Konus-Wind and Helicon-Coronas-F Observations of Solar Flares

Results of solar flare observations obtained in the Konus-Wind experiment from November, 1994 to December, 2013 and in the Helicon Coronas-F experiment during its operation from 2001 to 2005, are presented. For the periods indicated Konus-Wind detected in the trigger mode 834 solar flares, and Helicon-Coronas-F detected more than 300 solar flares. A description of the instruments and data processing techniques are given. As an example, the analysis of the spectral evolution of the flares SOL2012-11-08T02:19 (M 1.7) and SOL2002-03-10T01:34 (C5.1) is made with the Konus-Wind data and the flare SOL2003-10-26T06:11 (X1.2) is analyzed in the 2.223 MeV deuterium line with the Helicon-Coronas-F data.Comment: Published version. A list of the Konus-Wind solar flare triggers and figures of their time profiles are available at http://www.ioffe.ru/LEA/Solar

Fast spectral variability of GRBs with known redshifts

The fast spectral variability of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with known redshifts is investigated using the Konus-Wind experiment data in time scale up to 2ms. Tracks of these GRBs in the luminosity-peak energy plane (Liso,EP ) in the rest-frame are obtained. The distribution of maximum values of an instantaneous luminosity in the GRB’s rest frame Liso is derived for such GRBs depending on the peak energy EP

The ultraluminous GRB 110918A

GRB 110918A is the brightest long GRB detected by Konus-WIND during its 19 years of continuous observations and the most luminous GRB ever observed since the beginning of the cosmological era in 1997. We report on the final IPN localization of this event and its detailed multiwavelength study with a number of space-based instruments. The prompt emission is characterized by a typical duration, a moderare $E_{peak}$ of the time-integrated spectrum, and strong hard-to-soft evolution. The high observed energy fluence yields, at z=0.984, a huge isotropic-equivalent energy release $E_{iso}=(2.1\pm0.1)\times10^{54}$ erg. The record-breaking energy flux observed at the peak of the short, bright, hard initial pulse results in an unprecedented isotropic-equivalent luminosity $L_{iso}=(4.7\pm0.2)\times10^{54}$erg s$^{-1}$. A tail of the soft gamma-ray emission was detected with temporal and spectral behavior typical of that predicted by the synchrotron forward-shock model. Swift/XRT and Swift/UVOT observed the bright afterglow from 1.2 to 48 days after the burst and revealed no evidence of a jet break. The post-break scenario for the afterglow is preferred from our analysis, with a hard underlying electron spectrum and ISM-like circumburst environment implied. We conclude that, among multiple reasons investigated, the tight collimation of the jet must have been a key ingredient to produce this unusually bright burst. The inferred jet opening angle of 1.7-3.4 deg results in reasonable values of the collimation-corrected radiated energy and the peak luminosity, which, however, are still at the top of their distributions for such tightly collimated events. We estimate a detection horizon for a similar ultraluminous GRB of $z\sim7.5$ for Konus-WIND, and $z\sim12$ for Swift/BAT, which stresses the importance of GRBs as probes of the early Universe.Comment: 22 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

A Search for Gravitationally Lensed Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Data of the Interplanetary Network and Konus-Wind

We examine a sample of 2301 gamma-ray bursts, detected by Konus-Wind in the triggered mode between 1994 and 2017 and localized by the interplanetary network (IPN), for evidence of gravitational lensing. We utilize all the available gamma-ray burst (GRB) data: time histories, localizations, and energy spectra. We employ common IPN techniques to find and quantify similarities in the light curves of 2,646,150 burst pairs, and for the pairs with significant similarities, we examine their IPN localizations to determine whether they are consistent with a common origin. For pairs that are consistent, we derive and compare energy spectra, and compute a figure of merit that allows us to compare and rank burst pairs. We conduct both a blind search, between all possible burst pairs, and a targeted search, between pairs in which one burst has both a spectroscopic redshift and an identification of an intervening system, as measured by one or more lower spectroscopic redshifts. We identify six pairs in the blind search that could be taken as evidence for lensing, but none are compelling enough to claim a detection with good confidence. No candidates were detected in the targeted search. For our GRB sample, we set an upper limit to the optical depth to lensing of 0.0033, which is comparable to that of optical sources. We conclude that proposed scenarios in which a large fraction of the GRB population is lensed are extremely unlikely.NASA's 2014 Astrophysics Data Analysis Program [NNX15AE60G]; RFBR [18-02-00062]; Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations "Exploration" [AAAA-A18-118012290370-6]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The second catalog of interplanetary network localizations of Konus short-duration gamma-ray bursts

We present the catalog of InterPlanetary Network (IPN) localizations for 199 short-duration gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) detected by the Konus-Wind (KW) experiment between 2011 January 1 and 2021 August 31, which extends the initial sample of IPN-localized KW sGRBs to 495 events. We present the most comprehensive IPN localization data on these events, including probability sky maps in Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelization format