Engineering topics

Sakamoto, T.

Publications and source records attributed to Sakamoto, T..

34 records · Page 2

NASA NTRS2009

Testing the E(sub peak)-E(sub iso) Relation for GRBs Detected by Swift and Suzaku-WAM

One of the most prominent, yet controversial associations derived from the ensemble of prompt-phase observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is the apparent correlation in the source frame between the peak energy (E(sub peak)) of the nuF(nu) spectrum and the isotropic radiated energy, E(sub iso). Since most gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have E(sub peak) above the energy range (15-150 keV) of the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on Swift, determining accurate E(sub peak) values for large numbers of Swift bursts has been difficult. However, by combining data from Swift/BAT and the Suzaku Wide-band All-Sky Monitor (WAM), which covers the energy range from 50-5000 keV, for bursts which are simultaneously detected ; one can accurately fit E(sub peak) and E(sub iso) and test the relationship between them for the Swift sample. Between the launch of Suzaku in July 2005 and the end of March 2009, there were 45 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) which triggered both Swift/BAT and WAM and an additional 47 bursts which triggered Swift and were detected by WAM, but did not trigger. A BAT-WAM team has cross-calibrated the two instruments using GRBs, and we are now able to perform joint fits on these bursts to determine spectral parameters. For those bursts with spectroscopic redshifts.. we can also calculate the isotropic energy. Here we present the results of joint Swift/BAT-Suzaku/WAM spectral fits for 86 of the bursts detected by the two instruments. We show that the distribution of spectral fit parameters is consistent with distributions from earlier missions and confirm that Swift, bursts are consistent with earlier reported relationships between Epeak and isotropic energy. We show through time-resolved spectroscopy that individual burst pulses are also consistent with this relationship.

Krimm, H. A.↗

NASA NTRS2009

Correlative Analysis of GRBs Detected by Swift and Suzaku- WAM

It is now well known that a complete understanding of the energetics of the prompt phase of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) requires full knowledge of the spectrum, extending at least as high as the peak energy (Epeak) of the vF(v) spectrum. Since most gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have Epeak above the energy range (15-150 keV) of the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on Swift, a full understanding of the prompt emission from Swift GRBs requires spectral fits over as broad an energy range as possible. This can be completed for bursts which are simultaneously detected by Swift BAT and the Suzaku Wide-band All-Sky Monitor (WAM), which covers the energy range from 50-5000 keV. Between the launch of Suzaku in July 2005 and the end of 2008, there were 44 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) which triggered both Swift and WAM and an additional 41 bursts which triggered Swift and were detected by WAM, but did not trigger. A joint BAT-WAM team has cross-calibrated the two instruments using GRBs, and we are now able to perform joint fits on these bursts to determine spectral parameters including Epeak. The results of broad spectral fits allows us to understand the distribution of Epeak for Swift bursts and to calibrate Epeak estimators when Epeak is within the BAT energy range. For those bursts with spectroscopic redshifts, we can calculate the isotropic energy and study various correlations between Epeak and other global burst parameters. Here we present the results of joint Swift/BAT-Suzaku/WAM spectral fits for 77 of the bursts jointly detected by the two instruments. We show that the distribution of spectral fit parameters is consistent with distributions from earlier missions and confirm that Swift bursts are consistent with earlier reported relationships between Epeak and isotropic energy. We show through time-resolved spectroscopy that individual burst pulses are also consistent with this relationship.

Krimm, H.A.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Reviewing Epeak Relations with Swift and Suzaku Data

in recent years several authors have derived correlations between gamma-ray burst (GRB) spectral peak energy (Epeak) and either isotropic-equivalent radiated energy (Eiso) or peak luminosity (Liso) . Since these relationships are controversial, but could provide redshift estimators, it is important to determine whether bursts detected by Swift exhibit the same correlations. Swift has greatly added to the number of GRBs for which redshifts are known and hence Eiso and Lisc could be calculated. However, for most bursts it is not possible to adequately constrain Epeak with Swift data alone since most GRBs have Epeak above the energy range (15-50 keV) of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT). Therefore we have analyzed the spectra of 78 bursts (31 with redshift) which were detected by both Swift/BAT and the Suzaku Wide-band All-sky Monitor (WAM), which covers the energy range 50-50C0 keV. For most bursts in this sample we can precisely determine Epeak and for bursts with known redshift we can compare how the Epeak relations for the Swift/Suzaku sample compare to earlier published results.

Krimm, H. A.↗

NASA NTRS2008

The Swift Discovery of X-ray Afterglows Accompanying Short Bursts from SGR 1900+14

The discovery of X-ray afterglows accompanying two short bursts from SGR1900+14 is presented. The afterglow luminosities at the end of each observation are lower by 30-50% than their initial luminosities, and decay with power law indices p approx. 0.2-0.4. Their initial bolometric luminosities are L approx. 10(exp 34)- 10(exp 35) erg/s. We discuss analogies and differences between the X-ray afterglows of SGR short bursts and short gamma-ray bursts.

Nakagawa, Y. E.↗

NASA NTRS2008

POET: POlarimeters for Energetic Transients

POET (Polarimeters for Energetic Transients) is a Small Explorer mission concept proposed to NASA in January 2008. The principal scientific goal of POET is to measure GRB polarization between 2 and 500 keV. The payload consists of two wide FoV instruments: a Low Energy Polarimeter (LEP) capable of polarization measurements in the energy range from 2-15 keV and a high energy polarimeter (Gamma-Ray Polarimeter Experiment - GRAPE) that will measure polarization in the 60-500 keV energy range. Spectra will be measured from 2 keV up to 1 MeV. The POET spacecraft provides a zenith-pointed platform for maximizing the exposure to deep space. Spacecraft rotation will provide a means of effectively dealing with systematics in the polarization response. POET will provide sufficient sensitivity and sky coverage to measure statistically significant polarization for up to 100 GRBs in a two-year mission. Polarization data will also be obtained for solar flares, pulsars and other sources of astronomical interest.

Hill, J. E.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Correlations of Prompt and Afterglow Emission in Swift Long and Short Gamma Ray Bursts

Correlation studies of prompt and afterglow emissions from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) between different spectral bands has been difficult to do in the past because few bursts had comprehensive and intercomparable afterglow measurements. In this paper we present a large and uniform data set for correlation analysis based on bursts detected by the Swift mission. For the first time, short and long bursts can be analyzed and compared. It is found for both classes that the optical, X-ray and gamma-ray emissions are linearly correlated, but with a large spread about the correlation line; stronger bursts tend to have brighter afterglows, and bursts with brighter X-ray afterglow tend to have brighter optical afterglow. Short bursts are, on average, weaker in both prompt and afterglow emissions. No short bursts are seen with extremely low optical to X-ray ratio as occurs for 'dark' long bursts. Although statistics are still poor for short bursts, there is no evidence yet for a subgroup of short bursts with high extinction as there is for long bursts. Long bursts are detected in the dark category at the same fraction as for pre-Swift bursts. Interesting cases are discovered of long bursts that are detected in the optical, and yet have low enough optical to X-ray ratio to be classified as dark. For the prompt emission, short and long bursts have different average tracks on flux vs fluence plots. In Swift, GRB detections tend to be fluence limited for short bursts and flux limited for long events.

Gehrel, Neil↗

NASA NTRS2007

A Burst Chasing X-ray Polarimeter

Tihs is a viewgraph presentation of a discussion of the X-ray Polarimeter. Gamma-ray bursts are one of the most powerful explosions in the universe and have been detected out to distances of almost 13 billion light years. The exact origin of these energetic explosions is still unknown but the resulting huge release of energy is thought to create a highly relativistic jet of material and a power-law distribution of electrons. There are several theories describing the origin of the prompt GRB emission that currently cannot be distinguished. Measurements of the linear polarization would provide unique and important constraints on the mechanisms thought to drive these powerful explosions. We present the design of a sensitive, and extremely versatile gamma-ray burst polarimeter. The instrument is a photoelectric polarimeter based on a time-projection chamber. The photoelectric time-projection technique combines high sensitivity with broad band-pass and is potentially the most powerful method between 2 and 100 keV where the photoelectric effect is the dominant interaction process We present measurements of polarized and unpolarized X-rays obtained with a prototype detector and describe the two mission concepts, the Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimeter (GRBP) for thc U S Naval Academy satellite MidSTAR-2, and thc Low Energy Polarimeter (LEP) onboard POET, a broadband polarimetry concept for a small explorer mission.

Hill, Joanne↗

NASA NTRS2007

Global Properties of X-Ray Flashes and X-Ray-Rich GRBs Observed by Swift

We describe and discuss the spectral and temporal characteristics of the prompt emission and X-ray afterglow emission of X-ray flashes (XRFs) detected and observed by Swift between December 2005 and September 2006. We compare these characteristics to a sample of X-ray rich gamma-ray bursts (XRRs) and conventional classical gamma-ray bursts (C-GRBs)observed during the same period. We confirm the correlation between Epeak and fluence noted by others and find further evidence that XRFs and C-GRBs form a continuum. We also confirmed that our known redshift samples are consistent with the correlation between the peak energy (Epeak) and the isotropic radiated energy (Eiso), so called the Epeak-Eiso relation. The spectral properties of X-ray afterglows are similar to those of gamma-ray burst afterglows, but the temporal properties of the two classes are quite different. We found that the light curves of C-GRBs afterglow show a break to steeper indices (shallow-to-steep break) at much earlier times than do XRF afterglows. Moreover, the overall luminosity of X-ray afterglows of XRFs are systematically smaller by a factor of two or more compared with that of C-GRBs. These distinct differences in the X-ray afterglow between XRFs and C-GRBs are key to understanding not only a mysterious shallow-to-steep phase in the X-ray afterglow but also the unique nature of XRFs.

Sakamoto, T.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Evidence of the Exponential Decay Emission in the Swift Gamma-ray Bursts

We present a systematic study of the steep decay emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by the Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT). In contrast to the analysis in recent literature, instead of extrapolating the data of Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) down into the XRT energy range, we extrapolated the XRT data up to the BAT energy range, 15-25 keV, to produce the BAT and XRT composite light curve. Based on our composite light curve fitting, we have confirmed the existence of an exponential decay component which smoothly connects the BAT prompt data to the XRT steep decay for several GRBs. We also find that the XRT steep decay for some of the bursts can be well fitted by a combination of a power-law with an exponential decay model. We discuss that this exponential component may be the emission from an external shock and a sign of the deceleration of the outflow during the prompt phase.

Sakamoto, T.↗

NASA NTRS2007

SWIFT Detects a remarkable Gamma-ray Burst, GRB 060514, that introduces a New Classification Scheme

Gamma ray bursts (GFU3s) are known to come in two duration classes, separated at approx.2 s. Long bursts originate from star forming regions in galaxies, have accompanying supernovae (SNe) when near enough to observe and are likely caused by massive-star collapsars. Recent observations show that short bursts originate in regions within their host galaxies with lower star formation rates, consistent with binary neutron star (NS) or NS - black hole (BH) mergers. Moreover, although their hosts are predominantly nearby galaxies, no SNe have been so far associated with short GRBs. We report here on the bright, nearby GRB 060614 that does not fit in either class. Its approx.102 s duration groups it with long GRBs, while its temporal lag and peak luminosity fall entirely within the short GRB subclass. Moreover, very deep optical observations exclude an accompanying supernova, similar to short GRBs. This combination of a long duration event without accompanying SN poses a challenge to both a collapsar and merging NS interpretation and opens the door on a new GRB classification scheme that straddles both long and short bursts.

Gehrels, N.↗

NASA NTRS2007

SWIFT Discovery of Gamma-ray Bursts without Jet Break Feature in their X-ray Afterglows

We analyze Swift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and X-ray afterglows for three GRBs with spectroscopic redshift determinations - GRB 050401, XRF 050416a, and GRB 050525a. We find that the relation between spectral peak energy and isotropic energy of prompt emissions (the Amati relation) is consistent with that for the bursts observed in pre-Swift era. However, we find that the X-ray afterglow lightcurves, which extend up to 10 - 70 days, show no sign of the jet break that is expected in the standard framework of collimated outflows. We do so by showing that none of the X-ray afterglow lightcurves in our sample satisfies the relation between the spectral and temporal indices that is predicted for the phase after jet break. The jet break time can be predicted by inverting the tight empirical relation between the peak energy of the spectrum and the collimation-corrected energy of the prompt emission (the Ghirlanda relation). We find that there are no temporal breaks within the predicted time intervals in X-ray band. This requires either that the Ghirlanda relation has a larger scatter than previously thought, that the temporal break in X-rays is masked by some additional source of X-ray emission, or that it does not happen because of some unknown reason.

Sato, G.↗

NASA NTRS2007

The First Swift BAT Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog

We present the first Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) catalog of gamma ray bursts (GRBs), which contains bursts detected by the BAT between 2004 December 19 and 2007 June 16. This catalog (hereafter BAT1 catalog) contains burst trigger time, location, 90% error radius, duration, fluence, peak flux, and time averaged spectral parameters for each of 237 GRBs, as measured by the BAT. The BAT-determined position reported here is within 1.75' of the Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT)-determined position for 90% of these GRBs. The BAT T(sub 90) and T(sub 50) durations peak at 80 and 20 seconds, respectively. From the fluence-fluence correlation, we conclude that about 60% of the observed peak energies, E(sup obs)(sub peak) of BAT GRBs could be less than 100 keV. We confirm that GRB fluence to hardness and GRB peak flux to hardness are correlated for BAT bursts in analogous ways to previous missions' results. The correlation between the photon index in a simple power-law model and E(sup obs)(sub peak) is also confirmed. We also report the current status for the on-orbit BAT calibrations based on observations of the Crab Nebula.

Sakamoto, T.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Studying Galaxy Formation with the Hubble, Spitzer and James Webb Space Telescopes

The deepest optical to infrared observations of the universe include the Hubble Deep Fields, the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey and the recent Hubble Ultra-Deep Field. Galaxies are seen in these surveys at redshifts 2-6, less than 1 Gyr after the Big Bang, at the end of a period when light from the galaxies has reionized Hydrogen in the inter-galactic medium. These observations, combined with theoretical understanding, indicate that the first stars and galaxies formed at z>10, beyond the reach of the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. To observe the first galaxies, NASA is planning the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a large (6.5m), cold (50K), infrared-optimized observatory to be launched early in the next decade into orbit around the second Earth- Sun Lagrange point. JWST will have four instruments: The Near-Infrared Camera, the Near-Infrared multi-object Spectrograph, and the Tunable Filter Imager will cover the wavelength range 0.6 to 5 microns, while the Mid-Infrared Instrument will do both imaging and spectroscopy from 5 to 27 microns. In addition to JWST s ability to study the formation and evolution of galaxies, I will also briefly review its expected contributions to studies of the formation of stars and planetary systems.

Gardner, Jonathan F.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Correlative Analysis of GRBs detected by Swift, Konus and HETE

Swift has now detected a large enough sample of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) to allow correlation studies of burst parameters. Such studies of earlier data sets have yielded important results leading to further understanding of burst parameters and classifications. This work focuses on seventeen Swift bursts that have also been detected either by Konus-Wind or HETE-II, providing high energy spectra and fits to E(sub peak). Eight of these bursts have spectroscopic redshifts and for others we can estimate redshifts using the variability/luminosity relationship. We can also compare E(sub peak) with E(sub iso), and for those bursts for which a jet break was observed in the afterglow we can derive E(sub g) and test the relationship between E(peak) and E(sub gamma). For all bursts we can derive durations and hardness ratios from the prompt emission.

Krimm, Hans A.↗

NASA NTRS2005

GRB 050117: Simultaneous Gamma-ray and X-ray Observations with the Swift Satellite

The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer performed its first autonomous, X-ray follow-up to a newly detected GRB on 2005 January 17, within 193 seconds of the burst trigger by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. While the burst was still in progress, the X-ray Telescope obtained a position and an image for an un-catalogued X-ray source; simultaneous with the gamma-ray observation. The XRT observed flux during the prompt emission was 1.1 x 10(exp -8) ergs/sq cm/s in the 0.5-10 keV energy band. The emission in the X-ray band decreased by three orders of magnitude within 700 seconds, following the prompt emission. This is found to be consistent with the gamma-ray decay when extrapolated into the XRT energy band. During the following 6.3 hours, the XRT observed the afterglow in an automated sequence for an additional 947 seconds, until the burst became fully obscured by the Earth limb. A faint, extremely slowly decaying afterglow, alpha=-0.21, was detected. Finally, a break in the lightcurve occurred and the flux decayed with alpha<-1.2. The X-ray position triggered many follow-up observations: no optical afterglow could be confirmed, although a candidate was identified 3 arcsecs from the XRT position.

Hill, J. E.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Measurement of the configuration of a concave surface by the interference of reflected light

A method whereby a concave surface is irradiated with coherent light and the resulting interference fringes yield information on the concave surface is described. This method can be applied to a surface which satisfies the following conditions: (1) the concave face has a mirror surface; (2) the profile of the face is expressed by a mathematical function with a point of inflection. In this interferometry, multilight waves reflected from the concave surface interfere and make fringes wherever the reflected light propagates. Interference fringe orders. Photographs of the fringe patterns for a uniformly loaded thin silicon plate clamped at the edge are shown experimentally. The experimental and the theoretical values of the maximum optical path difference show good agreement. This simple method can be applied to obtain accurate information on concave surfaces.

Kumazawa, T.↗