37 research outputs found
Gamma-rays from millisecond pulsars in Globular Clusters
Globular clusters (GCs) with their ages of the order of several billion years
contain many final products of evolution of stars such as: neutron stars, white
dwarfs and probably also black holes. These compact objects can be at present
responsible for the acceleration of particles to relativistic energies.
Therefore, gamma-ray emission is expected from GCs as a result of radiation
processes occurring either in the inner magnetosperes of millisecond pulsars or
in the vicinity of accreting neutron stars and white dwarfs or as a result of
interaction of particles leaving the compact objects with the strong radiation
field within the GC. Recently, GeV gamma-ray emission has been detected from
several GCs by the new satellite observatory Fermi. Also Cherenkov telescopes
reported interesting upper limits at the TeV energies which start to constrain
the content of GCs. We review the results of these gamma-ray observations in
the context of recent scenarios for their origin.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, will be published in Astrophysics and Space
Science Series (Springer), eds. N. Rea and D.F. Torre
On the true nature of renormalizability in Horava-Lifshitz gravity
We argue that the true nature of the renormalizability of Horava-Lifshitz
gravity lies in the presence of higher order spatial derivatives and not in the
anisotropic Lifshitz scaling of space and time. We discuss the possibility of
constructing a higher order spatial derivatives model that has the same
renormalization properties of Horava-Lifshitz gravity but that does not make
use of the Lifshitz scaling. In addition, the state-of-the-art of the Lorentz
symmetry restoration in Horava-Lifshitz-type theories of gravitation is
reviewed.Comment: Latex file in Revtex style, 5 pages, no figures. v2: references
added, version accepted for publication in Foundations of Physic
Creation of the CMB spectrum: precise analytic solutions for the blackbody photosphere
The blackbody spectrum of CMB was created in the blackbody photosphere at
redshifts z>2x10^6. At these early times, the Universe was dense and hot enough
that complete thermal equilibrium between baryonic matter (electrons and ions)
and photons could be established. Any perturbation away from the blackbody
spectrum was suppressed exponentially. New physics, for example annihilation
and decay of dark matter, can add energy and photons to CMB at redshifts z>10^5
and result in a Bose-Einstein spectrum with a non-zero chemical potential
(). Precise evolution of the CMB spectrum around the critical redshift of
z~2x10^6 is required in order to calculate the -type spectral distortion
and constrain the underlying new physics. Although numerical calculation of
important processes involved (double Compton process, comptonization and
bremsstrahlung) is not difficult, analytic solutions are much faster and easier
to calculate and provide valuable physical insights. We provide precise (better
than 1%) analytic solutions for the decay of , created at an earlier
epoch, including all three processes, double Compton, Compton scattering on
thermal electrons and bremsstrahlung in the limit of small distortions. This is
a significant improvement over the existing solutions with accuracy ~10% or
worse. We also give a census of important sources of energy injection into CMB
in standard cosmology. In particular, calculations of distortions from
electron-positron annihilation and primordial nucleosynthesis illustrate in a
dramatic way the strength of the equilibrium restoring processes in the early
Universe. Finally, we point out the triple degeneracy in standard cosmology,
i.e., the and distortions from adiabatic cooling of baryons and
electrons, Silk damping and annihilation of thermally produced WIMP dark matter
are of similar order of magnitude (~ 10^{-8}-10^{-10})
Understanding hadronic gamma-ray emission from supernova remnants
We aim to test the plausibility of a theoretical framework in which the
gamma-ray emission detected from supernova remnants may be of hadronic origin,
i.e., due to the decay of neutral pions produced in nuclear collisions
involving relativistic nuclei. In particular, we investigate the effects
induced by magnetic field amplification on the expected particle spectra,
outlining a phenomenological scenario consistent with both the underlying
Physics and the larger and larger amount of observational data provided by the
present generation of gamma experiments, which seem to indicate rather steep
spectra for the accelerated particles. In addition, in order to study to study
how pre-supernova winds might affect the expected emission in this class of
sources, the time-dependent gamma-ray luminosity of a remnant with a massive
progenitor is worked out. Solid points and limitations of the proposed scenario
are finally discussed in a critical way.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures; Several comments, references and a figure added.
Some typos correcte
Direct and Indirect Detection of Dark Matter in D6 Flavor Symmetric Model
We study a fermionic dark matter in a non-supersymmetric extension of the
standard model with a family symmetry based on D6xZ2xZ2. In our model, the
final state of the dark matter annihilation is determined to be e+ e- by the
flavor symmetry, which is consistent with the PAMELA result. At first, we show
that our dark matter mass should be within the range of 230 GeV - 750 GeV in
the WMAP analysis combined with mu to e gamma constraint. Moreover we
simultaneously explain the experiments of direct and indirect detection, by
simply adding a gauge and D6 singlet real scalar field. In the direct detection
experiments, we show that the lighter dark matter mass ~ 230 GeV and the
lighter standard model Higgs boson ~ 115 GeV is in favor of the observed bounds
reported by CDMS II and XENON100. In the indirect detection experiments, we
explain the positron excess reported by PAMELA through the Breit-Wigner
enhancement mechanism. We also show that our model is consistent with no
antiproton excess suggested by PAMELA.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted version for publication in
European Physical Journal
Magnetic fields in supernova remnants and pulsar-wind nebulae
We review the observations of supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsar-wind
nebulae (PWNe) that give information on the strength and orientation of
magnetic fields. Radio polarimetry gives the degree of order of magnetic
fields, and the orientation of the ordered component. Many young shell
supernova remnants show evidence for synchrotron X-ray emission. The spatial
analysis of this emission suggests that magnetic fields are amplified by one to
two orders of magnitude in strong shocks. Detection of several remnants in TeV
gamma rays implies a lower limit on the magnetic-field strength (or a
measurement, if the emission process is inverse-Compton upscattering of cosmic
microwave background photons). Upper limits to GeV emission similarly provide
lower limits on magnetic-field strengths. In the historical shell remnants,
lower limits on B range from 25 to 1000 microGauss. Two remnants show
variability of synchrotron X-ray emission with a timescale of years. If this
timescale is the electron-acceleration or radiative loss timescale, magnetic
fields of order 1 mG are also implied. In pulsar-wind nebulae, equipartition
arguments and dynamical modeling can be used to infer magnetic-field strengths
anywhere from about 5 microGauss to 1 mG. Polarized fractions are considerably
higher than in SNRs, ranging to 50 or 60% in some cases; magnetic-field
geometries often suggest a toroidal structure around the pulsar, but this is
not universal. Viewing-angle effects undoubtedly play a role. MHD models of
radio emission in shell SNRs show that different orientations of upstream
magnetic field, and different assumptions about electron acceleration, predict
different radio morphology. In the remnant of SN 1006, such comparisons imply a
magnetic-field orientation connecting the bright limbs, with a non-negligible
gradient of its strength across the remnant.Comment: 20 pages, 24 figures; to be published in SpSciRev. Minor wording
change in Abstrac
Impact of precipitation and temperature changes on hydrological responses of small-scale catchments in the Ethiopian Highlands
Constraints on Dark Matter Annihilation in Clusters of Galaxies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
Nearby clusters and groups of galaxies are potentially bright sources of
high-energy gamma-ray emission resulting from the pair-annihilation of dark
matter particles. However, no significant gamma-ray emission has been detected
so far from clusters in the first 11 months of observations with the Fermi
Large Area Telescope. We interpret this non-detection in terms of constraints
on dark matter particle properties. In particular for leptonic annihilation
final states and particle masses greater than ~200 GeV, gamma-ray emission from
inverse Compton scattering of CMB photons is expected to dominate the dark
matter annihilation signal from clusters, and our gamma-ray limits exclude
large regions of the parameter space that would give a good fit to the recent
anomalous Pamela and Fermi-LAT electron-positron measurements. We also present
constraints on the annihilation of more standard dark matter candidates, such
as the lightest neutralino of supersymmetric models. The constraints are
particularly strong when including the fact that clusters are known to contain
substructure at least on galaxy scales, increasing the expected gamma-ray flux
by a factor of ~5 over a smooth-halo assumption. We also explore the effect of
uncertainties in cluster dark matter density profiles, finding a systematic
uncertainty in the constraints of roughly a factor of two, but similar overall
conclusions. In this work, we focus on deriving limits on dark matter models; a
more general consideration of the Fermi-LAT data on clusters and clusters as
gamma-ray sources is forthcoming.Comment: accepted to JCAP, Corresponding authors: T.E. Jeltema and S. Profumo,
minor revisions to be consistent with accepted versio
Milagro limits and HAWC sensitivity for the rate-density of evaporating Primordial Black Holes
postprin
The On-orbit Calibrations for the Fermi Large Area Telescope
The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on--board the Fermi Gamma ray Space Telescope
began its on--orbit operations on June 23, 2008. Calibrations, defined in a
generic sense, correspond to synchronization of trigger signals, optimization
of delays for latching data, determination of detector thresholds, gains and
responses, evaluation of the perimeter of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA),
measurements of live time, of absolute time, and internal and spacecraft
boresight alignments. Here we describe on orbit calibration results obtained
using known astrophysical sources, galactic cosmic rays, and charge injection
into the front-end electronics of each detector. Instrument response functions
will be described in a separate publication. This paper demonstrates the
stability of calibrations and describes minor changes observed since launch.
These results have been used to calibrate the LAT datasets to be publicly
released in August 2009.Comment: 60 pages, 34 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic