| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Veres, P., et al.
(author)
-
Observation of inverse Compton emission from a long gamma-ray burst
- 2019
-
In: Nature. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 575:7783, s. 459-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) originate from ultra-relativistic jets launched from the collapsing cores of dying massive stars. They are characterized by an initial phase of bright and highly variable radiation in the kiloelectron volt-to-mega electronvoltband, which is probably produced within the jet and lasts from milliseconds to minutes, known as the prompt emission(1,2). Subsequently, the interaction of the jet with the surrounding medium generates shock waves that are responsible for the afterglow emission, which lasts from days to months and occurs over a broad energy range from the radio to the gigaelectronvolt bands(1-6). The afterglow emission is generally well explained as synchrotron radiation emitted by electrons accelerated by the external shock(7-9). Recently, intense long-lasting emission between 0.2 and 1 teraelectronvolts was observed from GRB 190114C(10,11). Here we report multifrequency observations of GRB 190114C, and study the evolution in time of the GRB emission across 17 orders of magnitude in energy, from 5 x 10(-6) to 10(12) electronvolts. We find that the broadband spectral energy distribution is double-peaked, with the teraelectronvolt emission constituting a distinct spectral component with power comparable to the synchrotron component. This component is associated with the afterglow and is satisfactorily explained by inverse Compton up-scattering of synchrotron photons by high-energy electrons. We find that the conditions required to account for the observed teraelectronvolt component are typical for GRBs, supporting the possibility that inverse Compton emission is commonly produced in GRBs.
|
|
| 3. |
- Blunden, Jessica, et al.
(author)
-
State of the Climate in 2012
- 2013
-
In: Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). - 0003-0007 .- 1520-0477. ; 94:8, s. S1-S258
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- For the first time in serveral years, the El Nino-Southern Oscillation did not dominate regional climate conditions around the globe. A weak La Ni a dissipated to ENSOneutral conditions by spring, and while El Nino appeared to be emerging during summer, this phase never fully developed as sea surface temperatures in the eastern conditions. Nevertheless, other large-scale climate patterns and extreme weather events impacted various regions during the year. A negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation from mid-January to early February contributed to frigid conditions in parts of northern Africa, eastern Europe, and western Asia. A lack of rain during the 2012 wet season led to the worst drought in at least the past three decades for northeastern Brazil. Central North America also experienced one of its most severe droughts on record. The Caribbean observed a very wet dry season and it was the Sahel's wettest rainy season in 50 years. Overall, the 2012 average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces ranked among the 10 warmest years on record. The global land surface temperature alone was also among the 10 warmest on record. In the upper atmosphere, the average stratospheric temperature was record or near-record cold, depending on the dataset. After a 30-year warming trend from 1970 to 1999 for global sea surface temperatures, the period 2000-12 had little further trend. This may be linked to the prevalence of La Ni a-like conditions during the 21st century. Heat content in the upper 700 m of the ocean remained near record high levels in 2012. Net increases from 2011 to 2012 were observed at 700-m to 2000-m depth and even in the abyssal ocean below. Following sharp decreases in to the effects of La Ni a, sea levels rebounded to reach records highs in 2012. The increased hydrological cycle seen in recent years continued, with more evaporation in drier locations and more precipitation in rainy areas. In a pattern that has held since 2004, salty areas of the ocean surfaces and subsurfaces were anomalously salty on average, while fresher areas were anomalously fresh. Global tropical cyclone activity during 2012 was near average, with a total of 84 storms compared with the 1981-2010 average of 89. Similar to 2010 and 2011, the North Atlantic was the only hurricane basin that experienced above-normal activity. In this basin, Sandy brought devastation to Cuba and parts of the eastern North American seaboard. All other basins experienced either near-or below-normal tropical cyclone activity. Only three tropical cyclones reached Category 5 intensity-all in Bopha became the only storm in the historical record to produce winds greater than 130 kt south of 7 N. It was also the costliest storm to affect the Philippines and killed more than 1000 residents. Minimum Arctic sea ice extent in September and Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent in June both reached new record lows. June snow cover extent is now declining at a faster rate (-17.6% per decade) than September sea ice extent (-13.0% per decade). Permafrost temperatures reached record high values in northernmost Alaska. A new melt extent record occurred on 11-12 July on the Greenland ice sheet; 97% of the ice sheet showed some form of melt, four times greater than the average melt for this time of year. The climate in Antarctica was relatively stable overall. The largest maximum sea ice extent since records begain in 1978 was observed in September 2012. In the stratosphere, warm air led to the second smallest ozone hole in the past two decades. Even so, the springtime ozone layer above Antarctica likely will not return to its early 1980s state until about 2060. Following a slight decline associated with the global 2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production reached a record 9.5 +/- 0.5 Pg C in 2011 and a new record of 9.7 +/- 0.5 Pg C is estimated for 2012. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations increased by 2.1 ppm in 2012, to 392.6 ppm. In spring 2012, 2 concentration exceeded 400 ppm at 7 of the 13 Arctic observation sites. Globally, other greenhouse gases including methane and nitrous oxide also continued to rise in concentration and the combined effect now represents a 32% increase in radiative forcing over a 1990 baseline. Concentrations of most ozone depleting substances continued to fall.
|
|
| 4. |
- Reifarth, R., et al.
(author)
-
Nuclear astrophysics with radioactive ions at FAIR
- 2016
-
In: Journal of Physics: Conference Series. - : IOP Publishing. - 1742-6588 .- 1742-6596. ; 665:1
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The nucleosynthesis of elements beyond iron is dominated by neutron captures in the s and r processes. However, 32 stable, proton-rich isotopes cannot be formed during those processes, because they are shielded from the s-process flow and r-process beta-decay chains. These nuclei are attributed to the p and rp process. For all those processes, current research in nuclear astrophysics addresses the need for more precise reaction data involving radioactive isotopes. Depending on the particular reaction, direct or inverse kinematics, forward or time-reversed direction are investigated to determine or at least to constrain the desired reaction cross sections. The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) will offer unique, unprecedented opportunities to investigate many of the important reactions. The high yield of radioactive isotopes, even far away from the valley of stability, allows the investigation of isotopes involved in processes as exotic as the r or rp processes.
|
|
| 5. |
- Altstadt, S.G., et al.
(author)
-
B-13,B-14(n,gamma) via Coulomb Dissociation for Nucleosynthesis towards the r-Process
- 2014
-
In: Nuclear Data Sheets. - : Elsevier BV. - 1095-9904 .- 0090-3752. ; 120, s. 197-200
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Radioactive beams of 14,15B produced by fragmentation of a primary 40Ar beam were directed onto a Pb target to investigate the neutron breakup within the Coulomb field. The experiment was performed at the LAND/R3B setup. Preliminary results for the Coulomb dissociation cross sections as well as for the astrophysically interesting inverse reactions, 13,14B(n,γ), are presented.
|
|
| 6. |
- Tanvir, N. R., et al.
(author)
-
A γ-ray burst at a redshift of z~8.2
- 2009
-
In: Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 461, s. 1254-1257
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Long-duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to result from the explosions of certain massive stars, and some are bright enough that they should be observable out to redshifts of z>20 using current technology. Hitherto, the highest redshift measured for any object was z = 6.96, for a Lyman-α emitting galaxy. Here we report that GRB090423 lies at a redshift of z~8.2, implying that massive stars were being produced and dying as GRBs ~630Myr after the Big Bang. The burst also pinpoints the location of its host galaxy.
|
|
| 7. |
- Kann, D. A., et al.
(author)
-
THE AFTERGLOWS OF SWIFT-ERA GAMMA-RAY BURSTS. I. COMPARING PRE-SWIFT AND SWIFT-ERA LONG/SOFT (TYPE II) GRB OPTICAL AFTERGLOWS
- 2010
-
In: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 720:2, s. 1513-1558
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have gathered optical photometry data from the literature on a large sample of Swift-era gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows including GRBs up to 2009 September, for a total of 76 GRBs, and present an additional three pre-Swift GRBs not included in an earlier sample. Furthermore, we publish 840 additional new photometry data points on a total of 42 GRB afterglows, including large data sets for GRBs 050319, 050408, 050802, 050820A, 050922C, 060418, 080413A, and 080810. We analyzed the light curves of all GRBs in the sample and derived spectral energy distributions for the sample with the best data quality, allowing us to estimate the host-galaxy extinction. We transformed the afterglow light curves into an extinction-corrected z = 1 system and compared their luminosities with a sample of pre-Swift afterglows. The results of a former study, which showed that GRB afterglows clustered and exhibited a bimodal distribution in luminosity space, are weakened by the larger sample. We found that the luminosity distribution of the two afterglow samples (Swift-era and pre-Swift) is very similar, and that a subsample for which we were not able to estimate the extinction, which is fainter than the main sample, can be explained by assuming a moderate amount of line-of-sight host extinction. We derived bolometric isotropic energies for all GRBs in our sample, and found only a tentative correlation between the prompt energy release and the optical afterglow luminosity at 1 day after the GRB in the z = 1 system. A comparative study of the optical luminosities of GRB afterglows with echelle spectra (which show a high number of foreground absorbing systems) and those without, reveals no indication that the former are statistically significantly more luminous. Furthermore, we propose the existence of an upper ceiling on afterglow luminosities and study the luminosity distribution at early times, which was not accessible before the advent of the Swift satellite. Most GRBs feature afterglows that are dominated by the forward shock from early times on. Finally, we present the first indications of a class of long GRBs, which form a bridge between the typical high-luminosity, high-redshift events and nearby low-luminosity events (which are also associated with spectroscopic supernovae) in terms of energetics and observed redshift distribution, indicating a continuous distribution overall.
|
|
| 8. |
- Caesar, C., et al.
(author)
-
Beyond the neutron drip line: The unbound oxygen isotopes O-25 and O-26
- 2013
-
In: Physical Review C - Nuclear Physics. - 2469-9985 .- 2469-9993 .- 0556-2813. ; 88:3
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The very neutron-rich oxygen isotopes O-25 and O-26 are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The unbound states are populated in an experiment performed at the R3B-LAND setup at GSI via proton-knockout reactions from F-26 and F-27 at relativistic energies around 442 and 414 MeV/nucleon, respectively. From the kinematically complete measurement of the decay into O-24 plus one or two neutrons, the O-25 ground-state energy and width are determined, and upper limits for the O-26 ground-state energy and lifetime are extracted. In addition, the results provide indications for an excited state in O-26 at around 4 MeV. The experimental findings are compared to theoretical shell-model calculations based on chiral two- and three-nucleon (3N) forces, including for the first time residual 3N forces, which are shown to be amplified as valence neutrons are added.
|
|
| 9. |
- Cano, Z., et al.
(author)
-
A trio of gamma-ray burst supernovae : GRB 120729A, GRB 130215A/SN 2013ez, and GRB 130831A/SN 2013fu
- 2014
-
In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 568
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present optical and near-infrared (NIR) photometry for three gamma-ray burst supernovae (GRB-SNe): GRB 120729A, GRB 130215A/SN 2013ez, and GRB 130831A/SN 2013fu. For GRB 130215A/SN 2013ez, we also present optical spectroscopy at t-t(0) = 16.1 d, which covers rest-frame 3000-6250 angstrom. Based on Fell lambda 5169 and Sill lambda 6355, our spectrum indicates an unusually low expansion velocity of similar to 4000-6350 km s(-1), the lowest ever measured for a GRB-SN. Additionally, we determined the brightness and shape of each accompanying SN relative to a template supernova (SN 1998bw), which were used to estimate the amount of nickel produced via nucleosynthesis during each explosion. We find that our derived nickel masses are typical of other GRB-SNe, and greater than those of SNe Ibc that are not associated with GRBs. For GRB 130831A/SN 2013fu, we used our well-sampled R-band light curve (LC) to estimate the amount of ejecta mass and the kinetic energy of the SN, finding that these too are similar to other GRB-SNe. For GRB 130215A, we took advantage of contemporaneous optical/NIR observations to construct an optical/NIR bolometric LC of the afterglow. We fit the bolometric LC with the millisecond magnetar model of Zhang & Meszros (2001, ApJ, 552, L35), which considers dipole radiation as a source of energy injection to the forward shock powering the optical/NIR afterglow. Using this model we derive an initial spin period of P = 12 ms and a magnetic field of B = 1.1 x 10(15) G, which are commensurate with those found for proposed magnetar central engines of other long-duration GRBs.
|
|
| 10. |
- Heine, M., et al.
(author)
-
Determination of the neutron-capture rate of C-17 for r-process nucleosynthesis
- 2017
-
In: Physical Review C. - 2469-9985 .- 2469-9993. ; 95:1, s. Article no 014613 -
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- With the (RB)-B-3-LAND setup at GSI we have measured exclusive relative-energy spectra of the Coulomb dissociation of C-18 at a projectile energy around 425A MeV on a lead target, which are needed to determine the radiative neutron-capture cross sections of C-17 into the ground state of C-18. Those data have been used to constrain theoretical calculations for transitions populating excited states in C-18. This allowed to derive the astrophysical cross section sigma(n gamma)*. accounting for the thermal population of C-17 target states in astrophysical scenarios. The experimentally verified capture rate is significantly lower than those of previously obtained Hauser-Feshbach estimations at temperatures T-9
|
|
