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NASA NTRS1990

Gamma-ray bursts from magnetospheric plasma oscillations

Relativistic, (neutron star) magnetospheric plasma oscillations, damped by inverse Compton scatterings with the ambient radiation field, can account for the energetics, decay time scale, and spectra of typical gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The dissipation time scale tau depends on the energy of the perturbation, and that tau of about 1 sec for W(burst) is about 10 to the 36th ergs. Several plausible mechanisms for 'loading' the magnetosphere, all of which might be contributing to the GRB phenomenon are discussed. The soft photon source is likely due to backwarming of the reprocessing boundary (i.e., the stellar surface and possibly an accretion disk) by the incipient gamma-rays, which is consistent with the Ginga observation of a slowly decaying, low-energy X-ray component in some bursts.

Melia, Fulvio↗

NASA NTRS1990

Gamma-ray bursts from magnetospheric plasma oscillations. II - Model spectra

Several mechanisms for the primary release of energy in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) may result in the excitation of relativistic, magnetospheric plasma oscillations above the polar cap of a neutron star. This paper presents a survey of detailed calculations of the inverse Compton scattering interaction between the sinusoidally accelerated particles in relativistic, magnetospheric plasma oscillations and the self-consistently determined thermal radiation from the stellar surface. The upscattered photons are boosted to gamma-ray energies and a Monte Carlo simulation is used to obtain the spectrum for different viewing angles relative to the magnetic field in the oscillating region. It is shown that several GRB spectral characteristics may be understood in the context of a model wherein the overall spectrum changes with aspect angle as a result of the superposition of four components with different angular distributions.

Melia, Fulvio↗

NASA NTRS1990

Extended X-ray emission in nearby Seyfert galaxies

Asymmetric extended X-ray emission was found to be present in three out of five Seyfert galaxies. This paper discusses various possible origins for this emission, including thermal bremsstrahlung, synchrotron radiation, inverse Compton scattering, and electron-scattered nuclear radiation. It was found that the presently available data cannot discriminate definitively between these possibilities.

Elvis, Martin↗

NASA NTRS1991

A nonthermal radio halo surrounding M82

Radio maps at several frequencies are presented which reveal an extended halo of nonthermal emission surrounding the starburst galaxy M82. The origin of this halo is probably synchrotron radiation from relativistic electrons originally produced in SNR, swept out of the disk by the extensive wind associated with the galaxy. The halo appears to be asymmetrical, with an enhancement occurring about 1 arcmin to the south, and on a larger scale there is excess emission to the north. Possible causes of this effect are addressed. The spectral index measured using data at 6, 20, 49, and 90 cm is about -0.4 + or - 0.1 in the nucleus, steepening to about -1.0 in the halo. A simple model is invoked which involves outward convection of relativistic particles with electron energy losses by inverse Compton scattering against IR photons and adiabatic expansion.

Seaquist, E. R.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Origin of the burst of TeV gamma-rays from SN 1987 A

An electromagnetic origin of the TeV gamma-ray burst from SN 1987 A is proposed. The TeV gamma-rays result from inverse Compton scattering in the extreme Klein-Nishina limit of nuclear Co-56 gamma-ray lines and soft X-rays by monoenergetic TeV electrons. The model accounts for the observed time delay between the TeV burst and the peak X-ray intensity of about 3 days, and the different burst duration at TeV and X-ray energies.

Schlickeiser, R.↗

NASA NTRS1991

A Compton reflection model for the cosmic X-ray and gamma-ray backgrounds

The gamma-ray spectrum of an AGN in the Compton reflection model is calculated and the contribution of such sources to the cosmic gamma-ray background is considered. The spectrum is composed of three parts: an X-ray power law, a broad hump from roughly 10 to 120 keV due to reprocessing of the power-law X-ray spectrum by cold gas, and gamma rays which are due to the inverse-Compton scattering of X-rays. The contribution of such sources to the cosmic gamma-ray background is computed and it is found that they provide an excellent fit to the entire background spectrum from 3 keV to 10 MeV. Constraints on the physical conditions in these sources are derived based on these results and the possibility of observing such sources with GRO is considered.

Rogers, R. D.↗

NASA NTRS1992

A new class of galactic discrete gamma ray sources: Chaotic winds of massive stars

We propose a new class of galactic discrete gamma-ray sources, the chaotic, high mass-loss-rate winds from luminous early-type stars. Early-type stellar winds are highly unstable due to intrinsic line-driven instabilities, and so are permeated by numerous strong shocks. These shocks can accelerate a small fraction of thermal electrons and ions to relativistic energies via the first-order Fermi mechanism. A power-law-like photon spectrum extending from keV to above 10 MeV energies is produced by inverse Compton scattering of the extremely abundant stellar UV photons by the relativistic electrons. In addition, a typical pi(sup 0)-decay gamma-ray spectrum is generated by proton-ion interactions in the densest part of the winds.

Chen, Wan↗

NASA NTRS1991

Steep radio spectra in high-redshift radio galaxies

The generic spectrum of an optically thin synchrotron source steepens by 0.5 in spectral index from low frequencies to high whenever the source lifetime is greater than the energy-loss timescale for at least some of the radiating electrons. Three effects tend to decrease the frequency nu(b) of this spectral bend as the source redshift increases: (1) for fixed bend frequency nu* in the rest frame, nu(b) = nu*/(1 + z); (2) losses due to inverse Compton scattering the microwave background rise with redshift as (1 + z) exp 4, so that, for fixed residence time in the radiating region, the energy of the lowest energy electron that can cool falls rapidly with increasing redshift; and (3) if the magnetic field is proportional to the equipartition field and the emitting volume is fixed or slowly varying, flux-limited samples induce a selection effect favoring low nu* at high z because higher redshift sources require higher emissivity to be included in the sample, and hence have stronger implied fields and more rapid synchrotron losses. A combination of these effects may explain the trend observed in the 3CR sample for higher redshift radio galaxies to have steeper spectra, and the successful use of ultrasteep spectrum surveys to locate high-redshift galaxies.

Krolik, Julian H.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Relativistic enhancement of the Compton-reflected component in active galactic nuclei

Compton reflection may be an important process in AGNs, since it provides an improvement over power-law fits to AGN spectra observed by Ginga and can also explain the spectrum of the cosmic X-ray background. The fraction of the total X-ray luminosity which is incident upon a thin steady alpha-disk if the X-rays are produced by inverse-Compton scattering of soft, disk photons off relativistic electrons located above the disk is calculated. This fraction is called the Compton reflection covering factor, f, and it is found that it can range between 0.5 and 0.88. This large range in f, due to a relativistic kinematic effect first calculated in this connection by Ghisellini et al (1991) is sufficient to explain the typical covering (about 0.5) observed in bright AGNs by Ginga as well as the large covering factor (about 0.9) required to explain the cosmic X-ray background in the Compton reflection model.

Rogers, R. D.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Diffuse Galactic low energy gamma ray continuum emission

We investigate the origin of diffuse low-energy Galactic gamma-ray continuum down to about 30 keV. We calculate gamma-ray emission via bremsstrahlung and inverse Compton scattering by propagating an unbroken electron power law injection spectrum and employing a Galactic emmissivity model derived from COSB observations. To maintain the low energy electron population capable of producing the observed continuum via bremsstrahlung, a total power input of 4 x 10 exp 41 erg/s is required. This exceeds the total power supplied to the nuclear cosmic rays by about an order of magnitude.

Skibo, J. G.↗

NASA NTRS1993

A comparison of the cosmic microwave and cosmic X-ray backgrounds - Constraints on local sources of the fluctuations observed by COBE

It has been suggested by Hogan (1992) that the microwave background anisotropy detected by the COBE DMR experiment (Smoot et al., 1992) might be produced by inverse Compton scattering from hot diffuse clouds of electrons in nearby superclusters. If the COBE fluctuations are due to this mechanism, then the absence of anticorrelations between maps of the cosmic microwave and cosmic X-ray backgrounds constrains the temperature (16 keV) and density (less than 2 x 10 exp -6/cu cm) of the ionized supercluster gas. Since the COBE limits on spectral distortion indicate that the temperature of the intergalactic medium is less than 10 keV, we conclude that the fluctuations observed by COBE are probably not produced by this mechanism.

Boughn, S. P.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Gamma ray emission from radio pulsars

While the proposed research received partial funding under this grant, during the term of support substantial progress was made on the development of a new model for the emission of gamma-rays from isolated rotation-powered pulsars. In phase one of the work, we showed how a modified version of the 'outer gap' model of pulsar emission could reproduce the double peaked profiles seen in CGRO pulsar observations. This work also demonstrated the spectrum of gap radiation varies significantly with position in the magnetosphere, and produced approximate computations of the emission from outer magnetosphere gap zones, including primary curvature radiation, gamma - gamma pair production and synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton scattering by the resulting secondary particles. This work was followed in phase two by a more complete treatment of the geometry of the radiation zone, and improved connections with observations at other wavelengths.

Romani, Roger W.↗

NASA NTRS1994

The radio emission from the ultraluminous far-infrared galaxy NGC 6240

We present new radio observations of the 'prototypical' ultraluminous far-infrared galaxy NGC 6240, obtained using the Very Large Array (VLA) at lambda = 20 cm in B-configuration and at lambda = 3.6 cm in A-configuration. These data, along with those from four previous VLA observations, are used to perform a comprehensive study of the radio emission from NGC 6240. Approximately 70% (approximately 3 x 10(exp 23) W/Hz) of the total radio power at 20 cm originates from the nuclear region (approximately less than 1.5 kpc), of which half is emitted by two unresolved (R approximately less than 36 pc) cores and half by a diffuse component. The radio spectrum of the nuclear emission is relatively flat (alpha approximately equals 0.6; S(sub nu) proportional to nu(exp -alpha). The supernova rate required to power the diffuse component is consistent with that predicted by the stellar evolution models of Rieke et al. (1985). If the radio emission from the two compact cores is powered by supernova remnants, then either the remnants overlap and form hot bubbles in the cores, or they are very young (approximately less than 100 yr.) Nearly all of the remaining 30% of the total radio power comes from an 'armlike' region extending westward from the nuclear region. The western arm emission has a steep spectrum (alpha approximately equals 1.0), suggestive of aging effects from synchrotron or inverse-Compton losses, and is not correlated with starlight; we suggest that it is synchrotron emission from a shell of material driven by a galactic superwind. Inverse Compton scattering of far-infrared photons in the radio sources is expected to produce an X-ray flux of approximately 2 - 6 x 10(exp -14) ergs/s/sq cm in the 2 - 10 keV band. No significant radio emission is detected from or near the possible ultramassive 'dark core'.

Colbert, Edward J. M.↗

NASA NTRS1994

An outer gap model of high-energy emission from rotation-powered pulsars

We describe a refined calculation of high-energy emission from rotation-powered pulsars based on the outer gap model of Cheng, Ho, & Ruderman (1986 a, b). In this calculation, vacuum gaps form in regions near the speed-of-light cylinder of the pulsar magnetosphere along the boundary between the closed and open field line zones. We have improved upon previous efforts to model the spectra from these pulsars (e.g., Cheng et al. 1986b; Ho 1989) by following the variation in particle production and radiation properties with position in the outer gap. Curvature, synchotron, and inverse-Compton scattering fluxes vary significantly over the gap, and their interactions via photon-photon pair production build up the radiating charge populations at varying rates. We have also incorporated an approximate treatment of the transport particle and photon fluxes between gap emission zones. These effects, along with improved computations of the particle and photon distribution, provide very important modifications of the model gamma-ray flux. In paticular, we attempt to make specific predictions of pulse profile shapes and spectral variations as a function of pulse phase and suggest further extensions to the model which may provide accurate computations of the observed high-energy emissions.

Chiang, James↗

NASA NTRS1994

Regimes of high-energy shock emission from the Be star/pulsar system PSR 1259-63

PSR B1259-63 is a 47 ms radio pulsar in a wide, eccentric orbit with a Be star. We study the shock interaction between the pulsar and the companion's mass outflow and investigate the time evolution of radiative shock regimes. We find that for small values of the Be star's mass-loss rate, inverse-Compton scattering is likely to dominate the shock emission. Alternately, for a large mass-loss rate, synchrotron emission will dominate. Multifrequency X-ray and gamma-ray observations near periastron can distinguish between these cases and yield unique constraints on the pulsar and Be star winds. The PSR B1259-63 system provides a unique laboratory to study the time-dependent interaction of a pulsar wind with the circumbinary material from its companion star.

Tavani, Marco↗

NASA NTRS1994

Gamma-ray observations of NGC 253 and M82 with OSSE

Gamma-ray observations of the nearby starburst galaxies NGC 253 and M82 over the energy range (0.05-10) MeV have been obtained with the Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (OSSE) spectrometer on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO). The priority of these galaxies as OSSE targets had been established on the grounds that the average supernova rate may be high in starbursts as indicated by infrared and radio observations, and at distances of approximately 3 Mpc a significant chance of supernova gamm-ray line detection exists. NGC 253 was detected in continuum emission up to 165 keV with a total significance of 4.4 sigma and an estimated luminosity of 3 x 10(exp 40) ergs/s. The spectrum is best fit by a power law of photon index approximately 2.5. We consider the possible contribution of different emission mechanisms, including inverse Compton scattering, bremsstrahlung, discrete sources, and Type Ia/Ib supernova continuum to the measured flux. No significant continuum flux was observed from M82. A search for the gamma-ray line from the decay of the most abundant radioactive element produced in supernovae (Ni-56 yields Co-56 yields Fe-56) yielded no significant detection: the 3 sigma upper limits to the line fluxes at 0.158, 0.812, 0.847, and 1.238 MeV for both galaxies are obtained.

Bhattacharya, D.↗

NASA NTRS1995

Pair cascades in extragalactic jets. 1: Gamma rays

A model of the approximately 0.1-10 GeV gamma-ray jets observed by the EGRET instrument on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) is developed. It is shown that the soft X-ray background in an active galactic nuclei (AGN) contributes an opacity to pair production and that a gamma-ray photosphere or 'gamma-sphere' can be defined whose radius increases with gamma-ray energy E(sub gamma). It is proposed that the observed gamma-ray emission is due to inverse Compton scattering of the ambient soft X-rays by relativistic pairs accelerated in situ by shock fronts in a relativistic jet. For a wide range of assumed physical conditions, the emission at a given E(sub gamma) originates from near the associated gamma-spheres; emission from below the gamma-sphere initiates a cascade down to the energy where the gamma-rays can escape freely. In this model, the slope of the emergent gamma-ray spectrum is determined by the scattered, soft X-ray spectrum and the variation of the particle acceleration rate with jet radius. In general it is expected that the variation in the gamma-ray flux will be either slower or later at higher energy. It is also shown that the efficiency of conversion of energy from injected high-energy pairs to 0.1-10 GeV gamma-rays is typically high so that the models are radiatively efficient. It is argued that the observed gamma-ray jets are likely to be particle-dominated, though magnetically confined. The gamma-ray spectrum should continue down to an energy approximately 5 MeV emitted from an annihilation radius within which the pair content of the jet is limited by annihilation. This is probably the site of the beamed hard X-ray emission. It is speculated that the relativistic jets associated with radio-loud AGNs are powered electromagnetically by a spinning black hole and that they are collimated by an encircling MHD wind leaving the accretion disk at a slower speed. Powerful FR2 radio sources are formed when the hole spins rapidly and the relativistic core accelerates the MHD sheath; low-power FR1 sources ensue when the opposite occurs. Finally, it is suggested that the key factor which determines whether or not a given active nucleus can form a jet and a radio to gamma-ray nonthermal continuum is the central density of mass-losing stars which, when large, precludes the formation of a super-Alfvenic, collimating wind.

Blandford, R. D.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Cluster Observations for Combined X-Ray and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Estimates of Peculiar Velocities and Distances

Measurements of the peculiar velocities of galaxy clusters with respect to the Hubble flow allow the determination of the gravitational field from all matter in the universe, not just the visible component. The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect (the inverse-Compton scattering of cosmic microwave background photons by the hot gas in clusters of galaxies) allows these velocities to be measured without the use of empirical distance indicators. Additionally, because the magnitude of the SZ effect is independent of redshift, the technique can be used to measure velocities out to the epoch of cluster formation. The SZ technique requires a determination of the temperature of the hot cluster gas from X-ray observations, and measurements of the SZ effect at millimeter wavelengths to separate the contribution from the thermal motions within the gas from that of the cluster peculiax velocity. We have constructed a bolometric receiver, the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Infrared Experiment, specifically to make measurements of the SZ effect at millimeter wavelengths in order to apply the SZ technique to peculiar velocity measurements. This receiver has already been used to set limits to the peculiar velocities of two galaxy clusters at z approx. 0.2. As a test of the SZ technique, the double cluster pair Abell 222 and 223 was selected for observation. Measurements of the redshifts of the two components suggest that, if the clusters are gravitationally bound, they should exhibit a relative velocity of 10OO km/ s, well above the expected precision of 200 km/ s (set by astrophysical confusion) that is expected from the SZ method. The temperature can be measured from ASCA data which we obtained for this cluster pair. However, in order to ensure that the temperature estimate from the ASCA data was not dominated by cooling flows within the cluster, we requested ROSAT HRI observations of this cluster pair. Analysis of the X-ray properties of the cluster pair is continuing by combining the ROSAT observations funded under this proposal, archival PSPC data and our own PI ASCA data. The imaging data shows that neither cluster has a strong cooling flow, although A223 is the more compact of the two components. A223 also has a sub-cluster projected 1 Mpc to the North. The observed properties of this cluster pair are strikingly similar to those of the well-studied pair of A399 and A401 which are widely believed to be interacting and are in the initial stages of merging. This strengthens our selection of this cluster pair as a test for cluster peculiar motions. Combining these X-ray observations with SUZIE measurements of the SZ effect will provide important constraints on cluster merger models. This part of the program has been heavily delayed by bad weather at Mauna Kea, however SZ observations were obtained in November 1997 as part of a separately funded effort. These data are currently being analyzed.

Lange, A. E.↗