575 research outputs found
Diffuse gamma-ray emission from galactic pulsars
Millisecond Pulsars are second most abundant source population discovered by
the Fermi-LAT. They might contribute non-negligibly to the diffuse emission
measured at high latitudes by Fermi-LAT, the IDGRB. Gamma-ray sources also
contribute to the anisotropy of the IDGRB measured on small scales by
Fermi-LAT. We aim to assess the contribution of the unresolved counterpart of
the detected MSPs population to the IDGRB and the maximal fraction of the
measured anisotropy produced by this source class. We model the MSPs spatial
distribution in the Galaxy and the gamma-ray emission parameters by considering
radio and gamma-ray observational constraints. By simulating a large number of
MSPs populations, we compute the average diffuse emission and the anisotropy
1-sigma upper limit. The emission from unresolved MSPs at 2 GeV, where the peak
of the spectrum is located, is at most 0.9% of the measured IDGRB above 10
degrees in latitude. The 1-sigma upper limit on the angular power for
unresolved MSP sources turns out to be about a factor of 60 smaller than
Fermi-LAT measurements above 30 degrees. Our results indicate that this
galactic source class represents a negligible contributor to the high-latitude
gamma-ray sky and confirm that most of the intensity and geometrical properties
of the measured diffuse emission are imputable to other extragalactic source
classes. Nevertheless, given the MSP distribution, we expect them to contribute
significantly to the gamma-ray diffuse emission at low latitudes. Since, along
the galactic disk, the population of young Pulsars overcomes in number the one
of MSPs, we compute the gamma-ray emission from the whole population of
unresolved Pulsars in two low-latitude regions: the inner Galaxy and the
galactic center.Comment: 19 pages, 26 figures. It matches the published version, minor changes
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Diffuse -ray emission from misaligned active galactic nuclei
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) with jets seen at small viewing angles are the
most luminous and abundant objects in the -ray sky. AGN with jets
misaligned along the line-of-sight appear fainter in the sky, but are more
numerous than the brighter blazars. We calculate the diffuse -ray
emission due to the population of misaligned AGN (MAGN) unresolved by the Large
Area Telescope (LAT) on the {\it Fermi} Gamma-ray Space Telescope ({\it
Fermi}). A correlation between the -ray luminosity and the radio-core
luminosity is established and demonstrated to be physical by statistical tests,
as well as compatible with upper limits based on {\it Fermi}-LAT data for a
large sample of radio-loud MAGN. We constrain the derived -ray
luminosity function by means of the source count distribution of the radio
galaxies (RGs) detected by the {\it Fermi}-LAT. We finally calculate the
diffuse -ray flux due to the whole MAGN population. Our results
demonstrate that the MAGN can contribute from 10% up to nearly the entire
measured Isotropic Gamma-Ray Background (IGRB). We evaluate a theoretical
uncertainty on the flux of almost an order of magnitude.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Quality of Life and psychopathology in adults who underwent Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) in childhood: a qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Background: Patients who undergo pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) may experience long-term psychological sequelae and poor Quality of Life (QoL) in adulthood. This study aimed to investigate subjective illness experience, QoL, and psychopathology in young adults who have survived pediatric HSCT.
Method: The study involved patients treated with HSCT in the Hematology-Oncology Department between 1984 and 2007. Psychopathology and QoL were investigated using the SCL-90-R and SF-36. Socio-demographic and medical information was also collected. Finally, participants were asked to write a brief composition about their experiences of illness and care. Qualitative analysis of the texts was performed using T-LAB, an instrument for text analysis that allows the user to highlight the occurrences and co-occurrences of lemma. Quantitative analyses were performed using non-parametric tests (Spearman correlations, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests).
Results: Twenty-one patients (9 males) participated in the study. No significant distress was found on the SCL-90 Global Severity Index, but it was found on specific scales. On the SF-36, lower scores were reported on scales referring to bodily pain, general health, and physical and social functioning. All the measures were significantly (p < 0.05) associated with specific socio-demographic and medical variables (gender, type of pathology, type of HSCT, time elapsed between communication of the need to transplant and effective transplantation, and days of hospitalization). With regard to the narrative analyses, males focused on expressions related to the body and medical therapies, while females focused on people they met during treatment, family members, and donors. Low general health and treatment with autologous HSCT were associated with memories about chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and the body parts involved, while high general health was associated with expressions focused on gratitude (V-Test \ub1 1.96).
Conclusion: Pediatric HSCT survivors are more likely to experience psychological distress and low QoL in adulthood compared with the general population. These aspects, along with survivors' subjective illness experience, show differences according to specific medical and socio-demographic variables. Studies are needed in order to improve the care and long-term follow-up of these families
Investigating the gamma-ray burst from decaying MeV-scale axion-like particles produced in supernova explosions
We investigate the characteristics of the gamma-ray signal following the
decay of MeV-scale Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) coupled to photons which are
produced in a Supernova (SN) explosion. This analysis is the first to include
the production of heavier ALPs through the photon coalescence process,
enlarging the mass range of ALPs that could be observed in this way and giving
a stronger bound from the observation of SN 1987A. Furthermore, we present a
new analytical method for calculating the predicted gamma-ray signal from ALP
decays. With this method we can rigorously prove the validity of an
approximation that has been used in some of the previous literature, which we
show here to be valid only if all gamma rays arrive under extremely small
observation angles (i.e. very close to the line of sight to the SN). However,
it also shows where the approximation is not valid, and offers an efficient
alternative to calculate the ALP-induced gamma-ray flux in a general setting
when the observation angles are not guaranteed to be small. We also estimate
the sensitivity of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) to this gamma-ray
signal from a future nearby SN and show that in the case of a non-observation
the current bounds on the ALP-photon coupling are strengthened
by about an order of magnitude. In the case of an observation, we show that it
may be possible to reconstruct the product , with
the mass of the ALP.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure
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