Investigating the Evolution of Amati Parameters with Redshift

Gamma-ray bursts(GRBs) are among the brightest objects in the Universe and, hence, can be observed up to a very high redshift. Properly calibrated empirical correlations between intensity and spectral correlations of GRBs can be used to estimate the cosmological parameters. However, the possibility of the evolution of GRBs with redshift is a long-standing puzzle. In this work, we used 162 long-duration GRBs to determine whether GRBs below and above a certain redshift have different properties. The GRBs are split into two groups, and we fit the Amati relation for each group separately. Our findings demonstrate that estimations of the Amati parameters for the two groups are substantially dissimilar. We perform simulations to investigate whether the selection effects could cause the difference. Our analysis shows that the differences may be either intrinsic or due to systematic errors in the data, and the selection effects are not their true origin. However, in-depth analysis with a new data set comprised of 119 long GRBs shows that intrinsic scatter may partly be responsible for such effects.

A statistical classification of the unassociated gamma-ray sources in the second Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog

With the assistance of the identified/associated sources in the second Fermi Large Area Telescope （LAT） catalog, we analyze and resolve the spatial distribution and the distributions of the gamma-ray spectral and variability indices of the remaining 575 unassociated Fermi LAT sources. Consequently, it is suggested that the unassociated sources could statistically consist of Galactic supernova remnants/pulsar wind nebulae, BL Lacertae objects, fiat spectrum radio quasars and other types of active galaxies with fractions of 25%, 29%, 41% and 5%, respectively.

Possible distance indicators in gamma-ray pulsars

Distance measurement of gamma-ray pulsars is a current challenge in pulsar studies.The Large Area Telescope（LAT） aboard the Fermi gamma-ray observatory discovered more than 70 gamma-ray pulsars including 24 new gamma-selected pulsars with almost no distance information.We study the relation between gammaray emission efficiency（η=Lγ/E˙） and pulsar parameters for young radio-selected gamma-ray pulsars with known distance information in the first gamma-ray pulsar catalog reported by Fermi/LAT.We have introduced three generation-order parameters to describe the gamma-ray emission properties of pulsars,and find a strong correlation of η-ζ3,a generation-order parameter which reflectsγ-ray photon generation in the pair cascade processes induced by magnetic field absorption in a pulsar＇s magnetosphere. A good correlation of η-BLC,the magnetic field at the light cylinder radius,is also found.These correlations are the distance indicators in gamma-ray pulsars used to evaluate distances for gamma-selected pulsars.Distances of 25 gamma-selected pulsars are estimated,which could be tested by other distance measurement methods.The physical origin of the correlations may also be interesting for pulsar studies.

Gamma-ray Emission from the γ-ray-loud BL Lac Objects

Using the HST observation data of BL Lac objects by Urry et al. and γ-ray observation data, we find that there is a correlation between Fγ and Fonuclei forγ-ray-loud BL Lac objects (correlation coefficients: 7γ=0.63,p = 4.0 × 10-2), but no correlation between Fγ and Fohost, where Fonuclei and Fohost are the fluxes of nuclei and host galaxy in V-band. For 19γ-ray-loud BL Lac objects with observed spectral index in multi-wavebands, the spectral index correlations between any two bands are as follow: (1) there is a strong correlation between aγ and aK for 15 BL Lac objects(γ = 0.84,p = 3.11 × 10-4); (2) the correlation between aγ and ao for 12 BL Lac objects isγ = 0.82, p = 1.5 × 10-3; (3) there is no correlation between a7 and ax for 16 BL Lac objects. The results, together with characteristic double-humped shape of their SEDs, show that the synchrotron self-Compton mechanism might be a main mechanism for theγ-ray emission of the BL Lac objects. The electrons emitting JR and optical radiation via synchrotron are also responsible for upscattering these photons toγ-rays, and a variability in IR-optical regime should be accompanied by a change in theγ-rays.

Revisiting gamma-ray burst afterglows with time-dependent parameters

The relativistic external shock model of gamma-ray burst （GRB） afterglows has been estab- lished with five free parameters, i.e., the total kinetic energy E, the equipartition parameters for electrons ee and for the magnetic field eB, the number density of the environment n and the index of the power- law distribution of shocked electrons p. A lot of modified models have been constructed to consider the variety of GRB afterglows, such as： the wind medium environment by letting n change with radius, the energy injection model by letting kinetic energy change with time and so on. In this paper, by as- suming all four parameters （except p） change with time, we obtain a set of formulas for the dynamics and radiation, which can be used as a reference for modeling GRB afterglows. Some interesting results are obtained. For example, in some spectral segments, the radiated flux density does not depend on the number density or the profile of the environment. As an application, through modeling the afterglow of GRB 060607A, we find that it can be interpreted in the framework of the time dependent parameter model within a reasonable range.

Comparison between TeV and non-TeV BL Lac Objects

BL Lacertae objects（BL Lacs） are the dominant population of Te V emitting blazars. In this work, we investigate whether there are any special observational properties associated with Te V sources.To do so, we will compare the observational properties of Te V detected BL Lacs（Te V BLs） with non-Te V detected BL Lac objects（non-Te V BLs）. From the 3rd Fermi/LAT source catalog（3FGL）, we can obtain662 BL Lacs, out of which 47 are Te V BLs and 615 are non-Te V BLs. Their multi-wavelength flux densities（FpR, FO, FX and Fγ）, photon spectral indexes（α^phXand α^phγ）, and effective spectral indexes（αRO and αOX）are compiled from the available literature. Then the luminosities（log ν LR, log ν LO, log ν LX, log ν Lγ）are calculated. From comparisons, we find that Te V BLs are different from low synchrotron peaked BLs and intermediate synchrotron peaked BLs, but Te V BLs show similar properties to high synchrotron peaked（HSP） BLs. Therefore, we concentrated on a comparison between Te V HSP BLs and non-Te V HSP BLs.Analysis results suggest that Te V HSP BLs and non-Te V HSP BLs exhibit some differences in their αRO and αphγ, but their other properties are quite similar.

Very Early Optical Afterglows for Geometric Models of X-ray Flashes and X-ray Rich GRBs

If X-ray flashes （XRFs） and X-ray rich Gamma-ray Bursts （XRRGs） have the same origin as the Gamma-ray bursts （GRBs） but are viewed off-center from structured jets, their early afterglows may differ from those of GRBs, and when the ultra-relativistic outflow inter- acts with the surrounding medium, there are two shocks formed, a forward shock （FS）, and a reverse shock （RS）. We calculate numerically the early afterglow powered by uniform jets, Gaussian jets and power-law jets in the forward-reverse shock scenario. A set of differential equations govern the dynamical evolution. The synchrotron self-Compton effect has been taken into account in the calculation. In the uniform jets, the very early afterglows of XRRGs and XRFs are significantly lower than the GRBs and the observed peak times of RS emission are later in the interstellar medium environment. The RS components in XRRGs and XRFs are difficult to detect, but in the stellar wind environment, the reduction of the very early flux and the delay of the RS peak time are not so remarkable. In nonuniform jets （Gaussian and power-law jets）, where there are emission materials on the line of sight, the very early light curve resembles equivalent isotropic ejecta in general although the RS flux decay index shows notable deviations if the RS is relativistic （in stellar wind）.

A diagnostic of the orbital spectrum of LS 5039 with Fermi-LAT

LS 5039 is a well-known γ-ray binary system which consists of an unknown compact object and a massive companion O star. It shows rather stable emissions at high energies over years and hence serves as an ideal laboratory to investigate the emission mechanism for such peculiar systems which emit prominent γ-rays. To this end, we take the orbital phase resolved energy spectrum as observed by Fermi-LAT over 10 years. We divide the orbit into four orbital phases, each with an orbital phase range of 0.25,centered at 0.00, 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 respectively, where the phase 0.0 is the periastron and phase 0.5 is the apastron. The phases around 0.25 and 0.75 are symmetric and hence are supposed to have identical local acceleration environment. The spectral analysis shows that the Fermi-LAT spectra are largely different from these two symmetric orbital phases: the emission from orbital phase 0.25 turns out to be significantly stronger than that from 0.75. This result does not fit a scenario that γ-rays are Doppler boosted emission from bow shock tails if LS 5039 has a shock configuration similar to PSR B1259-63, and indicates that the inverse Compton scatterings between the shock accelerated plasma and the stellar particle environment is the underline procedure. We also find that the previous report for a disappearance of the orbital modulation at 3–20 GeV is due to the similar spectral turn-over energies of the different orbital phases. The spectral properties of periastron and apastron regions are addressed in the context of the measurements in phase regions around 0.25 and 0.75.

The GeV emission of PSR B1259–63 during its last three periastron passages observed by Fermi-LAT

PSR B1259–63 is a γ-ray emitting high mass X-ray binary system, in which the compact object is a millisecond pulsar.The system has an orbital period of 1236.7 d and shows peculiar γ-ray flares when the neutron star moves out of the stellar disk of the companion star.The γ-ray flare events were firstly discovered by using Fermi-LAT around the 2010 periastron passage, which was repeated for the 2014 and 2017 periastron passages.We analyze the Fermi-LAT data for all the three periastron passages and found that in each flare the energy spectrum can be represented well by a simple power law.The γ-ray light curves show that in 2010 and 2014 after each periastron there are two main flares,but in 2017 there are four flares including one precursor about 10 d after the periastron passage.The first main flares in 2010 and 2014 are located at around 35 d after the periastron passage, and the main flare in 2014 is delayed by roughly 1.7 d with respect to that in 2010.In the 2017 flare, the source shows a precursor about 10 d after the periastron passage, but the following two flares become weaker and lag behind those in 2010 by roughly 5 d.The strongest flares in 2017 occurred 58 d and 70 d after the periastron passage.These results challenge the previous models.

BL Lacertae objects and the extragalactic γ-ray background

A tight correlation between γ-ray and radio emission is found for a sample of BL Lacertae （BL Lac） objects detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope （Fermi） and the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope （EGRET）. The γ-ray emission of BL Lac objects exhibits strong variability, and the detection rate of γ-ray BL Lac objects is low, which may be related to the γ-ray duty cycle of BL Lac objects. We estimate the γ-ray duty cycle, δγ ≌ 0.11, for BL Lac objects detected by EGRET and Fermi. Using the empirical relation of γ-ray emission with radio emission and the estimated γ-ray duty cycle δγ, we derive the γ-ray luminosity function （LF） of BL Lac objects from their radio LE Our derived γ-ray LF of BL Lac objects can almost reproduce that calculated with the recently released Fermi bright active galactic nuclei （AGN） sample. Comparison of the derived LF of the γ-ray BL Lac objects in this work with that derived by Abdo et al. （2009a） requires the γ-ray duty cycle of BL Lac objects to be almost luminosity-independent. We find that - 45% of the extragalactic diffuse γ-ray background （EGRB） is contributed by BL Lac objects. Combining the estimate of the quasar contribution to the EGRB in the previous work, we find that 77% of the EGRB is contributed by BL Lac objects and radio quasars.

A pilot study of catching high-z GRBs and exploring circumburst environment in the forthcoming SVOM era

Rapid spectroscopy of GRB afterglows is an important and hard task.Based on the archival XSGRB spectral database,we here perform a pilot study on the afterglow's spectroscopy in the forthcoming SVOM era in two aspects.First,our simulation indicates that the color acquired from the SVOM/VT blue and red channels is effective in discriminating between low-z(z≤3)and distant GRB candidates until z^6.Second,by doubling the sample size,we find that the previously proposed global photoionization response of the circumburst gas to the prompt emission(i.e.,the CIV/CII-L(iso)/E2peak relationship)is roughly confirmed.although the confirmation is dissatisfactory at the large L(iso)/E2peak end.We believe that this issue can be further addressed in the SVOM era by a larger spectroscopy sample,thanks to its capability of rapid identification of optical candidates of afterglow and its anti-solar pointing strategy.

Time delay and extended halo for constraints on the intergalactic magnetic field

Primary gamma rays emitted from extragalactic very-high-energy （VHE） sources, such as blazars, will generate cascade radiation in intergalactic space with a scale of -- 100 Mpc, for z - 0.1 and Eγ -1 TeV. These cascades proceed through electron-positron pair production and inverse Compton （IC） scattering in the cosmic background radiation fields, mainly cosmic microwave background （CMB） radiation and extragalactic background light in the voids of the universe. The existence of an intergalactic magnetic field （IGMF） would deflect paths of electron-positron pairs that scatter CMB photons, causing some observable effects, such as time delay, an ex- tended halo, and a spectral change. Here we reanalyze the diffusion of an electron jet deflected by IGMF and propose a unified semi-analytical model. By using publicly available data from the Fermi/LAT detector and contemporaneous TeV observations, we find that the cascade photon flux is not significantly affected by the IGMF strength for non-variable blazars when the IGMF is weaker than ,-~ 10-16 G. This result is clearly different from previous works that analyzed the extended halo and time de- lay separately for non-variable blazars and flaring blazars. By applying our model to two extreme blazars （1ES 0229＋200 and 1ES 1218＋304）, we obtain the IGMF lower limit of order ≥10-13 --10-14 G in the non-variable case, which is a stronger constraint on the IGMF strength than previous works （≥10-16 ,-- 10-18 G）, and ≥10-18 -- 10-19 G in the case of flaring blazars. Furthermore, we study the light curves and extended halo of the cascade photons by considering the effects of the IGME

Searching for events in Chinese ancient records to explain the increase in ^(14)C from AD 774–775 and AD 993–994

According to analysis of the ^14C content in two Japanese trees, that grew over a period of approximately 3000 years, with high time resolution, Miyake et al. found a rapid increase at AD 774-775 and another one at AD 993-994. These increases correspond to high-energy events that happened within those years and radi- ated ＂）,-ray energy of about 7x 1034 erg toward the Earth. The origin of these events is a mystery. Such strong events should have an unusual optical counterpart, and have been recorded in historical literatures. We searched Chinese historical materi- als around AD 744-775 and AD 993-994, but no remarkable event was found except for a violent thunderstorm in AD 775. However, the possibility of a thunderstorm containing so much energy is unlikely. We conclude that the events, which caused the 14C increase, are still unclear. These events most probably had no optical counterpart, and a short gamma-ray burst, giant flare of a soft gamma-ray repeater or a terrestrial γ-ray flash could all be candidates.

X-ray and optical plateaus following the main bursts in GRBs and SNe Ⅱ-P: a hint about similar late injection behaviors?

We analyze the emission plateaus in the X-ray afterglow light curves of gamma-ray bursts （GRBs） and those in the optical light curves of type Ⅱ plateau su- pernovae （SNe Ⅱ-P） in order to study whether they have similar late energy injection behaviors. We show that correlations of bolometric energies （or luminosities） between the prompt explosions and the plateaus for the two phenomena are similar. The energy emitted by SNe II-P are at the lower end of the range of possible energies for GRBs. The bolometric energies （or luminosities） in the prompt phase Eexpl （or Lexpl） and in the plateau phase E_plateau （or L_plateau） share relations of E_expl ∝E _0.73±0.14_plateau and L_expl ∝ L^-0.70_plateau. These results may indicate a similar late energy injection behavior that produces the observed plateaus in these two phenomena.

Pulsed γ-ray properties of Crab pulsar in a retarded dipole with a current-induced magnetic field

Motivated by the Fermi observations of some γ-ray pulsars in which the phases of radio and γ-ray peaks are almost the same, we investigate the outer gap model in a retarded dipole with a current-induced magnetic field and apply it to explain pulsed γ-ray properties of the Crab pulsar. Our results show that the observed γ-ray energy-dependent light curves, which almost align with the radio light curve and phase averaged spectrum for the Crab pulsar, are reproduced well.