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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2006

Gamma Ray Burst Discoveries by the Swift Mission

Gamma-ray bursts are among the most fascinating occurrences in the cosmos. They are thought to be the birth cries of black holes throughout the universe. The NASA Swift mission is an innovative new multiwavelength observatory designed to determine the origin of bursts and use them to probe the early Universe. Swift is now in orbit after a beautiful launch on November 20, 2004. A new-technology wide-field gamma-ray camera detects more than a hundred bursts per year. Sensitive narrow-field X-ray and UV/optical telescopes, built in collaboration with UK and Italian partners and calibrated in Germany, are pointed at the burst location in 20 to 70 sec by an autonomously controlled "swift" spacecraft. For each burst, arcsec positions are determined and optical/UV/X-ray/gamma-ray spectrophotometry performed. Information is also rapidly sent to the ground to a team of more than 50 observers at telescopes around the world. Early results from the mission will be presented. The long-standing mystery of short GRBs has been solved, and the answer is the most interesting possible scenario. High redshift bursts have been detected leading to a better understanding of star formation rates and distant galaxy environments. GRBs have been found with giant X-ray flares occurring in their afterglow. Observations of magnetars, galactic transients, supernovae, AGN and many other types of sources are also being performed

Gehrels, Neil↗
NASA NTRS1977

A search for the reported 400-keV gamma-ray line from Crab Nebula

A balloon-borne large volume high resolution gamma-ray spectrometer which utilizes 40 cu cm Ge(Li) crystals was used June 10, 1974 to search for a 400-keV gamma-ray line from the Crab Nebula. Energy loss spectra in the 400-keV vicinity are compared with gamma-ray measurements of the same source which were reported by Leventhal et al. (1977). In contrast with the 1976 experimental results reported by Leventhal et al., a 400-keV line was not observed. Further, it is thought that the 1974 data contradict the measurement reported by Leventhal et al. if a constant source intensity is assumed.

Ling, J. C.↗
DOE OSTI2013

THE NATURE OF GAMMA-RAY EMISSION OF TYCHO'S SUPERNOVA REMNANT

The nature of the recently detected high-energy and very high-energy {gamma}-ray emission of Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR) is studied. A nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic-ray (CR) acceleration in SNRs is employed to investigate the properties of Tycho's SNR and their correspondence with the existing experimental data, taking into account that the ambient interstellar medium (ISM) is expected to be clumpy. It is demonstrated that the overall steep {gamma}-ray spectrum observed can be interpreted as the superposition of two spectra produced by the CR proton component in two different ISM phases: the first {gamma}-ray component, extending up to about 10{sup 14} eV, originates in the diluted warm ISM, whereas the second component, extending up to 100 GeV, comes from numerous dense, small-scale clouds embedded in this warm ISM. Given the consistency between acceleration theory and the observed properties of the nonthermal emission of Tycho's SNR, very efficient production of nuclear CRs in Tycho's SNR is established. The excess of the GeV {gamma}-ray emission due to the clouds' contribution above the level expected in the case of a purely homogeneous ISM is inevitably expected in the case of Type Ia SNe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2006

Gamma Ray Burst Discoveries by the Swift Mission

Gamma-ray bursts are among the most fascinating occurrences in the cosmos. They are thought to be the birth cries of black holes throughout the universe. The NASA swift mission is an innovative new multiwavelength observatory designed to determine the origin of bursts and use them to probe the early Universe. Swift is now in orbit since November 20, 2004 and all hardware is performing well. A new-technology wide-field gamma-ray camera is detecting a hundred bursts per year. sensitive narrow-field X-ray and uv/optical telescopes, built in collaboration with UK and Italian partners, are pointed at the burst location in 50-100 sec by an autonomously controlled "swift" spacecraft. For each burst, arcsec positions are determined and optical/UV/X-ray/gamma-ray spectrophotometry performed. Information is also rapidly sent to the ground to a team of more than 50 observers at telescopes around the world. The first year of findings from the mission will be presented. There has been a break-through in the longstanding mystery of short GRBs; they appear to be caused by merging neutron stars. High redshift bursts have been detected leading to a better understanding of star formation rates and distant galaxy environments. GRBs have been found with giant X-ray flares occurring in their afterglow.

Gehrels, Neil↗
DOE OSTI2018

VERITAS and Fermi -LAT Observations of TeV Gamma-Ray Sources Discovered by HAWC in the 2HWC Catalog

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) collaboration recently published their 2HWC catalog, listing 39 very high energy (VHE; >100 GeV) gamma-ray sources based on 507 days of observation. Among these, 19 sources are not associated with previously known teraelectronvolt (TeV) gamma-ray sources. We have studied 14 of these sources without known counterparts with VERITAS and Fermi-LAT. VERITAS detected weak gamma-ray emission in the 1 TeV–30 TeV band in the region of DA 495, a pulsar wind nebula coinciding with 2HWC J1953+294, confirming the discovery of the source by HAWC. Here, we did not find any counterpart for the selected 14 new HAWC sources from our analysis of Fermi-LAT data for energies higher than 10 GeV. During the search, we detected gigaelectronvolt (GeV) gamma-ray emission coincident with a known TeV pulsar wind nebula, SNR G54.1+0.3 (VER J1930+188), and a 2HWC source, 2HWC J1930+188. The fluxes for isolated, steady sources in the 2HWC catalog are generally in good agreement with those measured by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. However, the VERITAS fluxes for SNR G54.1+0.3, DA 495, and TeV J2032+4130 are lower than those measured by HAWC, and several new HAWC sources are not detected by VERITAS. This is likely due to a change in spectral shape, source extension, or the influence of diffuse emission in the source region.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Neutron Detection Gamma Ray Sensitivity Criteria

The shortage of 3He has triggered the search for effective alternative neutron detection technologies for national security and safeguards applications. Any new detection technology must satisfy two basic criteria: (1) it must meet a neutron detection efficiency requirement, and (2) it must be insensitive to gamma-ray interference at a prescribed level, while still meeting the neutron detection requirement. It is the purpose of this paper to define measureable gamma ray sensitivity criteria for neutron detectors. Quantitative requirements are specified for: intrinsic gamma ray detection efficiency and gamma ray absolute rejection. The ratio GARRn is defined, and it is proposed that the requirement for neutron detection be 0.9 < GARRn < 1.1 at a 10 mR/h exposure rate. An example of results from a 3He based neutron detector are provided showing that this technology can meet the stated requirements. Results from tests of some alternative technologies are also reported.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
NASA NTRS2012

Fermi Detection of Gamma-Ray Emission from the M2 Soft X-Ray Flare on 2010 June 12

The GOES M2-class solar flare, SOL2010-06-12T00:57, was modest in many respects yet exhibited remarkable acceleration of energetic particles. The flare produced an approximately 50 s impulsive burst of hard X- and gamma-ray emission up to at least 400 MeV observed by the Fermi GBM and LAT experiments. The remarkably similar hard X-ray and high-energy gamma-ray time profiles suggest that most of the particles were accelerated to energies greater than or equal to 300 MeV with a delay of approximately 10 s from mildly relativistic electrons, but some reached these energies in as little as approximately 3 s. The gamma-ray line fluence from this flare was about ten times higher than that typically observed from this modest GOES class of X-ray flare. There is no evidence for time-extended greater than 100 MeV emission as has been found for other flares with high-energy gamma rays.

Ackermann, M.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Origin of diffuse gamma-ray background

It is shown that the observed spectrum of the diffuse gamma-ray background could be accounted for by unresolved active galaxies even with no evolution, if their spectra are described by a spherical accretion/shock acceleration model (1983) and are steepened by photon-photon pair production interactions at high energies. The model is based on HEAO-1 and SAS-2 observations in the region of 2 to 165 keV and above 30 MeV. The model predicts a higher flux of high-energy neutrinos from active galaxies than models in which electrons are accelerated directly. It is noted that several active galaxies should be detectable by the Gamma-Ray Observatory, making it possible to determine the actual contribution of active galaxies to the diffuse gamma-ray background.

Protheroe, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS2011

On the Sensitivity of the HAWC Observatory to Gamma-Ray Bursts

We present the sensitivity of HAWC to Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). HAWC is a very high-energy gamma-ray observatory currently under construction in Mexico at an altitude of 4100 m. It will observe atmospheric air showers via the water Cherenkov method. HAWC will consist of 300 large water tanks instrumented with 4 photomultipliers each. HAWC has two data acquisition (DAQ) systems. The main DAQ system reads out coincident signals in the tanks and reconstructs the direction and energy of individual atmospheric showers. The scaler DAQ counts the hits in each photomultiplier tube (PMT) in the detector and searches for a statistical excess over the noise of all PMTs. We show that HAWC has a realistic opportunity to observe the high-energy power law components of GRBs that extend at least up to 30 GeV, as it has been observed by Fermi LAT. The two DAQ systems have an energy threshold that is low enough to observe events similar to GRB 090510 and GRB 090902b with the characteristics observed by Fermi LAT. HAWC will provide information about the high-energy spectra of GRBs which in turn will lead to understanding about e-pair attenuation in GRB jets, extragalactic background light absorption, as well as establishing the highest energy to which GRBs accelerate particles.

Hays, E.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Gamma-ray bursters at cosmological distances

It is proposed that some, perhaps most, gamma-ray bursters are at cosmological distances, like quasars, with a redshift of about 1 or 2. This proposition requires a release of supernova-like energy of about 10 to the 51st ergs within less than 1 s, making gamma-ray bursters the brightest objects known in the universe, many orders of magnitude brighter than any quasars. This power must drive a highly relativistic outflow of electron-positron plasma and radiation from the source. It is proposed that three gamma-ray bursts, all with identical spectra, detected from B1900 + 14 by Mazets, Golenetskii, and Gur'yan and reported in 1979, were all due to a single event multiply imaged by a gravitational lens. The time intervals between the successive bursts, 10 hr to 3 days, were due to differences in the light travel time for different images.

Paczynski, B.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Search for gamma-rays from M31 and other extragalactic objects

Although the existence of fluxes of gamma-rays of energies 10 to the 12th power eV is now established for galactic sources, the detection of such gamma-rays from extragalactic sources has yet to be independently confirmed in any case. The detection and confirmation of such energetic photons is of great astrophysical importance in the study of production mechanisms for cosmic rays, and other high energy processes in extragalactic objects. Observations of m31 are discussed. It is reported as a 10 to the 12th power eV gamma-ray source. Flux limits on a number of other extragalactic objects chosen for study are given.

Cawley, M. F.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Strong gamma-ray bursts observed by COMPTEL during its second year of operation

The imaging Compton telescope (COMPTEL) onboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) can localize gamma-ray bursts occurring inside its approximately 1 sr field-of-view in the energy range from 0.75 to 30 MeV with location accuracy of 1 deg. Additional time-resolved spectral measurements in the energy range 0.1 to 10 MeV are made by individual COMPTEL 'burst' detectors. During its second year of operation COMPTEL observed several gamma-ray bursts. Locations of five strong bursts (including the rapidly imaged events GRB 930131 and GRB 930309) are presented here along with the findings from preliminary spectral analysis.

Kippen, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS2010

GBM Observations of Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes

The TGF detection rate of Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) has been increased twice since launch. The most recent improvement is from a new operating mode in which data for individual photons are down-linked for selected portions of the orbit, enabling a more sensitive ground-based search for TGFs. The new search has increased the TGF detection rate and is finding TGFs more than five times fainter than the TGFs of the previous GBM sample. We summarize the properties of the original GBM TGF sample and compare to the less intense TGFs now being detected. In addition to gamma-ray TGFs, GBM is observing distant TGFs from the propagation of charged particles along geomagnetic field lines. Strong 511 keV annihilation lines have been observed, demonstrating that both electrons and positrons are present in the particle beams. Spectral fits to these electron/positron TGFs will be shown.

Briggs, M. S.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Active Neutron and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for In Situ Planetary Science Applications

We describe the development of an instrument capable of detailed in situ bulk geochemical analysis of the surface of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. This instrument technology uses a pulsed neutron generator to excite the solid materials of a planet and measures the resulting neutron and gamma-ray emission with its detector system. These time-resolved neutron and gamma-ray data provide detailed information about the bulk elemental composition, chemical context, and density distribution of the soil within 50 cm of the surface. While active neutron scattering and neutron-induced gamma-ray techniques have been used extensively for terrestrial nuclear well logging applications, our goal is to apply these techniques to surface instruments for use on any solid solar system body. As described, experiments at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center use a prototype neutron-induced gamma-ray instrument and the resulting data presented show the promise of this technique for becoming a versatile, robust, workhorse technology for planetary science, and exploration of any of the solid bodies in the solar system. The detection of neutrons at the surface also provides useful information about the material. This paper focuses on the data provided by the gamma-ray detector.

Parsons, A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Spectral properties of blast-wave models of gamma-ray burst sources

We calculate the spectrum of blast-wave models of gamma-ray burst sources, for various assumptions about the magnetic field density and the relativistic particle acceleration efficiency. For a range of physically plausible models we find that the radiation efficiency is high and leads to nonthermal spectra with breaks at various energies comparable to those observed in the gamma-ray range. Radiation is also predicted at other wavebands, in particular at X-ray, optical/UV, and GeV/TeV energies. We discuss the spectra as a function of duration for three basic types of models, and for cosmological, halo, and galactic disk distances. We also evaluate the gamma-ray fluences and the spectral characteristics for a range of external densities. Impulsive burst models at cosmological distances can satisfy the conventional X-ray paucity constraint S(sub x)/S(sub gamma)less than a few percent over a wide range of durations, but galactic models can do so only for bursts shorter than a few seconds, unless additional assumptions are made. The emissivity is generally larger for bursts in a denser external environment, with the efficiency increasing up to the point where all the energy input is radiated away.

Meszaros, P.↗
NASA NTRS1977

No new limit on size distribution of gamma-ray bursts

It is argued that the results of Carter et al. (1976), who derived an upper limit to the balloon intensity of small gamma-ray bursts at about 100 below the extrapolated known size spectrum and therefore concluded that the gamma-ray bursts are of galactic origin, are entirely consistent with the -1.5 index power-law extrapolation, so that no conclusion regarding the origin of gamma-ray bursts can be drawn. A reply of Carter et al. is published. Points at issue include: (1) whether a selection criterion of three successive 0.6-sec increases in the gamma-ray count rate ignores a significant or only a small number of events, (2) whether the spectra of all bursts extend below 100 keV, the satellite energy threshold, and (3) the required correction for the distortion of a horizontal, flat detector.

Cline, T. L.↗