564 research outputs found
Extended GeV-TeV Emission around Gamma-Ray Burst Remnants, and the Case of W49B
We investigate the high-energy photon emission around Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB)
remnants caused by ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) from the GRBs. We
apply the results to the recent report that the supernova remnant W49B is a GRB
remnant in our Galaxy. If this is correct, and if GRBs are sources of UHECRs, a
natural consequence of this identification would be a detectable TeV photon
emission around the GRB remnant. The imaging of the surrounding emission could
provide new constraints on the jet structure of the GRB.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Radio Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Hypernovae at High Redshift, and their Potential for 21-cm Absorption Studies
We investigate the radio afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and hypernovae
(HNe) at high redshifts and quantify their detectability, as well as their
potential usefulness for 21 cm absorption line studies of the intergalactic
medium (IGM) and intervening structures. We examine several sets of source and
environment model parameters that are physically plausible at high redshifts.
The radio afterglows of GRBs would be detectable out to z ~ 30, while the
energetic HNe could be detectable out to z ~ 20 even by the current Very Large
Array (VLA). We find that the 21 cm absorption line due to the diffuse neutral
IGM is difficult to detect even by the proposed Square Kilometer Array (SKA),
except for highly energetic sources. We also find that the 21 cm line due to
collapsed gas clouds with high optical depth may be detected on rare occasions.Comment: 36 pages, 12 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Ap
Shallow Decay of Early X-ray Afterglows from Inhomogeneous Gamma-Ray Burst Jets
Almost all the X-ray afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by the
Swift satellite have a shallow decay phase in the first thousands of seconds.
We show that in an inhomogeneous jet (multiple-subjet or patchy-shell) model
the superposition of the afterglows of off-axis subjets (patchy shells) can
have the shallow decay phase. The necessary condition for obtaining the shallow
decay phase is that gamma-ray bright subjets (patchy shells) should have
gamma-ray efficiency higher than previously estimated, and should be surrounded
by gamma-ray dim subjets (patchy shells) with low gamma-ray efficiency. Our
model predicts that events with dim prompt emission have the conventional
afterglow light curve without the shallow decay phase like GRB 050416A.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Risk factors for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: a possible role of hepatitis B virus
There are several established risk factors for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), namely primary sclerosing cholangitis, fibropolycystic liver disease, parasitic infection, intrahepatic biliary stones and chemical carcinogen exposure. However, the majority of patients with ICC do not have any of these risk factors. Therefore, identification of other risk factors is warranted for the prevention and early detection of ICC. We evaluated the risk factors for ICC in a large-scale cohort study in the province of Osaka, Japan. This retrospective cohort study included 154,814 apparently healthy individual blood donors, aged 40â64 years at the time of blood donation in the period 1991â1993. The average observation period was 7.6 years, resulting in 1.25 million person-years of observation. Incident ICC cases were identified by linking the blood-donor database to the records in the population-based cancer registry for the province. There were 11 incident ICC cases during follow-up, with an incidence rate of 0.88 per 100 000 person-years. Compared with subjects aged 40â49 years, the subjects aged 50â54 years and 55â59 years had a significantly higher risk for ICC (hazard ratio [HR] = 5.90; 95%CI:1.08â32.31 and 11.07; 95%CI:1.98â61.79, respectively). Compared with those with ALT level of 19 Karmen Units (KU) or less, subjects with ALT level of 40 KU or higher had a significantly higher risk for ICC (HR: 8.30; 95%CI:1.47â46.83). Compared with those who tested negative for both HBsAg and anti-HCV, those who tested HBsAg-positive had a significantly higher risk for ICC (HR: 8.56; 95%CI: 1.33â55.20). Our results suggest that HBV infection and liver inflammation are independently associated with ICC development. These findings need to be verified by further large cohort studies
Signatures of synchrotron emission and of electron acceleration in the X-ray spectra of Mrk 421
BL Lac objects undergo strong flux variations involving considerable changes
in their spectral shapes. We specifically investigate the X-ray spectral
evolution of Mrk 421 over a time span of about nine years. We aim at
statistically describing and physically understanding the large spectral
changes in X rays observed in Mrk 421 over this time span. We perform a
homogeneous spectral analysis of a wide data set including archived
observations with ASCA, BeppoSax, RXTE, as well as published and unpublished
XMM-Newton data. The presence of uncertainties is taken into account in our
correlation analysis. The significance of the correlations found and possible
spurious effects are studied with Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the
Mrk421 spectral energy distribution (SED) has a lower peak at energies that
vary in the range, 0.1-10 keV while its X-ray spectrum is definitely curved.
Parameterizing the X-ray spectra with a log-parabolic model, we find a positive
correlation between the position and the height of the SED peak. In addition,
we find a negative trend of the spectral curvature parameter vs. the SED peak
energy. We show that these relations between the spectral parameters are
consistent with statistical or stochastic acceleration of the emitting
particles, and provide insight into the physical processes occurring in BL Lac
nuclei.Comment: 11 pages, 5 fiures, Accepted for publication in A&
Gravitational radiation from the magnetic field of a strongly magnetized star
We consider the electromagnetic (e.m.) field of a compact strongly magnetized star. The star is idealized as a perfect conducting sphere, rigidly rotating in a vacuum, with a magnetic moment not aligned with its rotation axis. Then we use the exterior e.m. solution, obtained by Deutsch (1955) in his classic paper, to calculate the gravitational waves emitted by the e.m. field when its wavelength is much longer than the radius of the star. In some astrophysical situations, this gravitational radiation can overcome the quadrupole one emitted by the matter of the star, and, for some magnetars, would be detectable in the near future, once the present detectors, planned or under construction, become operative.Lapiedra Civera, Ramon, [email protected]
Observations of GRB 060526 Optical Afterglow with Russian-Turkish 1.5-m Telescope
We present the results of the photometric multicolor observations of GRB
060526 optical afterglow obtained with Russian-Turkish 1.5-m Telescope (RTT150,
Mt. Bakirlitepe, Turkey). The detailed measurements of afterglow light curve,
starting from about 5 hours after the GRB and during 5 consecutive nights were
done. In addition, upper limits on the fast variability of the afterglow during
the first night of observations were obtained and the history of afterglow
color variations was measured in detail. In the time interval from 6 to 16
hours after the burst, there is a gradual flux decay, which can be described
approximately as a power law with an index of -1.14+-0.02. After that the
variability on the time scale \delta t < t is observed and the afterglow
started to decay faster. The color of the afterglow, V-R=~0.5, is approximately
the same during all our observations. The variability is detected on time
scales up to \delta t/t =~ 0.0055 at \Delta F_\nu/F_\nu =~ 0.3, which violates
some constraints on the variability of the observed emission from
ultrarelativistic jet obtained by Ioka et al. (2005). We suggest to explain
this variability by the fact that the motion of the emitting shell is no longer
ultrarelativistic at this time.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, Astronomy Letters, 2007, 33, 797, The on-line
data tables and the original text in Russian can be found at
http://hea.iki.rssi.ru/grb/060526/indexeng.htm
Relativistic models of magnetars: the twisted-torus magnetic field configuration
We find general relativistic solutions of equilibrium magnetic field
configurations in magnetars, extending previous results of Colaiuda et al.
(2008). Our method is based on the solution of the relativistic Grad-Shafranov
equation, to which Maxwell's equations can be reduced in some limit. We obtain
equilibrium solutions with the toroidal magnetic field component confined into
a finite region inside the star, and the poloidal component extending to the
exterior. These so-called twisted-torus configurations have been found to be
the final outcome of dynamical simulations in the framework of Newtonian
gravity, and appear to be more stable than other configurations. The solutions
include higher order multipoles, which are coupled to the dominant dipolar
field. We use arguments of minimal energy to constrain the ratio of the
toroidal to the poloidal field.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures. Minor changes to match the version published on
MNRA
Gravitational waves from inspiralling compact binaries with magnetic dipole moments
We investigate the effects of the magnetic dipole-dipole coupling and the
electromagnetic radiation on the frequency evolution of gravitational waves
from inspiralling binary neutron stars with magnetic dipole moments. This study
is motivated by the discovery of the superstrongly magnetized neutron stars,
i.e., magnetar. We derive the contributions of the magnetic fields to the
accumulated cycles in gravitational waves as , where denotes the strength of the polar magnetic
fields of each neutron star in the binary system. It is found that the effects
of the magnetic fields will be negligible for the detection and the parameter
estimation of gravitational waves, if the upper limit for magnetic fields of
neutron stars are less than G, which is the maximum magnetic
field observed in the soft gamma repeaters and the anomalous X-ray pulsars up
to date. We also discuss the implications of electromagnetic radiation from the
inspiralling binary neutron stars for the precursory X-ray emission prior to
the gamma ray burst observed by the Ginga satellite.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Influence of general convective motions on the exterior of isolated rotating bodies in equilibrium
The problem of describing isolated rotating bodies in equilibrium in General
Relativity has so far been treated under the assumption of the circularity
condition in the interior of the body. For a fluid without energy flux, this
condition implies that the fluid flow moves only along the angular direction,
i.e. there is no convection. Using this simplification, some recent studies
have provided us with uniqueness and existence results for asymptotically flat
vacuum exterior fields given the interior sources. Here, the generalisation of
the problem to include general sources is studied. It is proven that the
convective motions have no direct influence on the exterior field, and hence,
that the aforementioned results on uniqueness and existence of exterior fields
apply equally in the general case.Comment: 8 pages, LaTex, uses iopart style files. To appear in Class. Quatum
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