Related papers: Constraints on extra-dimensions and variable const…
Recent gamma ray observations show that middle aged supernova remnants interacting with molecular clouds can be sources of both GeV and TeV emission. Models involving re-acceleration of pre-existing cosmic rays in the ambient medium and…
It is postulated in Einstein's relativity that the speed of light in vacuum is a constant for all observers. However, the effect of quantum gravity could bring an energy dependence of light speed, and a series of studies on high-energy…
Recent Cerenkov observations of the two BL Lac objects PKS 2155-304 and Mkn 501 revealed TeV flux variability by a factor ~2 in just 3-5 minutes. Even accounting for the effects of relativistic beaming, such short timescales are challenging…
Optical Transients from gamma-ray burst sources, in addition to offering a distance determination, convey important information on the physics of the emission mechanism, and perhaps also about the underlying energy source. As the gamma-ray…
Gamma-ray astronomy has become one of the main experimental ways to test the modified dispersion relations (MDRs) of photons in vacuum, obtained in some attempts to formulate a theory of Quantum Gravity. The MDRs in use imply time delays…
Ultra-high energy cosmic ray protons accelerated in astrophysical objects produce secondary electromagnetic cascades during propagation in the cosmic microwave and infrared backgrounds. We show that such cascades can contribute between ~1%…
Although more than 2000 astronomical gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been detected, the precise progenitor responsible for these events is unknown. The temporal phenomenology observed in GRBs can significantly constrain the different models.…
The ultra-high energy cosmic rays observed at the Earth are most likely accelerated in extra-galactic sources. For the typical luminosities invoked for such sources, the electric current associated to the flux of cosmic rays that leave them…
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are radio bursts characterized by millisecond durations, high Galactic latitude positions, and high dispersion measures. Very recently, the cosmological origin of FRB 150418 has been confirmed by \cite{kea16}, and…
In the context of the dispersion relation $c = \lambda \nu$ and considering an expanding universe where the observed wavelength today is redshifted from the emitted wavelength by $\lambda_{0} = \lambda_{\text{emit}} (1+z)$, to keep $c$…
The delayed hard (up to 25 GeV) photons observed more than an hour following a gamma-ray burst on February 17, 1994 may result from the collisions of relativistic nucleons with a dense cloud, producing $\pi^0$. The required cloud density is…
There have been observations, first from the MAGIC Telescope (July 2005) and quite recently (September 2008) from the FERMI Satellite Telescope, on non-simultaneous arrival of high-energy photons from distant celestial sources. In each…
We analyze the MeV/GeV emission from four bright Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) observed by the Fermi-Large Area Telescope to produce robust, stringent constraints on a dependence of the speed of light in vacuo on the photon energy (vacuum…
The detection of photons above 10 keV through MeV and GeV energies is challenging due to the penetrating nature of the radiation, which can require large detector volumes, resulting in correspondingly high background. In this energy range,…
In this paper we review the hypothesis that a considerable part of the cosmic ray flux observed above about $10^{19}\eV$ may be produced by decaying or annihilating topological defects left over from phase transitions in the early universe…
The exclusive gamma-met signal has a small standard model cross-section and is thus a good channel in which to look for signs of new physics. This signature is predicted by models with a superlight gravitino or with large extra spatial…
The existing cosmological constraints on theories with large extra dimensions rely on the thermal production of the Kaluza-Klein modes of gravitons and radions in the early Universe. Successful inflation and reheating, as well as…
The article gives a brief overview, aimed at nonspecialists, about the goals and selected recent results of the detection of very-high energy gamma-rays (energies above 100 GeV) with ground based detectors. The stress is on the physics…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays are the most extreme energetic particles detected on Earth, however, their acceleration sites are still mysterious. We explore the contribution of low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts to the ultra-high energy cosmic…
In almost any scenario for 'cosmological' gamma-ray bursts (and in many models where they originate in our own Galaxy), the initial energy density is so large that the resulting relativistic plasma expands with $v\sim c$ producing a blast…