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Kunihito Ioka

Publications and source records attributed to Kunihito Ioka.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

Radio Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Hypernovae at High Redshift, and their Potential for 21-cm Absorption Studies

We investigate the radio afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and hypernovae (HNe) at high redshifts and quantify their detectability, as well as their potential usefulness for 21 cm absorption line studies of the intergalactic medium (IGM) and intervening structures. We examine several sets of source and environment model parameters that are physically plausible at high redshifts. The radio afterglows of GRBs would be detectable out to z ~ 30, while the energetic HNe could be detectable out to z ~ 20 even by the current Very Large Array (VLA). We find that the 21 cm absorption line due to the diffuse neutral IGM is difficult to detect even by the proposed Square Kilometer Array (SKA), except for highly energetic sources. We also find that the 21 cm line due to collapsed gas clouds with high optical depth may be detected on rare occasions.

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Gravitational Wave Memory of Gamma-Ray Burst Jets

Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are now considered as relativistic jets. We analyze the gravitational waves from the acceleration stage of the GRB jets. We show that (i) the point mass approximation is not appropriate if the opening half-angle of the jet is larger than the inverse of the Lorentz factor of the jet, (ii) the gravitational waveform has many step function like jumps, and (iii) the practical DECIGO and BBO may detect such an event if the GRBs occur in Local group of galaxy. We found that the light curve of GRBs and the gravitational waveform are anti-correlated so that the detection of the gravitational wave is indispensable to determine the structure of GRB jets.

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A Unified Model of Short and Long Gamma-Ray Bursts, X-Ray Rich Gamma-Ray Bursts, and X-Ray Flashes

We propose a possible unified model of short and long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), X-ray rich GRBs, and X-ray flashes. The jet of a GRB is assumed to consist of multiple sub-jets or sub-shells (i.e., an inhomogeneous jet model). The multiplicity of the sub-jets along a line of sight n_s is an important parameter. If n_s is large (>> 1) the event looks like a long GRB, while if n_s=1, the event looks like a short GRB. Finally, when n_s=0, the event looks like an X-ray flash or an X-ray rich GRB. Furthermore, our model may also explain the bimodal distributions of T_{90} duration of BATSE-GRBs.

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Extended GeV-TeV Emission around Gamma-Ray Burst Remnants, and the Case of W49B

We investigate the high-energy photon emission around Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) remnants caused by ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) from the GRBs. We apply the results to the recent report that the supernova remnant W49B is a GRB remnant in our Galaxy. If this is correct, and if GRBs are sources of UHECRs, a natural consequence of this identification would be a detectable TeV photon emission around the GRB remnant. The imaging of the surrounding emission could provide new constraints on the jet structure of the GRB.

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Peak Energy-Isotropic Energy Relation in the Off-Axis Gamma-Ray Burst Model

Using a simple uniform jet model of prompt emissions of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), we reproduce the observed peak energy--isotropic energy relation. A Monte Carlo simulation shows that the low-isotropic energy part of the relation is dominated by events viewed from off-axis directions, and the number of the off-axis events is about one-third of the on-axis emissions. We also compute the observed event rates of the GRBs, the X-ray-rich GRBs, and the X-ray flashes detected by HETE-2, and we find that they are similar.

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A Unified Model of Short and Long Gamma-Ray Bursts, X-Ray Rich Gamma-Ray Bursts, and X-Ray Flashes

Taking into account the recent suggestion that a short gamma-ray burst (GRB) looks like the first 1 sec of a long GRB, we propose that the jet of a GRB consists of multiple sub-jets or sub-shells (i.e., an inhomogeneous jet model). The multiplicity of the sub-jets along a line of sight n_s is an important parameter. If n_s is large (>> 1) the event looks like a long GRB, while if n_s is small (~1) the event looks like a short GRB. If our line of sight is off-axis to any sub-jets, the event looks like an X-ray flash or an X-ray rich GRB. The log-normal distribution of durations of short and long GRBs are also suggested in the same model.

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Cosmological X-Ray Flashes from Off-Axis Jets

The of the cosmological X-ray flashes detected by WFC/BeppoSAX is calculated theoretically in a simple jet model. The total emission energy from the jet is assumed to be constant. We find that if the jet opening half-angle is smaller than 0.03 radian, off-axis emission from sources at z<~4 can be seen. The theoretical is less than 0.4, which is consistent with the observational result of 0.27+/-0.16 at the 1-sigma level. This suggests that the off-axis GRB jet with the small opening half-angle at the cosmological distance can be identified as the cosmological X-ray flash.

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Cosmic Dispersion Measure from Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows: Probing the Reionization History and the Burst Environment

We show a possible way to measure the column density of free electrons along the light path, the so-called Dispersion Measure (DM), from the early $[\sim 415 (ν/1 {\rm GHz})^{-2} ({\rm DM}/10^{5} {\rm pc} {\rm cm}^{-3}) {\rm s}]$ radio afterglows of the gamma-ray bursts. We find that the proposed Square Kilometer Array can detect bright radio afterglows around the time $\sim 10^{3}(ν/160 {\rm MHz})^{-2}$ s to measure the intergalactic DM ($\simg 6000$ pc cm$^{-3}$ at redshift $z>6$) up to $z\sim 30$, from which we can determine the reionization history of the universe and identify the missing warm-hot baryons. At low $z$, DM in the host galaxy may reach $\sim 10^{5}$ pc cm$^{-3}$ depending on the burst environment, which may be probed by the current detectors. Free-free absorption and diffractive scattering may also affect the radio emission in a high density.

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Circular Polarization from Gamma-ray Burst Afterglows

We investigate the circular polarization (CP) from Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) afterglows. We show that a tangled magnetic field cannot generate CP without an ordered magnetic field because there is always an oppositely directed field, so that no handedness exists. This implies the observation of CP could be a useful probe of an ordered field, which carries valuable information on the GRB central engine. By solving the transfer equation of polarized radiation, we find that the CP reaches 1% at radio frequencies and 0.01% at optical for the forward shock, and 10-1% at radio and 0.1-0.01% at optical for the reverse shock.

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Relativistic stars with poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields and meridional flow

We investigate stationary axisymmetric configurations of magnetized stars in the framework of general relativistic ideal magnetohydrodynamics. Our relativistic stellar model incorporates a toroidal magnetic field and meridional flow in addition to a poloidal magnetic field for the first time. The magnetic field and meridional flow are treated as perturbations, but no other approximation is made. We find that the stellar shape can be prolate rather than oblate when a toroidal field exists. We also find that, for fixed baryonic mass and total magnetic helicity, more spherical the star is, lower the energy it has. Further, we find two new types of the frame dragging effect which differ from the standard one in a rotating star or Kerr geometry. They may violate the reflection symmetry about the equatorial plane.

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Grad-Shafranov equation in noncircular stationary axisymmetric spacetimes

A formulation is developed for general relativistic ideal magnetohydrodynamics in stationary axisymmetric spacetimes. We reduce basic equations to a single second-order partial differential equation, the so-called Grad-Shafranov (GS) equation. Our formulation is most general in the sense that it is applicable even when a stationary axisymmetric spacetime is noncircular, that is, even when it is impossible to foliate a spacetime with two orthogonal families of two-surfaces. The GS equation for noncircular spacetimes is crucial for the study of relativistic stars with a toroidal magnetic field or meridional flow, such as magnetars, since the existence of a toroidal field or meridional flow violates the circularity of a spacetime. We also derive the wind equation in noncircular spacetimes, and discuss various limits of the GS equation.

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Cosmological X-ray Flashes in the Off-Axis Jet Model

The of the cosmological X-ray flashes detected by Wide Field Cameras on BeppoSAX is calculted theoretically in a simple jet model. The total emission energy from the jet is assumed to be constant. We find that if the jet opening half-angle is smaller than 0.03 radian, the theoretical is less than ~0.4, which is consistent with the recently reported observational value of 0.27+/-0.16 at the 1-sigma level. This suggests that the off-axis GRB jet with the small opening half-angle at the cosmological distance can be identified as the cosmological X-ray flash.

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Delayed Flashes from Counter Jets of Gamma Ray Bursts

If X-ray flashes are due to the forward jet emissions from gamma ray bursts (GRBs) observed with large viewing angles, we show that a prompt emission from a counter jet should be observed as a delayed flash in the UV or optical band several hours to a day after the X-ray flash. Ultraviolet and Optical Telescope on Swift can observe the delayed flashes within ~13 Mpc, so that (double-sided) jets of GRBs may be directly confirmed. Since the event rate of delayed flashes detected by Swift may be as small as 6*10^{-5}events/yr, we require more sensitive detectors in future experiments.

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Peak Luminosity-Spectral Lag Relation Caused by the Viewing Angle of the Collimated Gamma-Ray Bursts

We compute the kinematical dependence of the peak luminosity, the pulse width and the spectral lag of the peak luminosity on the viewing angle $θ_v$ of a jet. For appropriate model parameters we obtain the peak luminosity-spectral lag relation similar to the observed one including GRB980425. A bright (dim) peak with short (long) spectral lag corresponds to a jet with small (large) viewing angle. This suggests that the viewing angle of the jet might cause various relations in GRBs such as the peak luminosity-variability relation and the luminosity-width relation. Our model also suggests that X-ray rich GRBs (or X-ray flushes or Fast X-ray transients) are typical GRBs observed from large $θ_v$ with large spectral lag and low variability.

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X-ray Flashes from Off-axis Gamma-Ray Bursts

Ioka and Nakamura (2001) proposed a simple jet model that is compatible with the peak luminosity-spectral lag relation, the peak luminosity-variability relation and various other relations in the Gamma-Ray Bursts. If the viewing angle is much larger than the collimation angle of the jet in the model by Ioka and Nakamura, for appropriate model parameters we obtain the observational characteristics of the X-ray flashes, such as the peak flux ratio and the fluence ratio between the $γ$-ray (50-300 keV) and the X-ray band (2-10 keV), the X-ray photon index, the typical duration and the event rate $\sim 100 {\rm yr}^{-1}$. In our model, if the distance to the X-ray flashes is much larger than $\sim 1$ Gpc (or $z \gtrsim 0.2$) they are too dim to be observed, so the spatial distribution of the X-ray flashes should be homogeneous and isotropic.

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Ultra Fast Self-Compton Cooling

We investigate the synchrotron self-Compton process in a planar shell taking the shock structure into account. We find that the energy density of the seed photons could deviate from the one-zone estimate by order of unity depending on the shock velocity and the electron cooling time. We also find that as the electron cooling becomes faster, the seed photons are increased more, so that the inverse Compton cooling becomes more efficient. This ``ultra'' fast cooling may work in such as gamma-ray bursts, blazars and microquasars.

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Possible Origin of Lognormal Distributions in Gamma-Ray Bursts

We show that if the intrinsic break energy of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) is determined by the product of more than three random variables the observed break energy distribution becomes almost lognormal including the redshift effect because of the central limit theorem. The excess from the lognormal distribution at the low break energy is possibly due to the high redshift GRBs. The same argument may also apply to the pulse duration, the interval between pulses and so on.

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Magnetic Deformation of Magnetars for the Giant Flares of the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters

We present one possible mechanism for the giant flares of the Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters (SGRs) within the framework of magnetar, i.e., superstrongly magnetized neutron star model, motivated by the positive period increase associated with the August 27 event from SGR 1900+14. From the second-order perturbation analysis of the equilibrium of the magnetic polytrope, we find that there exist different equilibrium states separated by the energy of the giant flares and the shift in the moment of inertia to cause the period increase. This suggests that, if we assume that the global reconfiguration of the internal magnetic field of $H\simg 10^{16}$ G suddenly occurs, the positive period increase $ΔP_t/P_t \sim 10^{-4}$ as well as the energy $\simg 10^{44}$ ergs of the giant flares may be explained. The moment of inertia can increase with a release of energy, because the star shape deformed by the magnetic field can be prolate rather than oblate. In this mechanism, since the oscillation of the neutron star will be excited, a pulsation of $\sim$ ms period in the burst profile and an emission of the gravitational waves are expected. The gravitational waves could be detected by the planned interferometers such as LIGO, VIRGO and LCGT.

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