2,148 research outputs found
Dust sublimation by GRBs and its implications
The prompt optical flash recently detected accompanying GRB990123 suggests
that, for at least some GRBs, gamma-ray emission is accompanied by prompt
optical-UV emission with luminosity L(1-7.5eV)=10^{49}(\Delta\Omega/4\pi)erg/s,
where \Delta\Omega is the solid angle into which gamma-ray and optical-UV
emission is beamed. Such an optical-UV flash can destroy dust in the beam by
sublimation out to an appreciable distance, approximately 10 pc, and may clear
the dust out of as much as 10^7(\Delta\Omega/4\pi)M_sun of molecular cloud
material on an apparent time scale of 10 seconds. Detection of time dependent
extinction on this time scale would therefore provide strong constraints on the
GRB source environment. Dust destruction implies that existing, or future,
observations of not-heavily-reddened fireballs are not inconsistent with GRBs
being associated with star forming regions. In this case, however, if gamma-ray
emission is highly beamed, the expanding fireball would become reddened on a 1
week time scale.
If the optical depth due to dust beyond approximately 8 pc from the GRB is
0.2<\tau_V<2, most of the UV flash energy is converted to infra-red, \lambda
\sim 1 micron, radiation with luminosity \sim 10^{41} erg/s extending over an
apparent duration of \sim 20(1+z)(\Delta\Omega/0.01) day. Dust infra-red
emission may already have been observed in GRB970228 and GRB980326, and may
possibly explain their unusual late time behavior.Comment: 16 pages, including 1 figure, submitted to Ap
TeV Neutrinos from Successful and Choked Gamma-Ray Bursts
Core collapse of massive stars resulting in a relativistic fireball jet which
breaks through the stellar envelope is a widely discussed scenario for
gamma-ray burst production. For very extended or slow rotating stars, the
fireball may be unable to break through the envelope. Both penetrating and
choked jets will produce, by photo-meson interactions of accelerated protons, a
burst of neutrinos with energies in excess of 5 TeV while propagating in the
envelope. The predicted flux, from both penetrating and chocked fireballs,
should be easily detectable by planned cubic kilometer neutrino telescopes.Comment: Phys.Rev.Letters, in press, final version accepted 8/31/01 (orig.
3/17/01
GeV Photons from Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays accelerated in Gamma Ray Bursts
Gamma-ray bursts are produced by the dissipation of the kinetic energy of a
highly relativistic fireball, via the formation of a collisionless shock. When
this happens, Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays up to 10^20 eV are produced. I show
in this paper that these particles produce, via synchrotron emission as they
cross the acceleration region, photons up to 300 GeV which carry away a small,
~0.01, but non-negligible fraction of the total burst energy. I show that, when
the shock occurs with the interstellar medium, the optical depth to
photon-photon scattering, which might cause energy degradation of the photons,
is small. The burst thusly produced would be detected at Earth simultaneoulsy
with the parent gamma-ray burst, although its duration may differ significantly
from that of the lower energy photons. The expected fluences, ~10^{-5}-10^{-6}
erg/cm^2 are well within the range of planned detectors. A new explanation for
the exceptional burst GRB 940217 is discussed.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Physical Review Letters. 4 pages,
RevTeX needed, no figure
High Energy Neutrinos from Cosmological Gamma-Ray Burst Fireballs
Observations suggest that -ray bursts (GRBs) are produced by the
dissipation of the kinetic energy of a relativistic fireball. We show that a
large fraction, , of the fireball energy is expected to be converted
by photo-meson production to a burst of neutrinos. A km^2
neutrino detector would observe at least several tens of events per year
correlated with GRBs, and test for neutrino properties (e.g. flavor
oscillations, for which upward moving 's would be a unique signature, and
coupling to gravity) with an accuracy many orders of magnitude better than is
currently possible.Comment: Submitted to PRL (4 pages, LaTeX
High Energy Neutrinos from Astrophysical Sources: An Upper Bound
We show that cosmic-ray observations set a model-independent upper bound to
the flux of high-energy, > 10^14 eV, neutrinos produced by photo-meson (or p-p)
interactions in sources of size not much larger than the proton photo-meson (or
pp) mean-free-path. The bound applies, in particular, to neutrino production by
either AGN jets or GRBs. This upper limit is two orders of magnitude below the
flux predicted in some popular AGN jet models, but is consistent with our
predictions from GRB models. We discuss the implications of these results for
future km^2 high-energy neutrino detectors.Comment: Added discussion showing bound cannot be evaded by invoking magnetic
fields. Accepted Phys Rev
Ultra high energy neutrinos from gamma ray bursts
Protons accelerated to high energies in the relativistic shocks that generate
gamma ray bursts photoproduce pions, and then neutrinos in situ. I show that
ultra high energy neutrinos (> 10^19 eV) are produced during the burst and the
afterglow. A larger flux, also from bursts, is generated via photoproduction
off CMBR photons in flight but is not correlated with currently observable
bursts, appearing as a bright background. Adiabatic/synchrotron losses from
protons/pions/muons are negligible. Temporal and directional coincidences with
bursts detected by satellites can separate correlated neutrinos from the
background.Comment: Adiabatic/synchrotron losses from protons/pions/muons shown to be
negligible. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Letters. RevTe
Neutrino afterglow from Gamma-Ray Bursts: ~10^{18} eV
We show that a significant fraction of the energy of a gamma-ray burst(GRB)
is probably converted to a burst of 10^{17}-10^{19} eV neutrinos and multiple
GeV gammas that follow the GRB by > 10 s . If, as previously suggested, GRB's
accelerate protons to ~10^{20} eV, then both the neutrinos and the gammas may
be detectable.Comment: Accepted ApJ; added sentence re: sterile neutrinos; related material
at http://www.sns.ias.edu/~jn
Constraints on the Local Sources of Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Rays
Ultra high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are believed to be protons accelerated
in magnetized plasma outflows of extra-Galactic sources. The acceleration of
protons to ~10^{20} eV requires a source power L>10^{47} erg/s. The absence of
steady sources of sufficient power within the GZK horizon of 100 Mpc, implies
that UHECR sources are transient. We show that UHECR "flares" should be
accompanied by strong X-ray and gamma-ray emission, and that X-ray and
gamma-ray surveys constrain flares which last less than a decade to satisfy at
least one of the following conditions: (i) L>10^{50} erg/s; (ii) the power
carried by accelerated electrons is lower by a factor >10^2 than the power
carried by magnetic fields or by >10^3 than the power in accelerated protons;
or (iii) the sources exist only at low redshifts, z<<1. The implausibility of
requirements (ii) and (iii) argue in favor of transient sources with L>10^{50}
erg/s.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to JCA
Gamma-Ray Bursts: The Underlying Model
A pedagogical derivation is presented of the ``fireball'' model of gamma-ray
bursts, according to which the observable effects are due to the dissipation of
the kinetic energy of a relativistically expanding wind, a ``fireball.'' The
main open questions are emphasized, and key afterglow observations, that
provide support for this model, are briefly discussed. The relativistic outflow
is, most likely, driven by the accretion of a fraction of a solar mass onto a
newly born (few) solar mass black hole. The observed radiation is produced once
the plasma has expanded to a scale much larger than that of the underlying
``engine,'' and is therefore largely independent of the details of the
progenitor, whose gravitational collapse leads to fireball formation. Several
progenitor scenarios, and the prospects for discrimination among them using
future observations, are discussed. The production in gamma- ray burst
fireballs of high energy protons and neutrinos, and the implications of burst
neutrino detection by kilometer-scale telescopes under construction, are
briefly discussed.Comment: In "Supernovae and Gamma Ray Bursters", ed. K. W. Weiler, Lecture
Notes in Physics, Springer-Verlag (in press); 26 pages, 2 figure
A Search for Correlation of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with IRAS-PSCz and 2MASS-6dF Galaxies
We study the arrival directions of 69 ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs)
observed at the Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) with energies exceeding 55 EeV.
We investigate whether the UHECRs exhibit the anisotropy signal expected if the
primary particles are protons that originate in galaxies in the local universe,
or in sources correlated with these galaxies. We cross-correlate the UHECR
arrival directions with the positions of IRAS-PSCz and 2MASS-6dF galaxies
taking into account particle energy losses during propagation. This is the
first time that the 6dF survey is used in a search for the sources of UHECRs
and the first time that the PSCz survey is used with the full 69 PAO events.
The observed cross-correlation signal is larger for the PAO UHECRs than for 94%
(98%) of realisations from an isotropic distribution when cross-correlated with
the PSCz (6dF). On the other hand the observed cross-correlation signal is
lower than that expected from 85% of realisations, had the UHECRs originated in
galaxies in either survey. The observed cross-correlation signal does exceed
that expected by 50% of the realisations if the UHECRs are randomly deflected
by intervening magnetic fields by 5 degrees or more. We propose a new method of
analysing the expected anisotropy signal, by dividing the predicted UHECR
source distribution into equal predicted flux radial shells, which can help
localise and constrain the properties of UHECR sources. We find that the 69 PAO
events are consistent with isotropy in the nearest of three shells we define,
whereas there is weak evidence for correlation with the predicted source
distribution in the two more distant shells in which the galaxy distribution is
less anisotropic.Comment: 23 pages, version published in JCA
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