Related papers: New direction for gamma-rays
Our understanding of the engines and progenitors of gamma-ray bursts has expanded through the ages as a broader set of diagnostics has allowed us to test our understanding of these objects. Here we review the history of the growth in our…
Cosmic gamma rays provide insight into some of the most dynamic processes in the Universe. At the dawn of a new generation of gamma-ray telescopes, this review summarizes results from the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on…
Recent observational and theoretical results on blazars are presented and discussed. We are beginning to understand the rich phenomenology of blazars, and we are finding trends which will hopefully lead us to unveil the physics of these…
Historically cosmic rays have always been at the intersection of astrophysics with particle physics. This is still and especially true in current days where experimenters routinely observe atmospheric showers from particles whose energies…
Polarization is one of the fundamental natures of electromagnetic radiation. The detection of polarization or polarized photons from distant X-ray radiating systems (such as X-ray binaries (XBs), active galactic nuclei (AGN), pulsars, and…
We review the recent observational results of the gamma-ray linear polarization of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), and discuss some theoretical implications for the prompt emission mechanism and the magnetic composition of GRB jets. We also report…
Gamma-ray burst sources with a high luminosity can produce electron-positron pair cascades in their environment as a result of back-scattering of a seed fraction of their original hard spectrum. The resulting spectral modifications offer…
Significant progress has been made over the past decades towards unveiling the sources of the most energetic particles in nature, the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Despite these advancements, the exact astrophysical sites capable…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are short and intense bursts of $\sim$100 keV$-$1MeV photons, usually followed by long-lasting decaying afterglow emission in a wide range of electromagnetic wavelengths from radio to X-ray and, sometimes, even to GeV…
Starburst galaxies have a highly increased star-formation rate compared to regular galaxies and inject huge amounts of kinetic power into the interstellar medium via supersonic stellar winds, and supernova explosions. Supernova remnants,…
We propose that the cosmological gamma ray bursts arise from the collapse of neutron stars to black holes triggered by collisions or mergers with main sequence stars. This scenario represents a cosmological history qualitatively different…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are sources of energetic, highly variable fluxes of gamma rays, which demonstrates that they are powerful particle accelerators. Besides relativistic electrons, GRBs should also accelerate high-energy hadrons, some…
In this lecture I give an overview of shock acceleration, interactions of high energy cosmic rays with, and propagation through, the background radiation, and the resulting electron-photon cascade. I argue that while the origin of the…
Although the gamma-ray emission in blazars dominates the power output, there are crucial informations carried by the X-rays. Indeed, their paucity, together with the short variability timescales observed both at X and gamma-ray energies…
A phenomenological model is presented to explain the light curves of gamma-ray bursts. Gamma-rays are produced in a narrow beam which sweeps through space due to the precession of a slaved accretion disc. The light curve expected from such…
The stellar origin of gamma-ray bursts can be explained by the rapid release of energy in a highly collimated, extremely relativistic jet. This in turn appears to require a rapidly spinning highly magnetised stellar core that collapses into…
We consider a speculative model for gamma-ray bursts (GRB), which predicts that the total kinetic energy in the ejected matter is less than the total energy in the gamma rays. There is also secondary energy in X-rays, which are emitted…
A very interesting puzzle about the origin of electron and positron cosmic rays is deduced from the latests experimental results. We model the propagation of such cosmic rays in terms of a successfully tested two--zone propagation model.…
Recent observations have shown that some compact stellar binaries radiate the highest energy light in the universe. The challenge has been to determine the nature of the compact object and whether the very high energy gamma-rays are…
We present recent results from searches by the LIGO Science Collaboration for bursts of gravitational-wave radiation, as well as the status of other ongoing searches. These include directed searches for bursts associated with observed…