkable agreement of both the produced -spectra from the precipitated electrons and the electron spectra measured in the interplanetary space leads to the conclusion that seed population and acceleration process are identical for both classes of electrons. A new estimate of the electron bremsstrahlung contribution in -spectra of impulsive solar flares seems to be necessary.