| 1. |
- Ajello, M., et al.
(författare)
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Gamma Rays from Fast Black-hole Winds
- 2021
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 921:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Massive black holes at the centers of galaxies can launch powerful wide-angle winds that, if sustained over time, can unbind the gas from the stellar bulges of galaxies. These winds may be responsible for the observed scaling relation between the masses of the central black holes and the velocity dispersion of stars in galactic bulges. Propagating through the galaxy, the wind should interact with the interstellar medium creating a strong shock, similar to those observed in supernovae explosions, which is able to accelerate charged particles to high energies. In this work we use data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope to search for the gamma-ray emission from galaxies with an ultrafast outflow (UFO): a fast (v similar to 0.1 c), highly ionized outflow, detected in absorption at hard X-rays in several nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN). Adopting a sensitive stacking analysis we are able to detect the average gamma-ray emission from these galaxies and exclude that it is due to processes other than UFOs. Moreover, our analysis shows that the gamma-ray luminosity scales with the AGN bolometric luminosity and that these outflows transfer similar to 0.04% of their mechanical power to gamma-rays. Interpreting the observed gamma-ray emission as produced by cosmic rays (CRs) accelerated at the shock front, we find that the gamma-ray emission may attest to the onset of the wind-host interaction and that these outflows can energize charged particles up to the transition region between galactic and extragalactic CRs.
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| 2. |
- Abdollahi, S., et al.
(författare)
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Search for New Cosmic-Ray Acceleration Sites within the 4FGL Catalog Galactic Plane Sources
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 933:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cosmic rays are mostly composed of protons accelerated to relativistic speeds. When those protons encounter interstellar material, they produce neutral pions, which in turn decay into gamma-rays. This offers a compelling way to identify the acceleration sites of protons. A characteristic hadronic spectrum, with a low-energy break around 200 MeV, was detected in the gamma-ray spectra of four supernova remnants (SNRs), IC 443, W44, W49B, and W51C, with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. This detection provided direct evidence that cosmic-ray protons are (re-)accelerated in SNRs. Here, we present a comprehensive search for low-energy spectral breaks among 311 4FGL catalog sources located within 5° from the Galactic plane. Using 8 yr of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope between 50 MeV and 1 GeV, we find and present the spectral characteristics of 56 sources with a spectral break confirmed by a thorough study of systematic uncertainty. Our population of sources includes 13 SNRs for which the proton–proton interaction is enhanced by the dense target material; the high-mass gamma-ray binary LS I+61 303; the colliding wind binary η Carinae; and the Cygnus star-forming region. This analysis better constrains the origin of the gamma-ray emission and enlarges our view to potential new cosmic-ray acceleration sites.
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| 3. |
- Ajello, M., et al.
(författare)
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Fermi and Swift Observations of GRB 190114C : Tracing the Evolution of High-energy Emission from Prompt to Afterglow
- 2020
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 890:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on the observations of gamma-ray burst (GRB) 190114C by the Fermi Gamma -ray Space Telescope and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The prompt gamma-ray emission was detected by the Fermi GRB Monitor (GBM), the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), and the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) and the long-lived afterglow emission was subsequently observed by the GBM, LAT, Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT), and Swift UV Optical Telescope. The early -time observations reveal multiple emission components that evolve independently, with a delayed power-law component that exhibits significant spectral attenuation above 40 MeV in the first few seconds of the burst. This power-law component transitions to a harder spectrum that is consistent with the afterglow emission observed by the XRT at later times. This afterglow component is clearly identifiable in the GBM and BAT light curves as a slowly fading emission component on which the rest of the prompt emission is superimposed. As a result, we are able to observe the transition from internal-shock- to external-shock-dominated emission. We find that the temporal and spectral evolution of the broadband afterglow emission can be well modeled as synchrotron emission from a forward shock propagating into a wind -like circumstellar environment. We estimate the initial bulk Lorentz factor using the observed high-energy spectral cutoff. Considering the onset of the afterglow component, we constrain the deceleration radius at which this forward shock begins to radiate in order to estimate the maximum synchrotron energy as a function of time. We find that even in the LAT energy range, there exist high-energy photons that are in tension with the theoretical maximum energy that can be achieved through synchrotron emission from a shock. These violations of the maximum synchrotron energy are further compounded by the detection of very high-energy (VHE) emission above 300 GeV by MAGIC concurrent with our observations. We conclude that the observations of VHE photons from GRB 190114C necessitates either an additional emission mechanism at very high energies that is hidden in the synchrotron component in the LAT energy range, an acceleration mechanism that imparts energy to the particles at a rate that is faster than the electron synchrotron energy -loss rate, or revisions of the fundamental assumptions used in estimating the maximum photon energy attainable through the synchrotron process.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Geng, Xiongfei, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring High-energy Emission from the BL Lacertae Object S5 0716+714 with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
- 2020
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 904:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present the results of an extensive gamma-ray data analysis of the emission from the blazar S5 0716+714 with the primary motivation to study its temporal and spectral variability behavior. In this work, we extract a 10 days binned gamma-ray light curve from 2008 August 4 to 2016 April 27 in the energy range of 0.1-300 GeV and identify six outburst periods with peak flux of >4 x 10(-7) ph cm(-2) s(-1) from this highly variable source. The brightest flares are identified by zooming in these outburst periods to 1 day binning and using the Bayesian Blocks algorithm. The fastest variability timescale is found to be 1.5 0.3 hr at MJD 57128.01 0.01 with a peak flux above 100 MeV of (26.8 6.9) x 10(-7) ph cm(-2) s(-1). No hint of periodic modulations has been detected for the light curve of S5 0716+714. During the outburst phases, the gamma-ray spectrum shows an obvious spectral break with a break energy between 0.93 and 6.90 GeV energies, which may be caused by an intrinsic break in the energy distribution of radiating particles. The five highest-energy photons, with E > 100 GeV, imply that the high-energy emission from this source may originate from a moving emission region in a helical path upstream in the jet. The spectral behavior and temporal characteristics of the individual flares indicate that the location of the emission region lies in the sub-parsec scale (r(gamma) < 0.85 pc).
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