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C. A. Kierans

Publications and source records attributed to C. A. Kierans.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Localization and Confidence Region Estimation of Short GRBs with the COSI BGO Shield Using a HEALPix-Based Deep Learning Approach

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager is a NASA satellite mission under development that will survey the entire sky in the 0.2-5 MeV range using a wide-field germanium detector array, surrounded on the sides and bottom by active shields (the Anticoincidence Subsystem, ACS). The ACS aims to suppress and monitor background events, as well as detect transient sources, such as Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), through its onboard triggering algorithm. The data related to GRBs are sent to the ground and analyzed by an automated pipeline to localize the GRBs and share their positions with the community. In this work, we present a brief GRB localization method based on ACS data, utilizing deep learning (DL) techniques, which can estimate the 90\% confidence region, including cases where it is split into multiple areas. To address this, we developed a neural network classifier that predicts the GRB location as a probability distribution across the sky map following the HEALPix framework. The distribution can be used to compute the 90\% confidence regions. Future work will compare this DL-based localization approach with classical methods such as $χ^2$ fitting and Maximum Likelihood Estimation.

astro-ph.HE

Improving the low-energy transient sensitivity of AMEGO-X using single-site events

AMEGO-X, the All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-Ray Observatory eXplorer, is a proposed instrument designed to bridge the so-called "MeV gap" by surveying the sky with unprecedented sensitivity from ~100 keV to about one GeV. This energy band is of key importance for multi-messenger and multi-wavelength studies but it is nevertheless currently under-explored. AMEGO-X addresses this situation by proposing a design capable of detecting and imaging gamma rays via both Compton interactions and pair production processes. However, some of the objects that AMEGO-X will study, such as gamma-ray bursts and magnetars, extend to energies below ~100 keV where the dominant interaction becomes photoelectric absorption. These events deposit their energy in a single pixel of the detector. In this work we show how the ~3500 cm^2 effective area of the AMEGO-X tracker to events between ~25 keV to ~100 keV will be utilized to significantly improve its sensitivity and expand the energy range for transient phenomena. Although imaging is not possible for single-site events, we show how we will localize a transient source in the sky using their aggregate signal to within a few degrees. This technique will more than double the number of cosmological gamma-ray bursts seen by AMEGO-X, allow us to detect and resolve the pulsating tails of extragalactic magnetar giant flares, and increase the number of detected less-energetic magnetar bursts -- some possibly associated with fast radio bursts. Overall, single-site events will increase the sensitive energy range, expand the science program, and promptly alert the community of fainter transient events.

astro-ph.HE