4,058 research outputs found
Gamma Ray Bursts as cosmological tools
The use of Gamma Ray Bursts as ``standard candles'' has been made possible by
the recent discovery of a very tight correlation between their rest frame
intrinsic properties. This correlation relates the GRB prompt emission peak
spectral energy E_peak to the energy E_gamma corrected for the collimation
angle theta_jet of these sources. The possibility to use GRBs to constrain the
cosmological parameters and to study the nature of Dark Energy are very
promising.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the workshop 'Astrophysical
sources of high energy particles and radiation', Torun - Poland 20-24 June
2005, Ed. T. Bulik, B. Rudak, G. Madejsk
Spectral properties of long and short Gamma-Ray Bursts: comparison between BATSE and Fermi bursts
We compare the spectral properties of 227 Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) detected by
the Fermi Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) up to February 2010 with those of
bursts detected by the CGRO/BATSE instrument. Out of 227 Fermi GRBs, 166 have a
measured peak energy E_peak_obs of their \nuF(\nu) spectrum: of these 146 and
20 belong the long and short class, respectively. Fermi long bursts follow the
correlations defined by BATSE bursts between their E_peak_obs vs fluence and
peak flux: as already shown for the latter ones, these correlations and their
slopes do not originate from instrumental selection effects. Fermi/GBM bursts
extend such correlations toward lower fluence/peak energy values with respect
to BATSE ones whereas no GBM long burst with E_peak_obs exceeding a few MeV is
found, despite the possibility of detecting them. Again as for BATSE, 5%
of long and almost all short GRBs detected by Fermi/GBM are outliers of the
E_peak-isotropic equivalent energy ("Amati") correlation while no outlier
(neither long nor short) of the E_peak-isotropic equivalent luminosity
("Yonetoku") correlation is found. Fermi long bursts have similar typical
values of E_peak_obs but a harder low energy spectral index with respect to all
BATSE events, exacerbating the inconsistency with the limiting slopes of the
simplest synchrotron emission models. Although the short GRBs detected by Fermi
are still only a few, we confirm that their E_peak_obs is greater and the low
energy spectrum is harder than those of long ones. We discuss the robustness of
these results with respect to observational biases induced by the differences
between the GBM and BATSE instruments.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, submitted to A&
Acceleration of cosmic rays and gamma-ray emission from supernova remnant/molecular cloud associations
The gamma-ray observations of molecular clouds associated with supernova
remnants are considered one of the most promising ways to search for a solution
of the problem of cosmic ray origin. Here we briefly review the status of the
field, with particular emphasis on the theoretical and phenomenological aspects
of the problem.Comment: Invited talk at SUGAR201
Evidence of two spectral breaks in the prompt emission of gamma ray bursts
The long-lasting tension between the observed spectra of gamma ray bursts
(GRBs) and the predicted synchrotron emission spectrum might be solved if
electrons do not completely cool. Evidence for incomplete cooling was recently
found in Swift GRBs with prompt observations down to 0.1 keV and in one bright
Fermi burst, GRB 160625B. Here we systematically search for evidence of
incomplete cooling in the spectra of the ten brightest short and long GRBs
observed by Fermi. We find that in 8/10 long GRBs there is compelling evidence
of a low energy break (below the peak energy) and good agreement with the
photon indices of the synchrotron spectrum (respectively -2/3 and -3/2 below
the break and between the break and the peak energy). Interestingly, none of
the ten short GRBs analysed shows a break but the low energy spectral slope is
consistent with -2/3. In a standard scenario, these results imply a very low
magnetic field in the emission region (B' ~ 10 G in the comoving frame), at odd
with expectations.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, in press, accepted for publication in A&
The Epeak-Eiso plane of long Gamma Ray Bursts and selection effects
We study the distribution of long Gamma Ray Bursts in the Ep-Eiso and in the
Ep,obs-Fluence planes through an updated sample of 76 bursts, with measured
redshift and spectral parameters, detected up to September 2007. We confirm the
existence of a strong rest frame correlation Ep ~ Eiso^0.54+-0.01. Contrary to
previous studies, no sign of evolution with redshift of the Ep-Eiso correlation
(either its slope and normalisation) is found. The 76 bursts define a strong
Ep,obs-Fluence correlation in the observer frame (Ep,obs ~ F^0.32+-0.05) with
redshifts evenly distributed along this correlation. We study possible
instrumental selection effects in the observer frame Ep,obs-Fluence plane. In
particular, we concentrate on the minimum peak flux necessary to trigger a
given GRB detector (trigger threshold) and the minimum fluence a burst must
have to determine the value of Ep,obs (spectral analysis threshold). We find
that the latter dominates in the Ep,obs-Fluence plane over the former. Our
analysis shows, however, that these instrumental selection effects do not
dominate for bursts detected before the launch of the Swift satellite, while
the spectral analysis threshold is the dominant truncation effect of the Swift
GRB sample (27 out of 76 events). This suggests that the Ep,obs-Fluence
correlation defined by the pre--Swift sample could be affected by other, still
not understood, selection effects. Besides we caution about the conclusions on
the existence of the Ep,obs-Fluence correlation based on our Swift sample
alone.Comment: To appear in MNRA
Exact ground state Monte Carlo method for Bosons without importance sampling
Generally ``exact'' Quantum Monte Carlo computations for the ground state of
many Bosons make use of importance sampling. The importance sampling is based,
either on a guiding function or on an initial variational wave function. Here
we investigate the need of importance sampling in the case of Path Integral
Ground State (PIGS) Monte Carlo. PIGS is based on a discrete imaginary time
evolution of an initial wave function with a non zero overlap with the ground
state, that gives rise to a discrete path which is sampled via a Metropolis
like algorithm. In principle the exact ground state is reached in the limit of
an infinite imaginary time evolution, but actual computations are based on
finite time evolutions and the question is whether such computations give
unbiased exact results. We have studied bulk liquid and solid 4He with PIGS by
considering as initial wave function a constant, i.e. the ground state of an
ideal Bose gas. This implies that the evolution toward the ground state is
driven only by the imaginary time propagator, i.e. there is no importance
sampling. For both the phases we obtain results converging to those obtained by
considering the best available variational wave function (the Shadow wave
function) as initial wave function. Moreover we obtain the same results even by
considering wave functions with the wrong correlations, for instance a wave
function of a strongly localized Einstein crystal for the liquid phase. This
convergence is true not only for diagonal properties such as the energy, the
radial distribution function and the static structure factor, but also for
off-diagonal ones, such as the one--body density matrix. From this analysis we
conclude that zero temperature PIGS calculations can be as unbiased as those of
finite temperature Path Integral Monte Carlo.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
Cosmological constraints with GRBs: homogeneous medium vs wind density profile
We present the constraints on the cosmological parameters obtained with the
-- correlation found with the most recent sample of
19 GRBs with spectroscopically measured redshift and well determined prompt
emission spectral and afterglow parameters. We compare our results obtained in
the two possible uniform jet scenarios, i.e. assuming a homogeneous density
profile (HM) or a wind density profile (WM) for the circumburst medium. Better
constraints on and are obtained with the
(tighter) -- correlation derived in the wind density
scenario. We explore the improvements to the constraints of the cosmological
parameters that could be reached with a large sample, 150 GRBs, in the
future. We study the possibility to calibrate the slope of these correlations.
Our optimization analysis suggests that GRBs with redshift
can be used to calibrate the -- with
a precision better than 1%. The same precision is expected for the same number
of bursts with . This result suggests that we do not
necessarily need a large sample of low z GRBs for calibrating the slope of
these correlations.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, submitted to A&
The - relation and the internal shock model
The validity of the - correlation in gamma-ray
bursts and the possibility of explaining the prompt emission with internal
shocks are highly debated questions. We study whether the - correlation can be reproduced if internal shocks are indeed responsible
for the prompt emission, or conversely, if the correlation can be used to
constrain the internal shock scenario. We developed a toy model where internal
shocks are limited to the collision of only two shells. Synthetic burst
populations were constructed for various distributions of the model parameters,
such as the injected power in the relativistic outflow, the average Lorentz
factor, and its typical contrast between the shells. These parameters can be
independent or linked by various relations. Synthetic - diagrams are obtained in the different cases and compared with the
observed correlation. The reference observed correlation is the one defined by
the BAT6 sample, a sample of Swift bursts almost complete in redshift and
affected by well-known and reproducible instrumental selection effects. The
comparison is then performed with a subsample of synthetic bursts that satisfy
the same selection criteria as were imposed on the BAT6 sample. A satisfactory
agreement between model and data can often be achieved, but only if several
strong constraints are satisfied on both the dynamics of the flow and the
microphysics that governs the redistribution of the shock-dissipated energy.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Afterglows from precursors in Gamma Ray Bursts. Application to the optical afterglow of GRB 091024
About 15% of Gamma Ray Bursts have precursors, i.e. emission episodes
preceding the main event, whose spectral and temporal properties are similar to
the main emission. We propose that precursors have their own fireball,
producing afterglow emission due to the dissipation of the kinetic energy via
external shock. In the time lapse between the precursor and the main event, we
assume that the central engine is not completely turned off, but it continues
to eject relativistic material at a smaller rate, whose emission is below the
background level. The precursor fireball generates a first afterglow by the
interaction with the external circumburst medium. Matter injected by the
central engine during the "quasi-quiescent" phase replenishes the external
medium with material in relativistic motion. The fireball corresponding to the
main prompt emission episode crashes with this moving material, producing a
second afterglow, and finally catches up and merges with the first precursor
fireball. We apply this new model to GRB 091024, an event with a precursor in
the prompt light curve and two well defined bumps in the optical afterglow,
obtaining an excellent agreement with the existing data.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS,
Main Journa
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