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Bellazzini, R.

Publications and source records attributed to Bellazzini, R..

At least 37 records · Page 2
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NASA NTRS2013

The Fermi All-Sky Variability Analysis: A List of Flaring Gamma-Ray Sources and the Search for Transients in our Galaxy

In this paper, we present the Fermi All-sky Variability Analysis (FAVA), a tool to systematically study the variability of the gamma-ray sky measured by the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.For each direction on the sky, FAVA compares the number of gamma-rays observed in a given time window to the number of gamma-rays expected for the average emission detected from that direction. This method is used in weekly time intervals to derive a list of 215 flaring gamma-ray sources. We proceed to discuss the 27 sources found at Galactic latitudes smaller than 10 and show that, despite their low latitudes, most of them are likely of extragalactic origin.

ANALYSIS↗
NASA NTRS2013

High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission From Solar Flares: Summary of Fermi LAT Detections and Analysis of Two M-Class Flares

We present the detections of 19 solar flares detected in high-energy gamma rays (above 100 MeV) with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) during its rst four years of operation. Interestingly, all ares are associated with fairly fast Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and are not all powerful X-ray ares. We then describe the detailed temporal, spatial and spectral characteristics of the rst two long-lasting events: the 2011 March 7 are, a moderate (M3.7) impulsive are followed by slowly varying gamma-ray emission over 13 hours, and the 2011 June 7 M2.5 are, which was followed by gamma-ray emission lasting for 2 hours. We compare the Fermi-LAT data with X-ray and proton data measurements from GOES and RHESSI. We argue that a hadronic origin of the gamma rays is more likely than a leptonic origin and nd that the energy spectrum of the proton distribution softens after the 2011 March 7 are, favoring a scenario with continuous acceleration at the are site. This work suggests that proton acceleration in solar ares is more common than previously thought, occurring for even modest X-ray ares, and for longer durations.

fermi↗
NASA NTRS2013

Dark Matter Constraints from Observations of 25 Milky Way Satellite Galaxies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

The dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies of the Milky Way are some of the most dark-matter-dominated objects known. Due to their proximity, high dark matter content, and lack of astrophysical backgrounds, dwarf spheroidal galaxies are widely considered to be among the most promising targets for the indirect detection of dark matter via gamma rays. Here we report on gamma ray observations of 25 Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies based on 4 years of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data. None of the dwarf galaxies are significantly detected in gamma rays, and we present gamma ray flux upper limits between 500MeV and 500 GeV. We determine the dark matter content of 18 dwarf spheroidal galaxies from stellar kinematic data and combine LAT observations of 15 dwarf galaxies to constrain the dark matter annihilation cross section. We set some of the tightest constraints to date on the annihilation of dark matter particles with masses between 2 GeV and 10TeV into prototypical standard model channels. We find these results to be robust against systematic uncertainties in the LAT instrument performance, diffuse gamma ray background modeling, and assumed dark matter density profile.

satellite↗
NASA NTRS2012

Constraints on the Galactic Halo Dark Matter from Fermi-LAT Diffuse Measurements

We have performed an analysis of the diffuse gamma-ray emission with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the Milky Way halo region, searching for a signal from dark matter annihilation or decay. In the absence of a robust dark matter signal, constraints are presented. We consider both gamma rays produced directly in the dark matter annihilation/decay and produced by inverse Compton scattering of the e+/e− produced in the annihilation/decay. Conservative limits are derived requiring that the dark matter signal does not exceed the observed diffuse gamma-ray emission. A second set of more stringent limits is derived based on modeling the foreground astrophysical diffuse emission using the GALPROP code. Uncertainties in the height of the diffusive cosmic-ray halo, the distribution of the cosmic-ray sources in the Galaxy, the index of the injection cosmic-ray electron spectrum, and the column density of the interstellar gas are taken into account using a profile likelihood formalism, while the parameters governing the cosmic-ray propagation have been derived from fits to local cosmic-ray data. The resulting limits impact the range of particle masses over which dark matter thermal production in the early universe is possible, and challenge the interpretation of the PAMELA/Fermi-LAT cosmic ray anomalies as the annihilation of dark matter.

DIFFUSE MEASUREMENTS↗
NASA NTRS2012

FERMI Observations of Gamma -Ray Emission From the Moon

We report on the detection of high-energy γ -ray emission from the Moon during the first 24 months of observations by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). This emission comes from particle cascades produced by cosmicray (CR) nuclei and electrons interacting with the lunar surface. The differential spectrum of the Moon is soft and can be described as a log-parabolic function with an effective cutoff at 2-3 GeV, while the average integral flux measured with the LAT from the beginning of observations in 2008 August to the end of 2010 August is F(greater than100 MeV) = (1.04 plus or minus 0.01 [statistical error] plus or minus 0.1 [systematic error]) × 10(sup −6) cm(sup −2) s(sup −1). This flux is about a factor 2-3 higher than that observed between 1991 and 1994 by the EGRET experiment on board the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, F(greater than100 MeV)≈5×10(sup −7) cm(sup −2) s(sup −1), when solar activity was relatively high. The higher gamma -ray flux measured by Fermi is consistent with the deep solar minimum conditions during the first 24 months of the mission, which reduced effects of heliospheric modulation, and thus increased the heliospheric flux of Galactic CRs. A detailed comparison of the light curve with McMurdo Neutron Monitor rates suggests a correlation of the trends. The Moon and the Sun are so far the only known bright emitters of gamma-rays with fast celestial motion. Their paths across the sky are projected onto the Galactic center and high Galactic latitudes as well as onto other areas crowded with high-energy gamma-ray sources. Analysis of the lunar and solar emission may thus be important for studies of weak and transient sources near the ecliptic.

fermi↗
NASA NTRS2012

GRB110721A: An Extreme Peak Energy and Signatures of the Photosphere

GRB110721A was observed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope using its two instruments, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). The burst consisted of one major emission episode which lasted for approximately 24.5 s (in the GBM) and had a peak flux of (5.7 +/- 0.2) 10(exp -5) erg s(exp -1) cm(exp -2). The time-resolved emission spectrum is best modeled with a combination of a Band function and a blackbody spectrum. The peak energy of the Band component was initially 15 +/- 2 MeV, which is the highest value ever detected in a GRB. This measurement was made possible by combining GBM/BGO data with LAT Low Energy events to achieve continuous 10-100 MeV coverage. The peak energy later decreased as a power law in time with an index of -1.89 +/- 0.10. The temperature of the blackbody component also decreased, starting from approximately 80 keV, and the decay showed a significant break after approximately 2s. The spectrum provides strong constraints on the standard synchrotron model, indicating that alternative mechanisms may give rise to the emission at these energies.

Axelsson, M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Gamma-Ray Observations of the Orion Molecular Clouds with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

We report on the gamma-ray observations of giant molecular clouds Orion A and B with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The gamma-ray emission in the energy band between approx 100 MeV and approx 100 GeV is predicted to trace the gas mass distribution in the clouds through nuclear interactions between the Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) and interstellar gas. The gamma-ray production cross-section for the nuclear interaction is known to approx 10% precision which makes the LAT a powerful tool to measure the gas mass column density distribution of molecular clouds for a known CR intensity. We present here such distributions for Orion A and B, and correlate them with those of the velocity-integrated CO intensity (W(sub CO)) at a 1 deg 1 deg pixel level. The correlation is found to be linear over a W(sub CO) range of approx 10-fold when divided in three regions, suggesting penetration of nuclear CRs to most of the cloud volumes. The W(sub CO)-to-mass conversion factor, X(sub CO), is found to be approx 2.3 10(exp 20) / sq cm (K km/s)(exp -1) for the high-longitude part of Orion A (l > 212 deg), approx 1.7 times higher than approx 1.3 10(exp 20) found for the rest of Orion A and B. We interpret the apparent high X(sub CO) in the high-longitude region of Orion A in the light of recent works proposing a nonlinear relation between H2 and CO densities in the diffuse molecular gas.W(sub CO) decreases faster than the H2 column density in the region making the gas "darker" to W(sub CO).

Ackermann, M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

A Statistical Approach to Recognizing Source Classes for Unassociated Sources in the First FERMI-LAT Catalog

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) First Source Catalog (1FGL) provided spatial, spectral, and temporal properties for a large number of gamma -ray sources using a uniform analysis method. After correlating with the mostcomplete catalogs of source types known to emit gamma rays, 630 of these sources are "unassociated" (i.e., have no obvious counterparts at other wavelengths). Here, we employ two statistical analyses of the primary gamma-ray characteristics for these unassociated sources in an effort to correlate their gamma-ray properties with the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and pulsar populations in 1FGL. Based on the correlation results, we classify 221 AGN-like and 134 pulsar-like sources in the 1FGL unassociated sources. The results of these source "classifications" appear to match the expected source distributions, especially at high Galactic latitudes. While useful for planning future multiwavelength follow-up observations, these analyses use limited inputs, and their predictions should not be considered equivalent to "probable source classes" for these sources. We discuss multiwavelength results and catalog cross-correlations to date, and provide new source associations for 229 Fermi-LAT sources that had no association listed in the 1FGL catalog. By validating the source classifications against these new associations, we find that the new association matches the predicted source class in approximately 80% of the sources.

SOURCES↗
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 NTRS2012

Search for Dark Matter Satellites Using the Fermi-Lat

Numerical simulations based on the ACDM model of cosmology predict a large number of as yet unobserved Galactic dark matter satellites. We report the results of a Large Area Telescope (LAT) search for these satellites via the gamma-ray emission expected from the annihilation of weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter. Some dark matter satellites are expected to have hard gamma-ray spectra, finite angular extents, and a lack of counterparts at other wavelengths. We sought to identify LAT sources with these characteristics, focusing on gamma-ray spectra consistent with WIMP annihilation through the bb(sup raised bar) channel. We found no viable dark matter satellite candidates using one year of data, and we present a framework for interpreting this result in the context of numerical simulations to constrain the velocity-averaged annihilation cross section for a conventional 100 Ge V WIMP annihilating through the bb(sup raised bar) channel.

Ackermann, M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Fermi Large Area Telescope on Orbit: Event Classification, Instrument Response Functions, and Calibration

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT, hereafter LAT), the primary instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) mission, is an imaging, wide field-of-view, high-energy -ray telescope, covering the energy range from 20 MeV to more than 300 GeV. During the first years of the mission the LAT team has gained considerable insight into the in-flight performance of the instrument. Accordingly, we have updated the analysis used to reduce LAT data for public release as well as the Instrument Response Functions (IRFs), the description of the instrument performance provided for data analysis. In this paper we describe the effects that motivated these updates. Furthermore, we discuss how we originally derived IRFs from Monte Carlo simulations and later corrected those IRFs for discrepancies observed between flight and simulated data. We also give details of the validations performed using flight data and quantify the residual uncertainties in the IRFs. Finally, we describe techniques the LAT team has developed to propagate those uncertainties into estimates of the systematic errors on common measurements such as fluxes and spectra of astrophysical sources.

Ackermann, M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Fermi LAT Search for Dark Matter in Gamma-Ray Lines and the Inclusive Photon Spectrum

Dark matter particle annihilation or decay can produce monochromatic gamma-ray lines and contribute to the diffuse gamma-ray background. Flux upper limits are presented for gamma-ray spectral lines from 7 to 200 GeV and for the diffuse gamma-ray background from 4.8 GeV to 264 GeV obtained from two years of Fermi Large Area Telescope data integrated over most of the sky. We give cross section upper limits and decay lifetime lower limits for dark matter models that produce gamma-ray lines or contribute to the diffuse spectrum, including models proposed as explanations of the PAMELA and Fermi cosmic-ray data.

Ackermann, M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

In-Flight Measurement of the Absolute Energy Scale of the Fermi Large Area Telescope

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on-board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is a pair-conversion telescope designed to survey the gamma-ray sky from 20 MeV to several hundreds of GeV. In this energy band there are no astronomical sources with sufficiently well known and sharp spectral features to allow an absolute calibration of the LAT energy scale. However, the geomagnetic cutoff in the cosmic ray electron- plus-positron (CRE) spectrum in low Earth orbit does provide such a spectral feature. The energy and spectral shape of this cutoff can be calculated with the aid of a numerical code tracing charged particles in the Earth's magnetic field. By comparing the cutoff value with that measured by the LAT in different geomagnetic positions, we have obtained several calibration points between approx. 6 and approx. 13 GeV with an estimated uncertainty of approx. 2%. An energy calibration with such high accuracy reduces the systematic uncertainty in LAT measurements of, for example, the spectral cutoff in the emission from gamma ray pulsars.

Cosmic-rays↗
NASA NTRS2011

Constraining Dark Matter Models from a Combined Analysis of Milky Way Satellites with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Satellite galaxies of the Milky Way are among the most promising targets for dark matter searches in gamma rays. We present a search for dark matter consisting of weakly interacting massive particles, applying a joint likelihood analysis to 10 satellite galaxies with 24 months of data of the Fermi Large Area Telescope. No dark matter signal is detected. Including the uncertainty in the dark matter distribution, robust upper limits are placed on dark matter annihilation cross sections. The 95% confidence level upper limits range from about 10(exp -26) cm(exp 3) / s at 5 GeV to about 5 X 10(exp -23) cm(exp 3)/ s at 1 TeV, depending on the dark matter annihilation final state. For the first time, using gamma rays, we are able to rule out models with the most generic cross section (approx 3 X 10(exp -26) cm(exp 3)/s for a purely s-wave cross section), without assuming additional boost factors.

Ackermann, M.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Fermi Detection of a Luminous gamma-ray Pulsar in a Globular Cluster

We report the Fermi Large Area Telescope detection of gamma -ray (>100 mega-electron volts) pulsations from pulsar J1823--3021A in the globular cluster NGC 6624 with high significance (approx 7 sigma). Its gamma-ray luminosity L (sub 3) = (8:4 +/- 1:6) X 10(exp 34) ergs per second, is the highest observed for any millisecond pulsar (MSP) to date, and it accounts for most of the cluster emission. The non-detection of the cluster in the off-pulse phase implies that its contains < 32 gamma-ray MSPs, not approx 100 as previously estimated. The gamma -ray luminosity indicates that the unusually large rate of change of its period is caused by its intrinsic spin-down. This implies that J1823--3021A has the largest magnetic field and is the youngest MSP ever detected, and that such anomalous objects might be forming at rates comparable to those of the more normal MSPs.

Freire, P. C. C.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Radio/Gamma-Ray Connection in Active Galactic Nuclei in the Era of the Fermi Large Area Telescope

We present a detailed statistical analysis of the correlation between radio and gamma-ray emission of the active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected by Fermi during its first year of operation, with the largest data sets ever used for this purpose.We use both archival interferometric 8.4 GHz data (from the Very Large Array and ATCA, for the full sample of 599 sources) and concurrent single-dish 15 GHz measurements from the OwensValley RadioObservatory (OVRO, for a sub sample of 199 objects). Our unprecedentedly large sample permits us to assess with high accuracy the statistical significance of the correlation, using a surrogate data method designed to simultaneously account for common-distance bias and the effect of a limited dynamical range in the observed quantities. We find that the statistical significance of a positive correlation between the centimeter radio and the broadband (E > 100 MeV) gamma-ray energy flux is very high for the whole AGN sample, with a probability of <10(exp -7) for the correlation appearing by chance. Using the OVRO data, we find that concurrent data improve the significance of the correlation from 1.6 10(exp -6) to 9.0 10(exp -8). Our large sample size allows us to study the dependence of correlation strength and significance on specific source types and gamma-ray energy band. We find that the correlation is very significant (chance probability < 10(exp -7)) for both flat spectrum radio quasars and BL Lac objects separately; a dependence of the correlation strength on the considered gamma-ray energy band is also present, but additional data will be necessary to constrain its significance.

Ackermann, M.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Cosmic-Ray and Gas Content of the Cygnus Region as Measured in Gamma Rays by the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Context. The Cygnus region hosts a giant molecular-cloud complex which actively forms massive stars. Interactions of cosmic rays with interstellar gas and radiation fields make it shine at y-ray energies. Several gamma-ray pulsars and other energetic sources are seen in this direction. Aims. In this paper we analyse the gamma-ray emission measured by the Fermi Large Area Telescope in the energy range from 100 Me V to 100 Ge V in order to probe the gas and cosmic-ray content over the scale of the whole Cygnus complex. The gamma-ray emission on the scale of the central massive stellar clusters and from individual sources is addressed elsewhere. Methods. The signal from bright pulsars is largely reduced by selecting photons in their off-pulse phase intervals. We compare the diffuse gamma-ray emission with interstellar gas maps derived from radio/mm-wave lines and visual extinction data. and a global model of the region, including other pulsars and gamma-ray sources, is sought. Results. The integral H I emissivity above 100 MeV averaged over the whole Cygnus complex amounts to 12.06 +/- 0.11 (stat.) (+0.15 -0.84) (syst.J] x 10(exp -26) photons /s / sr / H-atom, where the systematic error is dominated by the uncertainty on the H I opacity to calculate its column densities. The integral emissivity and its spectral energy distribution are both consistent within the systematics with LAT measurements in the interstellar space near the solar system. The average X(sub co) N(H2)/W(sub co) ratio is found to be [1.68 +/- 0.05 (stat.) (H I opacity)] x 1020 molecules cm-2 (K km/s /r, consistent with other LAT measurements in the Local Arm. We detect significant gamma-ray emission from dark neutral gas for a mass corresponding to approx 40% of that traced by CO. The total interstellar mass in the Cygnus complex inferred from its gamma-ray emission amounts to 8(+5 -1) x 10(exp 6) Solar M at a distance of 1.4 kpc. Conclusions. Despite the conspicuous star formation activity and large masses of the interstellar clouds, the cosmic-ray population in the Cygnus complex averaged over a few hundred parsecs is similar to that of the local interstellar space.

Ackermann, M.↗