1,169 research outputs found
Conservative upper limits on WIMP annihilation cross section from Fermi-LAT -rays
The spectrum of an isotropic extragalactic -ray background (EGB) has
been measured by the Fermi-LAT telescope at high latitudes. Two new models for
the EGB are derived from the subtraction of unresolved point sources and
extragalactic diffuse processes, which could explain from 30% to 70% of the
Fermi-LAT EGB. Within the hypothesis that the two residual EGBs are entirely
due to the annihilation of dark matter (DM) particles in the Galactic halo, we
obtain upper limits on their annihilation cross section \sigmav.
Severe bounds on a possible Sommerfeld enhancement of the annihilation cross
section are set as well. Finally, would {\sigmav} be inversely proportional to
the WIMP velocity, very severe limits are derived for the velocity-independent
part of the annihilation cross section.Comment: Proceedings of XII Taup Conference, Munich, September 201
PSR J2030+3641: radio discovery and gamma-ray study of a middle-aged pulsar in the now identified Fermi-LAT source 1FGL J2030.0+3641
In a radio search with the Green Bank Telescope of three unidentified low
Galactic latitude Fermi-LAT sources, we have discovered the middle-aged pulsar
J2030+3641, associated with 1FGL J2030.0+3641 (2FGL J2030.0+3640). Following
the detection of gamma-ray pulsations using a radio ephemeris, we have obtained
a phase-coherent timing solution based on gamma-ray and radio pulse arrival
times that spans the entire Fermi mission. With a rotation period of 0.2 s,
spin-down luminosity of 3e34 erg/s, and characteristic age of 0.5 Myr, PSR
J2030+3641 is a middle-aged neutron star with spin parameters similar to those
of the exceedingly gamma-ray-bright and radio-undetected Geminga. Its gamma-ray
flux is 1% that of Geminga, primarily because of its much larger distance, as
suggested by the large integrated column density of free electrons, DM=246
pc/cc. We fit the gamma-ray light curve, along with limited radio polarimetric
constraints, to four geometrical models of magnetospheric emission, and while
none of the fits have high significance some are encouraging and suggest that
further refinements of these models may be worthwhile. We argue that not many
more non-millisecond radio pulsars may be detected along the Galactic plane
that are responsible for LAT sources, but that modified methods to search for
gamma-ray pulsations should be productive -- PSR J2030+3641 would have been
found blindly in gamma rays if only >0.8 GeV photons had been considered, owing
to its relatively flat spectrum and location in a region of high soft
background.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 9 pages, 6 figure
PSRs J0248+6021 and J2240+5832: Young Pulsars in the Northern Galactic Plane. Discovery, Timing, and Gamma-ray observations
Pulsars PSR J0248+6021 (rotation period P=217 ms and spin-down power Edot =
2.13E35 erg/s) and PSR J2240+5832 (P=140 ms, Edot = 2.12E35 erg/s) were
discovered in 1997 with the Nancay radio telescope during a northern Galactic
plane survey, using the Navy-Berkeley Pulsar Processor (NBPP) filter bank. GeV
gamma-ray pulsations from both were discovered using the Fermi Large Area
Telescope. Twelve years of radio and polarization data allow detailed
investigations. The two pulsars resemble each other both in radio and in
gamma-ray data. Both are rare in having a single gamma-ray pulse offset far
from the radio peak. The high dispersion measure for PSR J0248+6021 (DM = 370
pc cm^-3) is most likely due to its being within the dense, giant HII region W5
in the Perseus arm at a distance of 2 kpc, not beyond the edge of the Galaxy as
obtained from models of average electron distributions. Its high transverse
velocity and the low magnetic field along the line-of-sight favor this small
distance. Neither gamma-ray, X-ray, nor optical data yield evidence for a
pulsar wind nebula surrounding PSR J0248+6021. The gamma-ray luminosity for PSR
J0248+6021 is L_ gamma = (1.4 \pm 0.3)\times 10^34 erg/s. For PSR J2240+5832,
we find either L_gamma = (7.9 \pm 5.2) \times 10^34 erg/s if the pulsar is in
the Outer arm, or L_gamma = (2.2 \pm 1.7) \times 10^34 erg/s for the Perseus
arm. These luminosities are consistent with an L_gamma ~ sqrt(Edot) rule.
Comparison of the gamma-ray pulse profiles with model predictions, including
the constraints obtained from radio polarization data, favor emission in the
far magnetosphere. These two pulsars differ mainly in their inclination angles
and acceleration gap widths, which in turn explains the observed differences in
the gamma-ray peak widths.Comment: 13 pages, Accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysic
On leptonic models for blazars in the Fermi era
Some questions raised by Fermi-LAT data about blazars are summarized, along
with attempts at solutions within the context of leptonic models. These include
both spectral and statistical questions, including the origin of the GeV breaks
in low-synchrotron peaked blazars, the location of the gamma-ray emission
sites, the correlations in the spectral energy distributions with luminosity,
and the difficulty of synchrotron/SSC models to fit the spectra of some TeV
blazars.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, in "Beamed and Unbeamed Gamma Rays from Galaxies,"
Muonio, Finland, 11-15 April, 2011, ed. R. Wagner, L. Maraschi, A. Sillanpaa,
to appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Serie
Intravenous magnesium in subarachnoid hemorrhage
Contains fulltext :
97062.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access
Eight gamma-ray pulsars discovered in blind frequency searches of Fermi LAT data
We report the discovery of eight gamma-ray pulsars in blind frequency
searches using the LAT, onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Five of
the eight pulsars are young (tau_c10^36 erg/s), and
located within the Galactic plane (|b|<3 deg). The remaining three are older,
less energetic, and located off the plane. Five pulsars are associated with
sources included in the LAT bright gamma-ray source list, but only one, PSR
J1413-6205, is clearly associated with an EGRET source. PSR J1023-5746 has the
smallest characteristic age (tau_c=4.6 kyr) and is the most energetic
(Edot=1.1E37 erg/s) of all gamma-ray pulsars discovered so far in blind
searches. PSRs J1957+5033 and J2055+25 have the largest characteristic ages
(tau_c~1 Myr) and are the least energetic (Edot~5E33 erg/s) of the
newly-discovered pulsars. We present the timing models, light curves, and
detailed spectral parameters of the new pulsars. We used recent XMM
observations to identify the counterpart of PSR J2055+25 as XMMU
J205549.4+253959. In addition, publicly available archival Chandra X-ray data
allowed us to identify the likely counterpart of PSR J1023-5746 as a faint,
highly absorbed source, CXOU J102302.8-574606. The large X-ray absorption
indicates that this could be among the most distant gamma-ray pulsars detected
so far. PSR J1023-5746 is positionally coincident with the TeV source HESS
J1023-575, located near the young stellar cluster Westerlund 2, while PSR
J1954+2836 is coincident with a 4.3 sigma excess reported by Milagro at a
median energy of 35 TeV. Deep radio follow-up observations of the eight pulsars
resulted in no detections of pulsations and upper limits comparable to the
faintest known radio pulsars, indicating that these can be included among the
growing population of radio-quiet pulsars in our Galaxy being uncovered by the
LAT, and currently numbering more than 20.Comment: Submitted to Ap
Fundamental physics in space with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
Successfully launched in June 2008, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope,
formerly named GLAST, has been observing the high-energy gamma-ray sky with
unprecedented sensitivity for more than two years, opening a new window on a
wide variety of exotic astrophysical objects. This paper is a short overview of
the main science highlights, aimed at non-specialists, with emphasis on those
which are more directly connected with the study of fundamental
physics---particularly the search for signals of new physics in the diffuse
gamma-ray emission and in the cosmic radiation and the study of Gamma-Ray Burst
as laboratories for testing possible violations of the Lorentz invariance.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, submitted for the proceedings of DICE 201
Spectroscopy of Broad Line Blazars from 1LAC
We report on optical spectroscopy of 165 Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs)
in the Fermi 1LAC sample, which have helped allow a nearly complete study of
this population. Fermi FSRQ show significant evidence for non-thermal emission
even in the optical; the degree depends on the gamma-ray hardness. They also
have smaller virial estimates of hole mass than the optical quasar sample. This
appears to be largely due to a preferred (axial) view of the gamma-ray FSRQ and
non-isotropic (H/R ~ 0.4) distribution of broad-line velocities. Even after
correction for this bias, the Fermi FSRQ show higher mean Eddington ratios than
the optical population. A comparison of optical spectral properties with Owens
Valley Radio Observatory radio flare activity shows no strong correlation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Pulsed Gamma Rays from the Original Millisecond and Black Widow Pulsars: a case for Caustic Radio Emission?
We report the detection of pulsed gamma-ray emission from the fast
millisecond pulsars (MSPs) B1937+21 (also known as J1939+2134) and B1957+20
(J1959+2048) using 18 months of survey data recorded by the \emph{Fermi} Large
Area Telescope (LAT) and timing solutions based on radio observations conducted
at the Westerbork and Nan\c{c}ay radio telescopes. In addition, we analyzed
archival \emph{RXTE} and \emph{XMM-Newton} X-ray data for the two MSPs,
confirming the X-ray emission properties of PSR B1937+21 and finding evidence
() for pulsed emission from PSR B1957+20 for the first time. In
both cases the gamma-ray emission profile is characterized by two peaks
separated by half a rotation and are in close alignment with components
observed in radio and X-rays. These two pulsars join PSRs J0034-0534 and
J2214+3000 to form an emerging class of gamma-ray MSPs with phase-aligned peaks
in different energy bands. The modeling of the radio and gamma-ray emission
profiles suggests co-located emission regions in the outer magnetosphere.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Why Have Many of the Brightest Radio-loud Blazars Not Been Detected in Gamma-Rays by Fermi?
We use the complete MOJAVE 1.5 Jy sample of active galactic nuclei (AGN) to examine the gamma-ray detection statistics of the brightest radio-loud blazars in the northern sky. We find that 23% of these AGN were not detected above 0.1 GeV by the Fermi LAT during the 4-year 3FGL catalog period partly because of an instrumental selection effect, and partly due to their lower Doppler boosting factors. Blazars with synchrotron peaks in their spectral energy distributions located below 10^13.4 Hz also tend to have high-energy peaks that lie below the 0.1 GeV threshold of the LAT, and are thus less likely to be detected by Fermi. The non-detected AGN in the 1.5 Jy sample also have significantly lower 15 GHz radio modulation indices and apparent jet speeds, indicating that they have lower than average Doppler factors. Since the effective amount of relativistic Doppler boosting is enhanced in gamma-rays (particularly in the case of external inverse-Compton scattering), this makes them less likely to appear in the 3FGL catalog. Based on their observed properties, we have identified several bright radio-selected blazars that are strong candidates for future detection by Fermi
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