Disparate MG II absorption statistics towards quasars and gamma-ray bursts: a possible explanation

We examine the recent report by Prochter et al. that gamma-ray burst (GRB) sight lines have a much higher incidence of strong Mg II absorption than quasar sight lines. We propose that the discrepancy is due to the different beam sizes of GRBs and quasars, and that the intervening Mg II systems are clumpy with the dense part of each cloudlet of a similar size as the quasars, i.e. ≲10¹⁶ cm, but bigger than GRBs. We also discuss observational predictions of our proposed model. Most notably, in some cases the intervening Mg II absorbers in GRB spectra should be seen varying, and quasars with smaller sizes should show an increased rate of strong Mg II absorbers. In fact, our prediction of variable Mg II lines in the GRB spectra has been now confirmed by Hao et al., who observed intervening Fe II and Mg II lines at z=1.48 to be strongly variable in the multi-epoch spectra of z=4.05 GRB 060206.     

Thermal synchrotron radiation and gamma-ray burst spectra

The standard classical expressions for the thermal synchrotron (TS) radiation from an optically thin thermal plasma are shown to be inapplicable at photon energiesEkT since they neglect quantum effects. Quantum relationships are obtained for the TS spectral emissivity, opacity, and polarization. The quantum TS spectra are much softer atEkT than the classical ones. The TS radiation exhibits strong linear polarization in the classical domain, whereas the quantum effects reduce the polarization at highE. Expressions for the classical TS luminosity are obtained with quantum corrections which turn out to be significant for (B/B _c )(kT/mc ²)10^–2(B _c =4.41×10¹³ G).Fitting the gamma-ray burst (GRB) spectra by the classical TS law (see, e.g., Lianget al., 1983) is incorrect in cases wherekT is less than the maximum detected photon energy. The continua of the GRB spectra in the rangeE20 keV-2 MeV (Mazetset al., 1981a; Andreevet al., 1983) can be fitted satisfactorily by the quantum TS spectra. The results of this fitting may suggest the existence of temperatures much higher (up to 10 MeV), and of magnetic fields much lower (down to 10⁹ G) than those usually accepted. Under these conditions the thickness of the TS sources (10³–10⁴ cm) could be comparable with their transverse dimensions (in contrast to sources with ordinary temperatures and fields), if they lie within a few kpc. The quantum TS spectra are too soft to account for the hard components (up to tens of MeV) of the GRB spectra detected by the Solar Maximum Mission (Nolanet al., 1984), unless the temperatures are unreasonably high.A straightforward TS interpretation of the GRB spectra seems to be unrealistic. Most probably, the continuum radiation escapes from an optically thick, strongly magnetized, highly non-stationary, hot plasma near the surface of a neutron star.     

The interpretation of spectral depressions in gamma-ray bursts: A constraint from the estimate of radiative pressure

The physical model (Wanget al., 1989) is considered of cyclotron absorption of GRB radiation in a layer of cold non-moving plasma taking into account the effect of radiative pressure.     

The <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ulysses</Emphasis> Catalog of Solar Hard X-Ray Flares

Ulysses was launched in October 1990, and its Solar X-ray/Cosmic Gamma-Ray Burst Experiment (GRB) has provided more than 13 years of uninterrupted observations of solar X-ray flare activity. Due to the large variation of the relative solar latitude and longitude of the spacecraft orbit with respect to the Earth, the perspective of the GRB instrument often differed significantly from that of X-ray instruments on Earth-orbiting satellites. During extended periods the GRB experiment made direct observations of flares on the hidden face of the Sun, providing a unique record of events not visible to other instruments. The small detector area of GRB and its optimization for very high counting rates minimized the effects of pulse pile-up. We interpret the spectra, time histories, and occurrence distribution patterns of GRB data in terms of “thermal feed-through”, the confusion of thermal soft X-rays and non-thermal hard X-rays. This effect is a systematic problem for scintillation-counter spectrometers observing the solar hard X-ray spectrum. This paper provides a definitive catalog of the Ulysses X-ray flare observations and discusses various features of this unique database. For the equivalent GOES range X2 – X25, we find a power-law fit for the (differential) occurrence frequency at >25 keV with slope −1.61±0.04, with no evidence for a downturn at the highest event magnitudes (for the relatively small sample of such events available in this study). If the nine most intense events are excluded because of concerns about the effects of pulse pile-up, the slope steepens to −1.75±0.08.     

Is GRB 100418A a Cosmic Twin of GRB 060614?

GRB 100418A is a long burst at z?=?0.624 without detection of associated supernova (SN). We present a detailed analysis on this event and discuss possible origins of its multi-wavelength emission. The temporal features of this event is similar to GRB 060614, a well-known nearby long GRB without SN association (possibly a Type I GRB), indicating that the two events may be cosmic twins. However, both the circum-burst medium density and the GRB classification based on the gamma-ray energy and spectrum suggest that GRB 100418A would be a Type II GRB. These results make a great puzzle on the progenitors of this kind of events, if they belong to the same population.     

Status of the ROTSE‐III telescope network

ROTSE‐III is a homogeneous worldwide array of 4 robotic telescopes. They were designed to provide optical observations of γ ‐ray burst (GRB) afterglows as close as possible to the start of γ ‐ray emission. ROTSE‐III is fulfilling its potential for GRB science, and provides optical observations for a variety of astrophysical sources in the interim between GRB events. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Observation of the Second LIGO/Virgo Event Connected with a Binary Neutron Star Merger S190425z in the Gamma-Ray Range

The results of observations of the gravitational-wave (GW) event S190425z recorded by the LIGO/Virgo detectors with the anti-coincidence shield (ACS) of the SPI gamma-ray spectrometer onboard the INTEGRAL observatory are presented. With a high probability (>99%) it was associated with a neutron star (NS) merger in a close binary system. This is only the second event of such a type in the history of gravitational-wave observations (after GW170817). A weak gamma-ray burst, GRB190425, consisting of two pulses ～0.5 and ～5.9 s after the NS merger in the event S190425z with an a priori significance of 3.5 and 4.4σ (taken together 5.5σ) was detected by SPI-ACS. Analysis of the SPI-ACS count rate history recorded on these days (a total of ～125 ks of observations) has shown that the rate of random occurrence of two close spikes with the characteristics of GRB190425 does not exceed 6.4 × 10^?5 s^?1 (i.e., such events occur by chance, on average, every ～4.3 hours). Note that the time profile of GRB190425 has much in common with the profile of GRB170817A accompanying the event GW170817, that both NS mergers were the nearest (≤150 Mpc) of all the events recorded by the LIGO/Virgo detectors, and that no significant excesses of the gamma-ray flux above the background were detected in any of ～30 black hole merger events recorded to date by these detectors. No bursts of hard radiation were detected in the field of view of the SPI and IBIS/ISGRI gamma-ray telescopes onboard INTEGRAL. This, along with the absence of detection of gamma-ray emission from GRB190425 by the GBM gamma-ray burst monitor of the Fermi observatory suggesting its occultation by the Earth, allows the localization region for the source of this GWevent to be reduced significantly. The parameters E_iso and E_p for GRB190425 are estimated and compared with those for GRB170817A.

     

Interpreting Yohkoh hard and soft X-ray flare observations

A simple model is presented to account for theYohkoh flare observations of Feldmanet al. (1994), and Masuda (1994). Electrons accelerated by the flare are assumed to encounter the dense, small regions observed by Feldmanet al. at the tops of impulsively flaring coronal magnetic loops. The values of electron density and volume inferred by Feldmanet al. imply that these dense regions present an intermediate thick-thin target to the energised electrons. Specifically, they present a thick (thin) target to electrons with energy much less (greater) thanE _c , where 15 keV <E _c < 40 keV. The electrons are either stopped at the loop top or precipitate down the field lines of the loop to the footpoints. Collisional losses of the electrons at the loop top produce the heating observed by Feldmanet al. and also some hard X-rays. It is argued that this is the mechanism for the loop-top hard X-ray sources observed in limb flares by Masuda. Adopting a simple model for the energy losses of electrons traversing the dense region and the ambient loop plasma, hard X-ray spectra are derived for the loop-top source, the footpoint sources and the region between the loop top and footpoints. These spectra are compared with the observations of Masuda. The model spectra are found to qualitatively agree with the data, and in particular account for the observed steepening of the loop-top and footpoint spectra between 14 and 53 keV and the relative brightnesses of the loop-top and footpoint sources.     

Time resolved spectroscopy of GRB 100418A and its host galaxy with X‐shooter

GRB 100418A was an intermediate duration GRB detected by Swift. It showed an initially dim optical afterglow that had a late increase in brightness, reaching its maximum several hours after the burst onset, unlike typical afterglows that peak tens of seconds after. It also displayed a bright X‐ray and radio counterpart. In this paper we present the observations of the afterglow obtained with X‐shooter. Three epochs were obtained, 0.4, 1.4, and 2.4 days after the burst. In these spectra, each covering the range from 3000 to 24800 Å, we detect abundant absorption features with 4 velocity components, and emission lines from the host galaxy with 2 additional velocity components. In one single velocity component, we detect a Fe II* 2396 Å fine structure feature which disappears from the first to the second epoch indicating that it is due to the effect of the GRB radiation on its environment. We consider it to be the closest absorption component to the GRB itself, for which we determine a redshift of z = 0.6239 ± 0.0002. From the Hα to [N II] ratio we determine a host galaxy metallicity of 0.5 solar (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Bursts of type N in Jupiter's decametric radio spectra

Dynamic spectra of Jupiter's decametric emission often display narrow-band features, referred to as events of type N (Carr et al., 1983). The average bandwidth of these emissions is in the vicinity of 200 kHz, their durations are typically in the decasecond range, and their f-t slopes are small and random. Although the N-bursts can be described as narrow-band L-bursts, it seems that they are realted to S-bursts in their area of occurrence in the Io-B region, the durations of the emission envelopes, and their bandwidths. Possible implications are discussed.     

Spectral hardness evolution characteristics of tracking gamma-ray burst pulses

Employing a sample presented by Kaneko et al. (2006) [Kaneko, Y. et al., 2006. ApJS 166, 298 (Paper I)] and Kocevski et al. (2003) [Kocevski, D. et al., 2003. ApJ 596, 389], we select 42 individual tracking pulses (here we defined tracking as the cases in which the hardness follows the same pattern as the flux or count rate time profile) within 36 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) containing 527 time-resolved spectra and investigate the spectral hardness, E_peak (where E_peak is the maximum of the νF_ν spectrum), evolutionary characteristics. The evolution of these pulses follow soft-to-hard-to-soft (the phase of soft-to-hard and hard-to-soft are denoted by rise phase and decay phase, respectively) with time. It is found that the overall characteristics of E_peak of our selected sample are: (1) the E_peak evolution in the rise phase always start on the high state (the values of E_peak are always higher than 50 keV); (2) the spectra of rise phase clearly start at higher energy (the median of E_peak are about 300 keV), whereas the spectra of decay phase end at much lower energy (the median of E_peak are about 200 keV); (3) the spectra of rise phase are harder than that of the decay phase and the duration of rise phase are much shorter than that of decay phase as well. In other words, for a complete pulse the initial E_peak is higher than the final E_peak and the duration of initial phase (rise phase) are much shorter than the final phase (decay phase). This results are in good agreement with the predictions of [Lu, R.J. et al., 2007. ApJ 663, 1110] and current popular view on the production of GRBs. We argue that the spectral evolution of tracking pulses may be relate to both of kinematic and dynamic process even if we currently can not provide further evidences to distinguish which one is dominant. Moreover, our statistical results give some witnesses to constrain the current GRB model.     

A catalog of cosmic gamma-ray bursts detected by the PHEBUS instrument on the Granat observatory: October 1994–December 1996

We present the final part of the catalog of cosmic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed in the PHEBUS experiment on the Granat orbiting astrophysical observatory. The first three parts of the catalog were published by Terekhov et al. (1994, 1995a) and Tkachenko et al. (1998). The fourth part contains information on 32 events recorded from October 1994 until December 1996. We give burst light curves in the energy range 100 keV to 1.6 MeV, integrated energy spectra, and information on the fluence and energy flux at the luminosity peak for energies above 100 keV. Over the entire period of its operation, the PHEBUS instrument detected 206 cosmic GRBs. The mean ?V/V_max? was 0.336±0.007. The mean hardness corresponding to the ratio of count numbers in the energy ranges 400–1000 and 100–400 keV is 0.428±0.018 for events with a duration shorter than 2 s and 0.231±0.004 for events with a duration longer than 2 s.     

Expressions to determine temperatures and emission measures for solar X-ray events from GOES measurements

We have developed expressions which give the effective color temperatures and corresponding emission measures for solar X-ray events observed with instruments onboard any of the GOES satellites. Since 1976, these satellites have been used to monitor continuously the full-Sun X-ray emission in two broadband wavelength intervals (approximately 0.5–4 Å and 1–8 Å) with a time resolution of 3 s. To simulate the solar X-ray input at a variety of plasma temperatures, we used theoretical spectra provided by D. L. McKenzie. These spectra were folded through the wavelength dependent transfer functions for the two GOES detectors as given by Donnelly et al. (1977). The resulting detector responses and their ratio as a function of plasma temperature were then fit with simple analytic curves. Over the entire range between 5 and 30 million degrees, these fits reproduce the calculated color temperatures within 2% and the calculated emission measures within 5%. With the theoretical spectra provided by McKenzie, we can determine similar expressions for any pair of broadband X-ray detectors whose sensitivities are limited to wavelengths between 0.2 and 100 Å.     

Infrared,ultraviolet, and electron paramagnetic resonance measurements on presolar diamonds: Implications for optical features and origin

Abstract— Infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) absorption spectra were obtained for diamonds from the Allende and Murchison meteorites. In addition, and for the first time, electron paramagnetic resonance spectra were measured. The IR and UV data confirm the suspicion of Russell et al. (1996) that N in presolar diamonds predominantly appears in the form of dispersed N atoms, as is the case for terrestrial type Ib diamonds. In accordance with other observations, our electron paramagnetic resonance measurements suggest a high H content in presolar diamonds. The presolar diamonds most likely originated in a H‐rich region, an environment in which nanometer‐sized diamonds may be more stable than graphite (Badziag et al., 1990). This adds to the evidence—previously based mainly on the twin microstructures of presolar diamonds (Daulton et al., 1996) and the absence of graphite with the same isotopic composition as presolar diamonds (Anders and Zinner, 1993)—for a homogeneous nucleation of presolar diamonds from a gas phase. Based on our results for detection of diamonds in space, we suggest searching for the N‐induced IR and UV absorption features of type Ib diamonds. Other characteristic diamond features that could also be used to detect diamonds in space are the (‐CH_n) IR absorption features due to H‐coated diamonds, as they are described by Allamandola et al. (1993) and the IR multiphonon absorption features of the diamond lattice. The multiphonon features are very weak (Edwards, 1985), but their intensity increases somewhat with increasing temperature (Collins and Fan, 1954), so perhaps a search for them is not totally hopeless.     

Gamma-Ray Bursts and magnetar-forming Supernovae

The connection between long Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and Supernovae (SNe) have been established through the well observed cases. These events can be explained as the prompt collapse to a black hole (BH) of the core of a massive star (M≳40M _⊙). The energies of these GRB-SNe were much larger than those of typical SNe, thus these SNe are called Hypernovae (HNe). The case of SN 2006aj/GRB060218 appears different: the GRB was weak and soft, being called an X-Ray Flash (XRF); the SN is dimmer and has very weak oxygen lines. The explosion energy of SN 2006aj was smaller, as was the ejected mass. In our model, the progenitor star had a smaller mass than other GRB-SNe (M∼20M _⊙), suggesting that a neutron star (NS) rather than a BH was formed. If the nascent NS was strongly magnetized as a magnetar and rapidly spinning, it may launch a weak GRB or an XRF. The peculiar light curve of Type Ib SN 2005bf may also be powered by a magnetar. The blue-shifted nebular emission lines of 2005bf indicate the unipolar explosion possibly related to standing accretion shock instability (SASI) associated with a newly born NS.     

Supernovae-optical precursors of short gamma-ray bursts

The probability of observing “supernova-gamma-ray burst” (GRB) pair events and recurrent GRBs from one galaxy in a time interval of several years has been estimated. Supernova explosions in binary systems accompanied by the formation of a short-lived pair of compact objects can be the sources of such events. If a short GRB is generated during the collision of a pair, then approximately each of ∼300 short GRBs with redshift z must have an optical precursor—a supernova in the observer’s time interval <2(1 + z) yr. If the supernova explosion has the pattern of a hypernova, then a successive observation of long and short GRBs is possible. The scenario for the generation of multiple GRBs in collapsing galactic nuclei is also discussed.     

Analysis of the high resolution Mg XI X-ray spectra

In part III of the paper containing the analysis of the INTERCOSMOS 16 ADP spectra, it is shown that by assuming the existence of a small admixture (1%) of non-thermal electrons in the active-region plasma it is possible to improve the agreement between measured and calculated fluxes for some spectra. The analysis follows the suggestion contained in the paper by Karev et al. (1980).     

Towards a new galaxy template library for multi-colour classification

The COMBO-17 survey cite(Wolf et al., 2002) contains ≈ 40000 galaxies down to R=24 mag on an area of one square degree, obtained with the wide field imager at the 2.2 m telescope at La Silla. A multi-colour classification on the basis of 5 broadband and 12 medium band filters (=17 bands) yields accurate redshifts (σ _z ≤ 0.01 at the bright end up to σ _z ≈ 0.1 at the faint end) and spectral energy distribution types (SEDs) when using observed galaxy templates from (Kinney et al.,1996). However, there is an obvious weakness in this classification scheme: The relation between star formation history and SED remains unclear. It is therefore impossible to draw firm conclusions about the age of the underlying stellar population and the expected aging between z ≈ 1 and z ≈ 0 can not be quantified. We will present first results of our attempt to replace the observed templates with model spectra from the PEGASE code (Fioc and Rocca-Volmerange, 1997), in order to get a better handle on the star formation history. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

X-ray luminous IRAS galaxies

A sample of 14708 extragalactic IRAS sources selected from the Point Source Catalog via statistical classification has been cross-correlated with the ROSAT All Sky Survey (Bolleret al., 1992). 244 galaxies emerge as being detected both by ROSAT and IRAS.The most interesting point is the discovery of a dozen of normal spirals whose X-ray luminosities reach nearly 10⁴³ erg s^–1 (0.1–2.4 keV), higher than previous detection limits of a few 10⁴¹ erg s^–1 (Stockeet al. 1991; Green, Anderson and Ward, 1992). We obtained optical spectra for nine of them, showing Seyfert spectra for three of the objects (thus previous mis-classifications), spectra close to LINERs for two further objects and normal IRAS galaxy spectra for the last four.In the case of normal galaxies, the source of energy is not clear yet and could be related to the high rate of star formation likely to occur in the central regions or also to a low level active nucleus. The study of these objects is of interest to the nature of LINERs and, more generally, to possible relations between AGN and starbursts (Sanderset al., 1988).     

A multi-layered backpropagation artificial neural network algorithm for UV spectral classification

In this paper we present an application of an artificial neural network model based on a multi-layered backpropagation algorithm for spectral classification of UV data from the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) low dispersion spectra reference atlas. The model used is similar to that of von Hippel et al. (1994), and is found to reduce the classification error as compared to the recently reported results on the same data set (Gulati et al. 1994b). The improved version of the network is much simpler in structure and the training time is reduced by a factor of almost 20. Such networks will prove very useful in efficient classification of large databases Subject headings: neural networks, stellar spectra, classification