arXiv subjects

Martin Pohl

Publications and source records attributed to Martin Pohl.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2006

Gamma rays from colliding winds of massive stars

Colliding winds of massive binaries have long been considered as potential sites of non-thermal high-energy photon production. This is motivated by the detection of non-thermal spectra in the radio band, as well as by correlation studies of yet unidentified EGRET gamma-ray sources with source populations appearing in star formation regions. This work re-considers the basic radiative processes and its properties that lead to high energy photon production in long-period massive star systems. We show that Klein-Nishina effects as well as the anisotropic nature of the inverse Compton scattering, the dominating leptonic emission process, likely yield spectral and variability signatures in the gamma-ray domain at or above the sensitivity of current or upcoming gamma ray instruments like GLAST-LAT. In addition to all relevant radiative losses, we include propagation (such as convection in the stellar wind) as well as photon absorption effects, which a priori can not be neglected. The calculations are applied to WR140 and WR147, and predictions for their detectability in the gamma-ray regime are provided. Physically similar specimen of their kind like WR146, WR137, WR138, WR112 and WR125 may be regarded as candidate sources at GeV energies for near-future gamma-ray experiments. Finally, we discuss several aspects relevant for eventually identifying this source class as a gamma-ray emitting population. Thereby we utilize our findings on the expected radiative behavior of typical colliding wind binaries in the gamma-ray regime as well as its expected spatial distribution on the gamma-ray sky.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Cosmic-Ray Acceleration at Ultrarelativistic Shock Waves: Effects of Downstream Short-Wave Turbulence

The present paper is the last of a series studying the first-order Fermi acceleration processes at relativistic shock waves with the method of Monte Carlo simulations applied to shocks propagating in realistically modeled turbulent magnetic fields. The model of the background magnetic field structure of Niemiec & Ostrowski (2004, 2006) has been augmented here by a large-amplitude short-wave downstream component, imitating that generated by plasma instabilities at the shock front. Following Niemiec & Ostrowski (2006), we have considered ultrarelativistic shocks with the mean magnetic field oriented both oblique and parallel to the shock normal. For both cases simulations have been performed for different choices of magnetic field perturbations, represented by various wave power spectra within a wide wavevector range. The results show that the introduction of the short-wave component downstream of the shock is not sufficient to produce power-law particle spectra with the "universal" spectral index 4.2. On the contrary, concave spectra with cutoffs are preferentially formed, the curvature and cutoff energy being dependent on the properties of turbulence. Our results suggest that the electromagnetic emission observed from astrophysical sites with relativistic jets, e.g. AGN and GRBs, is likely generated by particles accelerated in processes other than the widely invoked first-order Fermi mechanism.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

A variability and localization study of 3EG J1746-2851

I have studied the variability properties and localization of 3EG J1746-2851 based on EGRET data of the observing periods 1-4. Using corrections for know systematic problems and performing various consistency checks I find no evidence of variability with an amplitude exceeding 30% with the possible exception of viewing period 429, for which a strong soft excess is observed. 3EG J1746-2851 is displaced from the exact Galactic Center towards positive Galactic longitudes. Sgr A*, the center of Sgr A East, the pulsar J1747-2958, and the TeV gamma-ray source observed with HESS seem to be excluded as possible counterparts at the > 95% level.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

A Million-Second Chandra View of Cassiopeia A

We introduce a million-second observation of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The bipolar structure of the Si-rich ejecta (NE jet and SW counterpart) is clearly evident in the new images, and their chemical similarity is confirmed by their spectra. These are most likely due to jets of ejecta as opposed to cavities in the circumstellar medium, since we can reject simple models for the latter. The properties of these jets and the Fe-rich ejecta will provide clues to the explosion of Cas A.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Complementary constraints from FR IIb radio galaxies and X-ray gas mass fractions in clusters on non-standard cosmological models

We use recent measurements of the dimensionless coordinate distances from Fanaroff-Riley Type IIb radio galaxies and the X-ray gas mass fractions in clusters to constrain the parameters of a non-standard cosmological model. This work complements our recent analysis of the SN Ia data within a non-Riemannian cosmological model. We use two independent data sets to constrain the new density parameter $Ω_ψ$, which is related to the non-Riemannian structure of the underlying spacetime and supplements the field equations that are very similar to the usual Friedmann equations of general relativity. Thereby we place an upper limit on the presence of non-Riemannian quantities in the late stages of the universe. The numerical results of this work also apply to several anisotropic cosmological models which, on the level of the field equations, exhibit a similar scaling behavior of the density parameters like our non-Riemannian model.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

The origin of non-thermal X-ray filaments and TeV emission in young SNRs

At the early, ejecta dominated, stage of supernova remnant (SNR) expansion a fraction of the swept-up circumstellar magnetic field is dynamically compressed to approximate equipartition at the contact discontinuity separating the SN progenitor's wind (or the ISM) and the ejecta. We propose that the thin non-thermal X-ray filaments observed by the Chandra satellite in several young SNRs are associated with such ``pile-up'' of the magnetic field. We use a one-dimensional diffusion-convection transport equation to describe the propagation of non-thermal electrons near the contact discontinuity of a young SNR and to calculate spatially resolved emission spectra in the X-ray and TeV bands. The results suggest that the high-energy electrons are possibly accelerated at the forward shock, and emitting efficiently only when they diffuse into regions of high magnetic field near the contact discontinuity. Much more likely, though, is that they are locally accelerated at the contact discontinuity, in which case the acceleration cannot be related to Fermi-type processes and should occur due to other plasma mechanisms. As a consequence, the forward shock in young SNRs is inconspicuous and often unobservable, similar to that in the Crab nebular.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

CHANDRA/VLA Follow-up of TeV J2032+4131, the Only Unidentified TeV Gamma-ray Source

The HEGRA Cherenkov telescope array group recently reported a steady and extended unidentified TeV gamma-ray source lying at the outskirts of Cygnus OB2. This is the most massive stellar association known in the Galaxy, estimated to contain ~2600 OB type members alone. It has been previously argued that the large scale shocks and turbulence induced by the multiple interacting supersonic winds from the many young stars in such associations may play a role in accelerating Galactic cosmic rays. Indeed, Cyg OB2 also coincides with the non-variable MeV-GeV range unidentified EGRET source, 3EG 2033+4118. We report on the near-simultaneous follow-up observations of the extended TeV source region with the CHANDRA X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope obtained in order to explore this possibility. Analysis of the CO, HI, and IRAS 100 micron emissions shows that the TeV source region coincides with an outlying sub-group of powerful OB stars which have evacuated or destroyed much of the ambient atomic, molecular and dust material, and which may be related to the very high-energy emissions. An interesting SNR-like structure is also revealed near the TeV source region in the CO, HI and radio emission maps. Applying a numerical simulation which accurately tracks the radio to gamma-ray emission from primary hadrons as well as primary and secondary e+/-, we find that the broadband spectrum of the TeV source region favors a predominantly nucleonic - rather than electronic - origin of the high-energy flux, though deeper X-ray and radio observations are needed to confirm this. A very reasonable, ~0.1%, conversion efficiency of Cyg OB2's extreme stellar wind mechanical luminosity to nucleonic acceleration to ~PeV (10^15 eV) energies is sufficient to explain the multifrequency emissions.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Cosmic Ray Acceleration by Stellar Associations? The Case of Cygnus OB2

The origins of all extra-solar cosmic rays -- both the ultra high-energy and lower energy Galactic variety -- remain unclear. It has been argued that the large scale shocks and turbulence induced by the multiple interacting supersonic winds from the many hot stars in young stellar associations may play a role in accelerating Galactic cosmic rays -- with or without the associated multiple supernova remnants (eg. Cesarsky & Montmerle, 1983; Bykov 2001). In this context, the report by the HEGRA Cherenkov telescope group of a steady and extended unidentified TeV gamma-ray source lying at the outskirts of Cygnus OB2 is particularly significant. This is the most massive stellar association known in the Galaxy, estimated to contain ~2600 OB type members alone indeed, Cyg OB2 also coincides with the non-variable MeV-GeV range unidentified EGRET source, 3EG 2033+4118. We summarise here the near-simultaneous follow-up observations of the extended TeV source region with the CHANDRA X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope. Applying a numerical simulation which accurately tracks the radio to gamma-ray emission from primary hadrons as well as primary and secondary e+/-, we find that the broadband spectrum of the TeV source region favors a predominantly nucleonic rather than electronic origin of the high-energy flux, though deeper X-ray and radio observations will help confirm this. A very reasonable, ~0.1%, conversion efficiency of Cyg OB2's extreme stellar wind mechanical luminosity to nucleonic acceleration to ~PeV (10^15 eV) energies is sufficient to explain the multifrequency emissions.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Diffuse Emission from the Galactic Plane and Unidentified EGRET Sources

Diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission is produced in interactions of cosmic rays with gas and ambient photon fields and thus provides us with an indirect measurement of cosmic rays in various locations in the Galaxy. The diffuse gamma-ray continuum is more intense than expected both at energies below 200 keV and above 1 GeV. The existing models for the high-energy excess are reviewed in the light of recent TeV gamma-ray measurements of both diffuse emission and of discrete Galactic sources such as supernova remnants. I specifically discuss whether particular classes of Galactic objects are observable as EGRET gamma-ray sources, either by being found among the unidentified EGRET sources or by contributing to the diffuse emission as unresolved sources.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

Gamma-ray astronomy

This paper summarizes recents results in gamma-ray astronomy, most of which were derived with data from ground-based gamma-ray detectors. Many of the contributions presented at this conference involve multiwavelength studies which combine ground-based gamma-ray measurements with optical data or space-based X-ray and gamma-ray measurements. Besides measurements of the diffuse emission from the Galaxy, observations of blazars, gamma-ray bursts, and supernova remnants this paper also covers theoretical models for the acceleration of radiating particles and their emission mechanisms in these sources.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Experimentation and Physics at a Future Electron-Positron Linear Collider

I summarise the physics opportunities and experimental challenges at future Linear Colliders, using material from the recent ECFA/DESY workshop on the subject as well as contributions to the series of worldwide studies. For reasons of economy, the discussion is restricted to the European Tesla project and to its electron-positron mode only.

hep-ex↗

arXiv1999

On the conversion of blast wave energy into radiation in active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts

It has been suggested that relativistic blast waves may power the jets of AGN and gamma-ray bursts (GRB). We address the important issue how the kinetic energy of collimated blast waves is converted into radiation. It is shown that swept-up ambient matter is quickly isotropised in the blast wave frame by a relativistic two-stream instability, which provides relativistic particles in the jet without invoking any acceleration process. The fate of the blast wave and the spectral evolution of the emission of the energetic particles is therefore solely determined by the initial conditions. We compare our model with existing multiwavelength data of AGN and find remarkable agreement.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1998

Limits for an inverse bremsstrahlung origin of the diffuse Galactic soft gamma-ray emission

RXTE, GINGA, and OSSE observations have revealed an intense low-energy gamma-ray continuum emission from the Galactic plane, which is commonly interpreted as evidence for the possible existence of a strong flux of low-energy cosmic ray electrons. In this paper I discuss the scenario of a hadronic origin of the soft Galactic gamma-ray continuum through inverse bremsstrahlung. A flux of low-energy cosmic rays strong enough to produce the observed spectrum of gamma-rays implies substantial gamma-ray emission at a few MeV through nuclear de-excitation. It is shown that the existing limits on excess 3-7 MeV emission from the Galactic plane, in concert with the constraints from pion-decay gamma-ray emission at higher energies, are in serious conflict with an inverse bremsstrahlung origin of the Galactic soft gamma-ray emission for any physically plausible low-energy cosmic ray spectrum. While in case of energetic heavy nuclei the limits are violated by about an order of magnitude, for a large population of low-energy protons the implied gamma-ray line flux and pion-decay continuum intensity are larger than the existing limits by at least a factor of 2.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1998

Diffuse gamma-ray emission: Galactic and extragalactic

Here is reviewed our current understanding of Galactic and extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray emission. The spectrum of the extragalactic gamma-ray background above 30 MeV can be well described by a power law with photon index s=2.1. In the 2-10 MeV range a preliminary analysis of COMPTEL data indicates a lower intensity than previously found, with no evidence for an MeV bump. Most of the models of a truly diffuse background seem to be in conflict with the observed spectrum. Though AGN are the most likely input from discrete sources, two independent attempts to model the high energy background as the superposition of unresolved AGN indicate that AGN underproduce the observed intensity. Therefore the origin of the extragalactic gamma-ray background is still unknown. The Galactic diffuse gamma-ray continuum is more intense than expected both at very low energies (< 100 keV) and at high energies (> 1 GeV). The published models for these excesses all involve cosmic ray electron interactions. While the low energy excess may have something to do with in-situ acceleration of electrons, the excess at high energies may be understood if the sources of cosmic ray electrons are discrete. The measured energy spectrum of the diffuse Galactic gamma-ray continuum radiation thus may provide new insights into the acceleration of cosmic rays.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1998

An annihilation fountain at the Galactic center?

Recently, data of taken with the OSSE experiment have been combined with scanning observations by TGRS and SMM to produce maps of the narrow Galactic 511 keV line emission (Purcell et al. 1997). A modelling of the combined data give evidence for three distinct features: the Galactic plane, a central bulge, and an extended emission region at positive latitudes above the Galactic center. It has been proposed that the high-latitude feature is associated with a fountain of radioactive debris produced by enhanced supernova activity in the Galactic center region (Dermer and Skibo 1997). Here we discuss this scenario in more detail: we have build a 2-dimensional code to follow the development of a hydrodynamical fountain in the Galactic center region. We have then calculated the transport, cooling, and annihilation of positrons as test particles in the outflow. As a result we find difficulties with the fountain model if the positrons are produced by supernovae in a starburst near the Galactic center. Annihilation on dust grains may increase the 511 keV line flux at high latitudes. Alternatively the observed positrons may not be entirely produced by supernovae.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1998

Electron acceleration in SNR and diffuse gamma-rays above 1 GeV

The recently observed X-ray synchrotron emission from four supernova remnants (SNR) has strengthened the evidence that cosmic ray electrons are accelerated in SNR. We show, that if this is indeed the case, the local electron spectrum will be strongly time-dependent, at least above roughly 30 GeV. The time dependence stems from the Poisson fluctuations in the number of SNR within a certain volume and within a certain time interval. As far as cosmic ray electrons are concerned, the Galaxy looks like actively bubbling swiss cheese rather than a steady, homogeneously filled system. Our finding has important consequences for studies of the Galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission, for which a strong excess over model predictions above 1 GeV has been reported recently. While these models were relying on an electron injection spectrum with index 2.4 -- chosen to fit the local electron flux up to 1 TeV -- we show that an electron injection index of around 2.0 would a) be consistent with the expected Poisson fluctuations in the locally observable electron spectrum and b) explain the above mentioned gamma-ray excess above 1 GeV. An electron injection index around 2 would also correspond to the average radio synchrotron spectrum of individual SNR. We use a three-dimensional propagation code to calculate the spectra of electrons throughout the Galaxy and show that the longitude and latitude distribution of the leptonic gamma-ray production above 1 GeV is in accord with the respective distributions for the gamma-ray excess. We finally point out that our model implies a strong systematic uncertainty in the determination of the spectrum of the extragalactic gamma-ray background.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1997

The pulsar contribution to the diffuse galactic gamma-ray emission

There is active interest in the extent to which unresolved gamma-ray pulsars contribute to the galactic diffuse emission, and whether unresolved gamma-ray pulsars could be responsible for the excess of diffuse galactic emission above 1 GeV which has been observed by EGRET. The diffuse gamma-ray intensity due to unresolved pulsars is directly linked to the number of objects which should be observed in the EGRET data. We can therefore use our knowledge of the unidentified EGRET sources to constrain model parameters like the pulsar birth rate, their beaming angle, etc. This analysis is based only on the properties of the six pulsars which have been identified in the EGRET data, and is independent of choice of a pulsar emission model. We find that pulsars contribute very little to the diffuse emission at lower energies, whereas above 1 GeV they can account for 18% of the observed intensity in selected regions for a reasonable number of directly observable gamma-ray pulsars (14). The latitude distribution of the diffuse emission caused by unresolved pulsars is narrower than that of the observed diffuse emission. While the excess above 1 GeV gamma-ray energy is observed up to at least 6-8 degrees off the plane, the pulsar contribution would be small there. Thus pulsars do significantly contribute to the diffuse galactic gamma-ray emission above 1 GeV, but they can not be made responsible for all the discrepancy between observed intensity and model predictions in this energy range.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1997

Maximum-Entropy analysis of EGRET data

EGRET data are usually analysed on the basis of the Maximum-Likelihood method \cite{ma96} in a search for point sources in excess to a model for the background radiation (e.g. \cite{hu97}). This method depends strongly on the quality of the background model, and thus may have high systematic uncertainties in region of strong and uncertain background like the Galactic Center region. Here we show images of such regions obtained by the quantified Maximum-Entropy method. We also discuss a possible further use of MEM in the analysis of problematic regions of the sky.

astro-ph↗