404 research outputs found
A universal GRB photon energy-peak luminosity relation
The energetics and emission mechanism of GRBs are not well understood. Here
we demonstrate that the instantaneous peak flux or equivalent isotropic peak
luminosity, L_iso ergs s^-1, rather than the integrated fluence or equivalent
isotropic energy, E_iso ergs, underpins the known high-energy correlations.
Using new spectral/temporal parameters calculated for 101 bursts with redshifts
from BATSE, BeppoSAX, HETE-II and Swift we describe a parameter space which
characterises the apparently diverse properties of the prompt emission. We show
that a source frame characteristic-photon-energy/peak luminosity ratio, K_z,
can be constructed which is constant within a factor of 2 for all bursts
whatever their duration, spectrum, luminosity and the instrumentation used to
detect them. The new parameterization embodies the Amati relation but indicates
that some correlation between E_peak and E_iso follows as a direct mathematical
inference from the Band function and that a simple transformation of E_iso to
L_iso yields a universal high energy correlation for GRBs. The existence of K_z
indicates that the mechanism responsible for the prompt emission from all GRBs
is probably predominantly thermal.Comment: Submitted to Ap
Direct laser acceleration in underdense plasmas with multi-PW lasers: a path to high-charge, GeV-class electron bunches
The direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in underdense plasmas can
provide 100s of nC of electrons accelerated to near-GeV energies using
currently available lasers. Here we demonstrate the key role of electron
transverse displacement in the acceleration and use it to analytically predict
the expected maximum electron energies. The energy scaling is shown to be in
agreement with full-scale quasi-3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of a
laser pulse propagating through a preformed guiding channel and can be directly
used for optimizing DLA in near-future laser facilities. The strategy towards
optimizing DLA through matched laser focusing is presented for a wide range of
plasma densities paired with current and near-future laser technology. Electron
energies in excess of 10 GeV are accessible for lasers at .Comment: Accepted for publication in PR
Laser acceleration of protons from near critical density targets for application to radiation therapy
Laser accelerated protons can be a complimentary source for treatment of
oncological diseases to the existing hadron therapy facilities. We demonstrate
how the protons, accelerated from near-critical density plasmas by laser pulses
having relatively small power, reach energies which may be of interest for
medical applications. When an intense laser pulse interacts with near-critical
density plasma it makes a channel both in the electron and then in the ion
density. The propagation of a laser pulse through such a self-generated channel
is connected with the acceleration of electrons in the wake of a laser pulse
and generation of strong moving electric and magnetic fields in the propagation
channel. Upon exiting the plasma the magnetic field generates a quasi-static
electric field that accelerates and collimates ions from a thin filament formed
in the propagation channel. Two-dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations show
that a 100 TW laser pulse tightly focused on a near-critical density target is
able to accelerate protons up to energy of 250 MeV. Scaling laws and optimal
conditions for proton acceleration are established considering the energy
depletion of the laser pulse.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figure
The pre-shock gas of SN1006 from HST/ACS observations
We derive the pre-shock density and scale length along the line of sight for
the collisionless shock from a deep HST image that resolves the H alpha
filament in SN1006 and updated model calculations. The very deep ACS
high-resolution image of the Balmer line filament in the northwest (NW)
quadrant shows that 0.25 < n_0 < le$ 0.4 cm-3 and that the scale along the line
of sight is about 2 x 10^{18} cm, while bright features within the filament
correspond to ripples with radii of curvature less than 1/10 that size. The
derived densities are within the broad range of earlier density estimates, and
they agree well with the ionization time scale derived from the Chandra X-ray
spectrum of a region just behind the optical filament. This provides a test for
widely used models of the X-ray emission from SNR shocks. The scale and
amplitude of the ripples are consistent with expectations for a shock
propagating though interstellar gas with ~ 20% density fluctuations on parsec
scales as expected from studies of interstellar turbulence. One bulge in the
filament corresponds to a knot of ejecta overtaking the blast wave, however.
The interaction results from the rapid deceleration of the blast wave as it
encounters an interstellar cloud.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Ap
Self-guided wakefield experiments driven by petawatt class ultra-short laser pulses
We investigate the extension of self-injecting laser wakefield experiments to
the regime that will be accessible with the next generation of petawatt class
ultra-short pulse laser systems. Using linear scalings, current experimental
trends and numerical simulations we determine the optimal laser and target
parameters, i.e. focusing geometry, plasma density and target length, that are
required to increase the electron beam energy (to > 1 GeV) without the use of
external guiding structures.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure
Interpretation of UV Absorption Lines in SN1006
We present a theoretical interpretation of the broad silicon and iron UV
absorption features observed with the Hubble Space Telescope in the spectrum of
the Schweizer-Middleditch star behind the remnant of Supernova 1006. These
features are caused by supernova ejecta in SN1006. We propose that the
redshifted SiII2 1260 A feature consists of both unshocked and shocked SiII.
The sharp red edge of the line at 7070 km/s indicates the position of the
reverse shock, while its Gaussian blue edge reveals shocked Si with a mean
velocity of 5050 km/s and a dispersion of 1240 km/s, implying a reverse shock
velocity of 2860 km/s. The measured velocities satisfy the energy jump
condition for a strong shock, provided that all the shock energy goes into
ions, with little or no collisionless heating of electrons. The line profiles
of the SiIII and SiIV absorption features indicate that they arise mostly from
shocked Si. The total mass of shocked and unshocked Si inferred from the SiII,
SiIII and SiIV profiles is M_Si = 0.25 \pm 0.01 Msun on the assumption of
spherical symmetry. Unshocked Si extends upwards from 5600 km/s. Although there
appears to be some Fe mixed with the Si at lower velocities < 7070 km/s, the
absence of FeII absorption with the same profile as the shocked SiII suggests
little Fe mixed with Si at higher (before being shocked) velocities. The column
density of shocked SiII is close to that expected for SiII undergoing steady
state collisional ionization behind the reverse shock, provided that the
electron to SiII ratio is low, from which we infer that most of the shocked Si
is likely to be of a fairly high degree of purity, unmixed with other elements.
We propose that the ambient interstellar density on the far side of SN1006 is
anomalously low compared to the density around the rest of the remnant. ThisComment: 24 pages, with 8 figures included. Accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
Calibration of X-ray absorption in our Galaxy
Prediction of the soft X-ray absorption along lines of sight through our
Galaxy is crucial for understanding the spectra of extragalactic sources, but
requires a good estimate of the foreground column density of photoelectric
absorbing species. Assuming uniform elemental abundances this reduces to having
a good estimate of the total hydrogen column density, N(Htot)=N(HI)+2N(H2). The
atomic component, N(HI), is reliably provided using the mapped 21 cm radio
emission but estimating the molecular hydrogen column density, N(H2), expected
for any particular direction, is difficult. The X-ray afterglows of GRBs are
ideal sources to probe X-ray absorption in our Galaxy because they are
extragalactic, numerous, bright, have simple spectra and occur randomly across
the entire sky. We describe an empirical method, utilizing 493 afterglows
detected by the Swift XRT, to determine N(Htot) through the Milky Way which
provides an improved estimate of the X-ray absorption in our Galaxy and thereby
leads to more reliable measurements of the intrinsic X-ray absorption and,
potentially, other spectral parameters, for extragalactic X-ray sources. We
derive a simple function, dependent on the product of the atomic hydrogen
column density, N(HI), and dust extinction, E(B-V), which describes the
variation of the molecular hydrogen column density, N(H2), of our Galaxy, over
the sky. Using the resulting N(Htot) we show that the dust-to-hydrogen ratio is
correlated with the carbon monoxide emission and use this ratio to estimate the
fraction of material which forms interstellar dust grains. Our resulting recipe
represents a significant revision in Galactic absorption compared to previous
standard methods, particularly at low Galactic latitudes.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, MNRAS in pres
The Unexpected Role of Evolving Longitudinal Electric Fields in Generating Energetic Electrons in Relativistically Transparent Plasmas
Superponderomotive-energy electrons are observed experimentally from the
interaction of an intense laser pulse with a relativistically transparent
target. For a relativistically transparent target, kinetic modeling shows that
the generation of energetic electrons is dominated by energy transfer within
the main, classically overdense, plasma volume. The laser pulse produces a
narrowing, funnel-like channel inside the plasma volume that generates a field
structure responsible for the electron heating. The field structure combines a
slowly evolving azimuthal magnetic field, generated by a strong laser-driven
longitudinal electron current, and, unexpectedly, a strong propagating
longitudinal electric field, generated by reflections off the walls of the
funnel-like channel. The magnetic field assists electron heating by the
transverse electric field of the laser pulse through deflections, whereas the
longitudinal electric field directly accelerates the electrons in the forward
direction. The longitudinal electric field produced by reflections is 30 times
stronger than that in the incoming laser beam and the resulting direct laser
acceleration contributes roughly one third of the energy transferred by the
transverse electric field of the laser pulse to electrons of the
super-ponderomotive tail
1SXPS: A deep Swift X-ray Telescope point source catalog with light curves and spectra
We present the 1SXPS (Swift-XRT Point Source) catalog of 151,524 X-ray
point-sources detected by the Swift-XRT in 8 years of operation. The catalog
covers 1905 square degrees distributed approximately uniformly on the sky. We
analyze the data in two ways. First we consider all observations individually,
for which we have a typical sensitivity of ~3e-13 erg/cm2/s (0.3--10 keV). Then
we co-add all data covering the same location on the sky: these images have a
typical sensitivity of ~9e-14 erg/cm2/s (0.3--10 keV). Our sky coverage is
nearly 2.5 times that of 3XMM-DR4, although the catalog is a factor of ~1.5
less sensitive. The median position error is 5.5" (90% confidence), including
systematics. Our source detection method improves on that used in previous XRT
catalogs and we report >68,000 new X-ray sources. The goals and observing
strategy of the Swift satellite allow us to probe source variability on
multiple timescales, and we find ~30,000 variable objects in our catalog. For
every source we give positions, fluxes, time series (in four energy bands and
two hardness ratios), estimates of the spectral properties, spectra and
spectral fits for the brightest sources, and variability probabilities in
multiple energy bands and timescales.Comment: 27 pages, 19 figures; accepted for publication in ApJS. The
accompanying website, http://www.swift.ac.uk/1SXPS is live; the Vizier entry
should be available shortl
Testing the standard fireball model of GRBs using late X-ray afterglows measured by Swift
We show that all X-ray decay curves of GRBs measured by Swift can be fitted
using one or two components both of which have exactly the same functional form
comprised of an early falling exponential phase followed by a power law decay.
The 1st component contains the prompt gamma-ray emission and the initial X-ray
decay. The 2nd component appears later, has a much longer duration and is
present for ~80% of GRBs. It most likely arises from the external shock which
eventually develops into the X-ray afterglow. In the remaining ~20% of GRBs the
initial X-ray decay of the 1st component fades more slowly than the 2nd and
dominates at late times to form an afterglow but it is not clear what the
origin of this emission is.
The temporal decay parameters and gamma/X-ray spectral indices derived for
107 GRBs are compared to the expectations of the standard fireball model
including a search for possible "jet breaks". For ~50% of GRBs the observed
afterglow is in accord with the model but for the rest the temporal and
spectral indices do not conform to the expected closure relations and are
suggestive of continued, late, energy injection. We identify a few possible jet
breaks but there are many examples where such breaks are predicted but are
absent.
The time, T_a, at which the exponential phase of the 2nd component changes to
a final powerlaw decay afterglow is correlated with the peak of the gamma-ray
spectrum, E_peak. This is analogous to the Ghirlanda relation, indicating that
this time is in some way related to optically observed break times measured for
pre-Swift bursts.Comment: submitted to Ap
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