The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor: Results from the first two years

In the first two years since the launch of the Fermi Observatory, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) has detected over 500 Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), of which 18 were confidently detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) above 100 MeV. Besides GRBs, GBM has triggered on other transient sources, such as Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs), Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) and solar flares. Here we present the science highlights of the GBM observations.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Science with the New Generation of High Energy Gamma-ray Experiments (SciNeGHE 2010), Nuovo Cimento C, in pres

A bound on Planck-scale modifications of the energy-momentum composition rule from atomic interferometry

High sensitivity measurements in atomic spectroscopy were recently used in Amelino-Camelia et. al. to constraint the form of possible modifications of the energy-momentum dispersion relation resulting from Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). In this letter we show that the same data can be used successfully to set experimental bounds on deformations of the energy-momentum composition rule. Such modifications are natural in models of deformed Lorentz symmetry which are relevant in certain quantum gravity scenarios. We find the bound for the deformation parameter $\kappa$ to be a few orders of magnitude below the Planck scale and of the same magnitude as the next-to-leading order effect found in Amelino-Camelia et. al. We briefly discuss how it would be possible to distinguish between these two scenarios.Comment: 5 pages, some comments and references adde

Electromagnetic extraction of energy from black hole-neutron star binaries

The coalescence of black hole-neutron star binaries is expected to be a principal source of gravitational waves for the next generation of detectors, Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. Ideally, these and other gravitational wave sources would have a distinct electromagnetic counterpart, as significantly more information could be gained through two separate channels. In addition, since these detectors will probe distances with non-negligible redshift, a coincident observation of an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave signal would facilitate a novel measurement of dark energy [1]. For black hole masses not much larger than the neutron star mass, the tidal disruption and subsequent accretion of the neutron star by the black hole provides one avenue for generating an electromagnetic counterpart [2]. However, in this work, we demonstrate that, for all black hole-neutron star binaries observable by Advanced LIGO/Virgo, the interaction of the black hole with the magnetic field of the neutron star will drive a Poynting flux. This Poynting flux generates synchrotron/curvature radiation as the electron-positron plasma in the neutron star magnetosphere is accel- erated, and thermal radiation as the plasma is focused onto the neutron star magnetic poles, creating a "hot spot" on the neutron star surface. This novel effect will gener- ate copious luminosity, comparable to supernovae and active galactic nuclei, so that black hole-neutron star coalescences detectable with gravitational waves by Advanced LIGO/Virgo could also potentially be detectable electromagnetically.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Natur

Neutrino Decays over Cosmological Distances and the Implications for Neutrino Telescopes

We discuss decays of ultra-relativistic neutrinos over cosmological distances by solving the decay equation in terms of its redshift dependence. We demonstrate that there are significant conceptual differences compared to more simplified treatments of neutrino decay. For instance, the maximum distance the neutrinos have traveled is limited by the Hubble length, which means that the common belief that longer neutrino lifetimes can be probed by longer distances does not apply. As a consequence, the neutrino lifetime limit from supernova 1987A cannot be exceeded by high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. We discuss the implications for neutrino spectra and flavor ratios from gamma-ray bursts as one example of extragalactic sources, using up-to-date neutrino flux predictions. If the observation of SN 1987A implies that \nu_1 is stable and the other mass eigenstates decay with rates much smaller than their current bounds, the muon track rate can be substantially suppressed compared to the cascade rate in the region IceCube is most sensitive to. In this scenario, no gamma-ray burst neutrinos may be found using muon tracks even with the full scale experiment, whereas reliable information on high-energy astrophysical sources can only be obtained from cascade measurements. As another consequence, the recently observed two cascade event candidates at PeV energies will not be accompanied by corresponding muon tracks.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Matches published versio

The upstream magnetic field of collisionless GRB shocks: constraint by Fermi-LAT observations

Long-lived >100 MeV emission has been a common feature of most Fermi-LAT detected gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), e.g., detected up to ~10^3s in long GRBs 080916C and 090902B and ~10^2s in short GRB 090510. This emission is consistent with being produced by synchrotron emission of electrons accelerated to high energy by the relativistic collisionless shock propagating into the weakly magnetized medium. Here we show that this high-energy afterglow emission constrains the preshock magnetic field to satisfy 1(n/1cc)^{9/8} mG<B<10^2(n/1cc)^{3/8}mG, where n is the preshock density, more stringent than the previous constraint by X-ray afterglow observations on day scale. This suggests that the preshock magnetic field is strongly amplified, most likely by the streaming of high energy shock accelerated particles.Comment: 9 pages, JCAP accepte

Stringy Space-Time Foam and High-Energy Cosmic Photons

In this review, I discuss briefly stringent tests of Lorentz-violating quantum space-time foam models inspired from String/Brane theories, provided by studies of high energy Photons from intense celestial sources, such as Active Galactic Nuclei or Gamma Ray Bursts. The theoretical models predict modifications to the radiation dispersion relations, which are quadratically suppressed by the string mass scale, and time delays in the arrival times of photons (assumed to be emitted more or less simultaneously from the source), which are proportional to the photon energy, so that the more energetic photons arrive later. Although the astrophysics at the source of these energetic photons is still not understood, and such non simultaneous arrivals, that have been observed recently, might well be due to non simultaneous emission as a result of conventional physics effects, nevertheless, rather surprisingly, the observed time delays can also fit excellently the stringy space-time foam scenarios, provided the space-time defect foam is inhomogeneous. The key features of the model, that allow it to evade a plethora of astrophysical constraints on Lorentz violation, in sharp contrast to other field-theoretic Lorentz-violating models of quantum gravity, are: (i) transparency of the foam to electrons and in general charged matter, (ii) absence of birefringence effects and (iii) a breakdown of the local effective lagrangian formalism.Comment: 26 pages Latex, 4 figures, uses special macros. Keynote Lecture in the International Conference "Recent Developments in Gravity" (NEB14), Ioannina (Greece) June 8-11 201

Kappa-deformation of phase space; generalized Poincare algebras and R-matrix

We deform Heisenberg algebra and corresponding coalgebra by twist. We present undeformed and deformed tensor identities. Coalgebras for the generalized Poincar\'{e} algebras have been constructed. The exact universal $R$-matrix for the deformed Heisenberg (co)algebra is found. We show, up to the third order in the deformation parameter, that in the case of $\kappa$-Poincar\'{e} Hopf algebra this $R$-matrix can be expressed in terms of Poincar\'{e} generators only. This implies that the states of any number of identical particles can be defined in a $\kappa$-covariant way.Comment: 10 pages, revtex4; discussion enlarged, references adde

Supplement: "Localization and broadband follow-up of the gravitational-wave transient GW150914" (2016, ApJL, 826, L13)

This Supplement provides supporting material for Abbott et al. (2016a). We briefly summarize past electromagnetic (EM) follow-up efforts as well as the organization and policy of the current EM follow-up program. We compare the four probability sky maps produced for the gravitational-wave transient GW150914, and provide additional details of the EM follow-up observations that were performed in the different bands

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta