Related papers: Constraining axion by polarized prompt emission fr…
Neutron stars provide ideal astrophysical laboratories for probing new physics beyond the Standard Model. If axions exist, photons can develop linear polarization during photon-axion conversion in the magnetic field of a neutron star. We…
X-ray astronomy allows study of objects which may be associated with compact objects, i.e. neutron stars or black holes, and also may contain strong magnetic fields. Such objects are categorically non-spherical, and likely non-circular when…
We report early optical linear polarization observations of two gamma-ray bursts made with the MASTER robotic telescope network. We found the minimum polar- ization for GRB150301B to be 8% at the beginning of the initial stage, whereas we…
The dominant radiation mechanism that produces the prompt emission in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) remains a major open question. Spectral information alone has proven insufficient in elucidating its nature. Time-resolved linear polarization has…
Astrophysical gamma-ray sources come in a variety of sizes and magnetizations. We deduce general conditions under which gamma-ray spectra from such sources would be significantly affected by axion-photon mixing. We show that, depending on…
If the dark matter is composed of axions, then axion stars are expected to be abundant in the Universe. We demonstrate in fully non-linear (3+1) numerical relativity the instability of compact axion stars due to the electromagnetic…
Searches for dark matter decaying into photons constrain its lifetime to be many orders of magnitude larger than the age of the Universe. A corollary statement is that the abundance of any particle that can decay into photons over…
The polarisation of x-ray photons can be determined by measuring the direction of emission of a K-shell photoelectron. Effective exploitation of this effect below 10 keV would allow development of a highly sensitive x-ray polarimeter…
The afterglows of gamma-ray bursts are non-thermal electron synchrotron emissions from relativistic shocks. The origin of strong magnetic field in the emission region remains elusive, and two field amplification mechanisms via the plasma…
Most models of anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) account for the observed X-ray spectra and pulsations by means of radiation processes that occur on the surfaces of neutron stars. For any such model, general relativistic deflection of light…
The main motivation for our work has been a puzzling observation concerning quasars. No one expected the existence of correlations in the polarisation of visible light coming from objects separated by gigaparsecs, until they were first…
It is widely accepted that the prompt transient signal in the 10 keV - 10 GeV band from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) arises from multiple shocks internal to the ultra-relativistic expansion. The detailed understanding of the dissipation and…
Emission of AGNs and neutral pion decay - are the two most natural mechanisms, that could make a galaxy cluster be a source of gamma-rays in the GeV regime. We revisited this problem by using 52.5-month FERMI-LAT data above 10 GeV and…
The polarization measurement is an important tool to probe the prompt emission mechanism in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The synchrotron photons can be scattered by cold electrons in the outflow via Compton scattering processes. The observed…
Despite being hard to measure, GRB prompt $\gamma$-ray emission polarization is a valuable probe of the dominant emission mechanism and the outflow's composition and angular structure. During the prompt emission the outflow is…
The axion is well motivated in physics. It solves the strong charge conjugation-parity reversal problem CP in fundamental physics and the dark matter problem in astronomy. Its interaction with the electromagnetic field has been expected but…
The principal paradigm for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) suggests that the prompt transient gamma-ray signal arises from multiple shocks internal to the relativistic expansion. This paper explores how GRB prompt emission spectra can constrain…
Afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are emitted from expanding forward shocks, which are expected to have magnetic field much stronger than the interstellar field, although the origin of the field is a long-standing problem. Two field…
We study the ensemble of linear polarization measurement in the optical afterglows of long-duration gamma-ray bursts. We assume a non sideways-expanding top-hat jet geometry and use the relatively large number of measurements under the…
Electromagnetic fields surrounding pulsars may source coherent ultralight axion signals at the known rotational frequencies of the neutron stars, which can be detected by laboratory experiments (e.g., pulsarscopes). As a promising case…