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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1988

The theory of gamma-ray emergence in supernova 1987A

It was anticipated that the decay of Co-56 to Fe-56 in SN1987A would give rise to detectable gamma-ray emission at 847 and 1238 keV with a peak flux of 0.001 photon/sq cm/s about one year after the explosion. Both these lines were detected in August, with a strength within a factor of two of 0.001 photon/sq cm/s, but about six months earlier than predicted. It is shown here that the early emergence of gamma-rays can be accounted for in a 'mixed' model in which an approximately isotropic process destroys chemical segregation with respect to radial mass coordinate and velocity.

Pinto, Philip A.↗
DOE OSTI2021

First detection of VHE gamma-ray emission from TXS 1515–273, study of its X-ray variability and spectral energy distribution

ABSTRACT We report here on the first multiwavelength (MWL) campaign on the blazar TXS 1515–273, undertaken in 2019 and extending from radio to very-high-energy gamma-rays (VHE). Up until now, this blazar had not been the subject of any detailed MWL observations. It has a rather hard photon index at GeV energies and was considered a candidate extreme high-synchrotron-peaked source. MAGIC observations resulted in the first-time detection of the source in VHE with a statistical significance of 7.6σ. The average integral VHE flux of the source is 6 ± 1 per cent of the Crab nebula flux above 400 GeV. X-ray coverage was provided by Swift-XRT, XMM–Newton, and NuSTAR. The long continuous X-ray observations were separated by ∼9 h, both showing clear hour scale flares. In the XMM–Newton data, both the rise and decay time-scales are longer in the soft X-ray than in the hard X-ray band, indicating the presence of a particle cooling regime. The X-ray variability time-scales were used to constrain the size of the emission region and the strength of the magnetic field. The data allowed us to determine the synchrotron peak frequency and classify the source as a flaring high, but not extreme synchrotron-peaked object. Considering the constraints and variability patterns from the X-ray data, we model the broad-band spectral energy distribution. We applied a simple one-zone model, which could not reproduce the radio emission and the shape of the optical emission, and a two-component leptonic model with two interacting components, enabling us to reproduce the emission from radio to VHE band.

Acciari, V. A.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Thermal Characterization of Tl 2 LiYCl 6 :Ce (TLYC)

Tl 2 LiYCl 6 :Ce (TLYC) is a new dual-detection elpasolite scintillator that can detect and distinguish between gamma rays and neutrons using pulse shape discrimination (PSD). It has a higher density and Z -number than the more mature and well-known elpasolite Cs 2 LiYCl 6 :Ce (CLYC), causing it to have a significantly better gamma-ray stopping power. These properties make TLYC an attractive alternative to CLYC for resource-constrained applications where size and weight are important, such as space or national security applications. Such applications may be subjected to a wide range of temperatures, and therefore, TLYC's performance was characterized for the first time over a temperature range of -20 °C to +50 °C in 10 °C increments. TLYC's thermal response effects on light-output linearity with energy, gamma-ray photopeak energy resolution, detected neutron energy, pulse shapes, and figure of merit (FOM) is analyzed and reported. The light output of TLYC was found to be linear with energy over the tested temperature range and was observed to decrease with increasing temperature. The decay time of the scintillation light output was observed to decrease with decreasing temperature at short times, leading to a decreasing PSD FOM. The gamma-ray photopeak energy resolution was also observed to degrade with decreasing temperature, due to an asymmetric broadening of the photopeak at low temperatures.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Demonstration of Energy-Resolved γ-Ray Detection at Room Temperature by the CsPbCl 3 Perovskite Semiconductor

The detection of gamma-rays at room temperature with high-energy resolution using semiconductors is one of the most challenging applications. The presence of even the smallest amount of defects is sufficient to kill the signal generated from gamma-rays which makes the availability of semiconductors detectors a rarity. Lead halide perovskite semiconductors exhibit unusually high defect tolerance leading to outstanding and unique optoelectronic properties and are poised to strongly impact applications in photoelectric conversion/detection. Here we demonstrate for the first time that large size single crystals of the all-inorganic perovskite CsPbCl 3 semiconductor can function as a high-performance detector for gamma-ray nuclear radiation at room temperature. CsPbCl 3 is a wide-gap semiconductor with a bandgap of 3.03 eV and possesses a high effective atomic number of 69.8. We identified the two distinct phase transitions in CsPbCl 3 , from cubic (Pm-3m) to tetragonal (P4/mbm) at 325 K and finally to orthorhombic (Pbnm) at 316 K. Despite crystal twinning induced by phase transitions, CsPbCl 3 crystals in detector grade can be obtained with high electrical resistivity of similar to 1.7 X 10 9 Ω∙cm. The crystals were grown from the melt with volume over several cubic centimeters and have a low thermal conductivity of 0.6 W m -1 K -1 . The mobilities for electron and hole carriers were determined to similar to 30 cm 2 /(V s). Using photoemission yield spectroscopy in air (PYSA), we determined the valence band maximum at 5.66 +/- 0.05 eV. Under gamma-ray exposure, our Schottky-type planar CsPbCl 3 detector achieved an excellent energy resolution (similar to 16% at 122 keV) accompanied by a high figure-of-merit hole mobility-lifetime product (3.2 x 10 -4 cm 2 /V) and a long hole lifetime (16 mu s). The results demonstrate considerable defect tolerance of CsPbCl 3 and suggest its strong potential for gamma-radiation and X-ray detection at room temperature and above.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1999

Detecting the Attenuation of Blazar Gamma-ray Emission by Extragalactic Background Light with GLAST

Gamma rays with energy above 10 GeV interact with optical-UV photons resulting in pair production. Therefore, a large sample of high redshift sources of these gamma rays can be used to probe the extragalactic background starlight (EBL) by examining the redshift dependence of the attenuation of the flux above 10 GeV. GLAST, the next generation high-energy gamma-ray telescope, will for the first time have the unique capability to detect thousands of gamma-ray blazars up to redshifts of at least z = 4, with enough angular resolution to allow identification of a large fraction of their optical counterparts. By combining recent determinations of the gamma-ray blazar luminosity function, recent calculations of the high energy gamma-ray opacity due to EBL absorption, and the expected GLAST instrument performance to produce simulated samples of blazars that GLAST would detect, including their redshifts and fluxes, we demonstrate that these blazars have the potential to be a highly effective probe of the EBL.

Chen, Andrew↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Cross-correlation Study between IceCube Neutrino Events and the FERMI Unresolved Gamma-Ray Sky

With the coincident detections of electromagnetic radiation together with gravitational waves (GW170817) or neutrinos (TXS 0506+056), the new era of multimessenger astrophysics has begun. Of particular interest are the searches for correlation between the high-energy astrophysical neutrinos detected by the IceCube Observatory and gamma-ray photons detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). So far, only sources detected by the LAT have been considered in correlation with IceCube neutrinos, neglecting any emission from sources too faint to be resolved individually. Here we present the first cross-correlation analysis considering the unresolved gamma-ray background (UGRB) and IceCube events. We perform a thorough sensitivity study, and, given the lack of identified correlation, we place upper limits on the fraction of the observed neutrinos that would be produced in proton–proton or proton–$γ$ interactions from the population of sources contributing to the UGRB emission and dominating its spatial anisotropy (aka blazars). Our analysis suggests that, under the assumption that there is no intrinsic cutoff and/or hardening of the spectrum above Fermi-LAT energies, and that all gamma rays from the unresolved blazars dominating the UGRB fluctuation field are produced by neutral pions from $p–p$ ($p–γ$) interactions, up to 60% (30%) of such a population may contribute to the total neutrino events observed by IceCube. This translates into an O (1%) maximum contribution to the astrophysical high-energy neutrino flux observed by IceCube at 100 TeV.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2014

The Unusual Multiwavelength Properties of the Gamma-Ray Source PMN J1603-4904

Context. We investigate the nature and classification of PMNJ1603-4904, a bright radio source close to the Galactic plane, which is associated with one of the brightest hard-spectrum gamma-ray sources detected by Fermi/LAT. It has previously been classified as a low peaked BL Lac object based on its broadband emission and the absence of optical emission lines. Optical measurements, however, suffer strongly from extinction and the absence of pronounced short-time gamma-ray variability over years of monitoring is unusual for a blazar. Aims. In this paper, we are combining new and archival multi-wavelength data of PMNJ1603-4904 in order to reconsider the classification and nature of this unusual gamma-ray source. Methods. For the first time, we study the radio morphology of PMNJ1603-4904 at 8.4GHz and 22.3GHz, and its spectral properties on milliarcsecond scales, based on VLBI observations from the TANAMI program. We combine the resulting images with multi-wavelength data in the radio, IR, optical/UV, X-ray, and gamma-ray regimes. Results. PMNJ1603-4904 shows a symmetric brightness distribution at 8.4 GHz on milliarcsecond scales, with the brightest, and most compact component in the center of the emission region. The morphology is reminiscent of a compact symmetric object (CSO). Such objects, thought to be young radio galaxies, have been predicted to produce gamma-ray emission but have not been detected as a class by the Fermi gamma-ray telescope so far. Sparse (u, v)-coverage at 22.3GHz prevents an unambiguous modeling of the source morphology at this higher frequency. Moreover, infrared measurements reveal an excess in the spectral energy distribution (SED), which can be modeled with a blackbody with a temperature of about 1600 K, and which is usually not present in blazar SEDs. Conclusions. The TANAMI VLBI data and the shape of the broadband SED challenge the current blazar classification of one of the brightest gamma-ray sources in the sky. PMNJ1603-4904 seems to be either a highly peculiar BL Lac object or a misaligned jet source. In the latter case, the intriguing VLBI structure opens room for a possible classification of PMNJ1603-4904 as a gamma-ray bright CSO.

Multiwavelength↗
NASA NTRS2011

Discoveries by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope

Fermi is a large space gamma-ray mission developed by NASA and the DOE with major contributions from France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Sweden. It was launched in June 2008 and has been performing flawlessly since then. The main instrument is the Large Area Telescope (LAT) operating in the 20 MeV to 300 GeV range and a smaller monitor instrument is the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) operating in the 8 keV to 40 MeV range. New findings are occurring every week. Some of the key discoveries are: 1) Discovery of many new gamma-ray pulsars, including gamma-ray only and millisecond pulsars. 2) Detection of high energy gamma-ray emission from globular clusters, most likely due to summed emission from msec pulsars. 3) Discovery of delayed and extended high energy gamma-ray emission from short and long gamma-ray busts. 4) Detection of approximately 250 gamma-ray bursts per year with the GBM instrument. 5) Most accurate measurement of the cosmic ray electron spectrum between 30 GeV and 1 TeV, showing some excess above the conventional diffusion model. The talk will present the new discoveries and their implications.

Gehrels, Neil↗
DOE OSTI2023

The TRAPUM L -band survey for pulsars in Fermi -LAT gamma-ray sources

ABSTRACT More than 100 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) have been discovered in radio observations of gamma-ray sources detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), but hundreds of pulsar-like sources remain unidentified. Here, we present the first results from the targeted survey of Fermi-LAT sources being performed by the Transients and Pulsars with MeerKAT (TRAPUM) Large Survey Project. We observed 79 sources identified as possible gamma-ray pulsar candidates by a Random Forest classification of unassociated sources from the 4FGL catalogue. Each source was observed for 10 min on two separate epochs using MeerKAT’s L-band receiver (856–1712 MHz), with typical pulsed flux density sensitivities of $\sim 100\, \mu$Jy. Nine new MSPs were discovered, eight of which are in binary systems, including two eclipsing redbacks and one system, PSR J1526−2744, that appears to have a white dwarf companion in an unusually compact 5 h orbit. We obtained phase-connected timing solutions for two of these MSPs, enabling the detection of gamma-ray pulsations in the Fermi-LAT data. A follow-up search for continuous gravitational waves from PSR J1526−2744 in Advanced LIGO data using the resulting Fermi-LAT timing ephemeris yielded no detection, but sets an upper limit on the neutron star ellipticity of 2.45 × 10−8. We also detected X-ray emission from the redback PSR J1803−6707 in data from the first eROSITA all-sky survey, likely due to emission from an intrabinary shock.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1978

Gamma-ray lines from neutron stars as probes of fundamental physics

The detection of gamma-ray lines produced at the surface of neutron stars will serve to test both the strong and gravitational interactions under conditions unavailable in terrestrial laboratories. Observation of a single redshifted gamma-ray line, combined with an estimate of the mass of the star will serve as a strong constraint on allowable equations of state of matter at supernuclear densities. Detection of two redshifted lines arising from different physical processes at the neutron star surface can provide a test of the strong principle of equivalence. Expected fluxes of nuclear gamma-ray lines from accreting neutron stars were calculated, including threshold, radiative transfer and redshift effects. The most promising probes of neutron star structure are the deuterium formation line and the positron annihilation line. Detection of sharp redshifted gamma-ray lines from X-ray sources such as Cyg X-1 would argue strongly in favor of a neutron star rather than black hole identification for the object.

Brecher, K.↗
NASA NTRS2004

RXTE Observations of Several Strong Flares from the TeV Blazar 1ES 1959+650

Responding to the RXTE Cycle 7 NASA Research Announcement, we proposed to use the RXTE X-ray telescopes to intensively observe the TeV Gamma-ray Blazars Markarian 421, Markarian 501, 1ES 1959+650 and 1ES 1426+428, when their X-ray or TeV Gamma-ray fluxes would surpass preset trigger thresholds. In May and June, 2002, the Blazar 1ES 1959+650 (z=0.048) showed a series of spectacular X-ray and gamma-ray flares. Following the detection of a strong Gamma-ray flare on May 16 and 17 with the VERITAS 10 m Cherenkov Telescope, we invoked intensive RXTE observations, as well as complementary radio, optical and GeV/TeV Gamma-ray observations. From May 18 to August 14, more than 150 ksec RXTE observations were taken, yielding a unique data set with simultaneous RXTE and GeV/TeV Gamma-ray coverage.We used the financial support from the ADP program of NASA s Office for Space Science to perform a comprehensive analysis of the RXTE data. We studied in detail the temporal and spectral characteristics of the source. We collected multiwavelength data from a large number of collaborators, and performed a detailed cross-correlation analysis. Eventually, we interpreted the results in the framework of a Synchrotron-Self Compton model. The most important discovery of our research has been the detection of an orphan gamma-ray flare , not associated with an X-ray flare. The discovery showed conclusively that most models invoked to describe the non-thermal emission from blazars are overly simplistic.

Krawczynski, Henric↗
NASA NTRS1985

Detection of galactic Al-26 gamma radiation by the SMM spectrometer

The Solar Maximum Mission satellite's gamma-ray spectrometer has detected a line near 1.81 MeV in each of the three years (1980-1982) over which the Galactic center traversed the broad aperture of that instrument. No significant intensity variation is noted over this period. The Galactic center/anticenter intensity ratio is greater than 2.5, and the center of the emission is noted to be consistent with the location of the Galactic center. For an assumed source distribution which follows the more than 100 MeV Galactic gamma radiation, the total flux in the direction of the Galactic center and the measured energy of the line are consistent with the detection of a narrow gamma-ray line from interstellar Al-26 by HEAO 3 in 1979-1980.

Share, G. H.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Search for Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars with the Fermi LAT

Prior to the launch of Fermi, only weak gamma-ray pulsations from a single millisecond pulsar, PSR J0218+4232, had been reported. A firm detection of gamma rays from a member of this class of pulsar having periods near neutron star break-up and magnetic dipole moments well below those of normal pulsars would provide new insights into pulsar acceleration and emission. Using accurate ephemerides obtained from several radio telescopes as well as the unprecedented accuracy of the GPS-derived clocks used by Fermi and the LAT, we have searched for gamma-ray pulsations from known pulsars over a broad range of timing parameters. We will present some results from our search for pulsed gamma rays from millisecond pulsars.

Harding, Alice K.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Extremes of the Jet-Accretion Power Relation of Blazars, as Explored by Nustar

Hard X-ray observations are crucial to study the non-thermal jet emission from high-redshift, powerful blazars. We observed two bright z > 2 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) in hard X-rays to explore the details of their relativistic jets and their possible variability. S50014+81 (at z = 3.366) and B0222+185 (at z = 2.690) have been observed twice by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) simultaneously with Swift X-ray Telescope, showing different variability behaviors. We found that NuSTAR is instrumental to explore the variability of powerful high-redshift blazars, even when no gamma-ray emission is detected. The two sources have proven to have respectively the most luminous accretion disc and the most powerful jet among known blazars. Thanks to these properties, they are located at the extreme end of the jet-accretion disc relation previously found for gamma-ray detected blazars, to which they are consistent.

galaxies: active – quasars: general – quasars:↗
NASA NTRS2007

SWIFT Detects a remarkable Gamma-ray Burst, GRB 060514, that introduces a New Classification Scheme

Gamma ray bursts (GFU3s) are known to come in two duration classes, separated at approx.2 s. Long bursts originate from star forming regions in galaxies, have accompanying supernovae (SNe) when near enough to observe and are likely caused by massive-star collapsars. Recent observations show that short bursts originate in regions within their host galaxies with lower star formation rates, consistent with binary neutron star (NS) or NS - black hole (BH) mergers. Moreover, although their hosts are predominantly nearby galaxies, no SNe have been so far associated with short GRBs. We report here on the bright, nearby GRB 060614 that does not fit in either class. Its approx.102 s duration groups it with long GRBs, while its temporal lag and peak luminosity fall entirely within the short GRB subclass. Moreover, very deep optical observations exclude an accompanying supernova, similar to short GRBs. This combination of a long duration event without accompanying SN poses a challenge to both a collapsar and merging NS interpretation and opens the door on a new GRB classification scheme that straddles both long and short bursts.

Gehrels, N.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Photospheric Emission in the Joint GBM and Konus Prompt Spectra of GRB 120323A

GRB 120323A is a very intense short gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected simultaneously during its prompt gamma-ray emission phase with the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope and the Konus experiment on board the Wind satellite. GBM and Konus operate in the kiloelectronvolt - megaelectronvolt regime; however, the GBM range is broader toward both the low and the high parts of the gamma-ray spectrum. Analyses of such bright events provide a unique opportunity to check the consistency of the data analysis as well as cross-calibrate the two instruments. We performed time-integrated and coarse time-resolved spectral analysis of GRB 120323A prompt emission. We conclude that the analyses of GBM and Konus data are only consistent when using a double-hump spectral shape for both data sets; in contrast, the single hump of the empirical Band function, traditionally used to fit GRB prompt emission spectra, leads to significant discrepancies between GBM and Konus analysis results. Our two-hump model is a combination of a thermal-like and a non-thermal component. We interpret the first component as a natural manifestation of the jet photospheric emission.

Guiriec, S.↗