arXiv subjects

Qing-Wen Tang

Publications and source records attributed to Qing-Wen Tang.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

A Comprehensive Study of Bright Fermi-GBM Short Gamma-Ray Bursts: I. Multi-Pulse Lightcurves and Multi-Component Spectra

Sorted by the photon fluences of short Gamma-ray Bursts (SGRBs) detected by the Fermi- Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GBM), nine brightest bursts are selected to perform a comprehensive analysis. All GRB lightcurves are fitted well by 1 to 3 pulses that are modelled by fast-rising exponential decay profile (FRED), within which the resultant rising time is strongly positive-correlated with the full time width at half maxima (FWHM). A photon spectral model involving a cutoff power-law function and a standard blackbody function (CPL + BB) could reproduce the spectral energy distributions of these SGRBs well in the bursting phase. The CPL's peak energy is found strongly positive-correlated with the BB's temperature, which indicates they might be from the same physical origin. Possible physical origins are discussed to account for these correlations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Prevalence of Extra Power-Law Spectral Components in Short Gamma-Ray Bursts

Prompt extra power-law (PL) spectral component is discovered in some bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which usually dominates the spectral energy distribution below tens of keV or above about 10 MeV. However, its origin is still unclear. In this paper, we present a systematic analysis 13 Fermi short GRBs as of August 2020, with the contemporaneous keV-MeV and GeV detections at the prompt emission phase. We find that the extra PL component is a ubiquitous spectral feature for short GRBs, showing up in all 13 analyzed GRBs. The PL indices are mostly harder than -2.0, which may be well reproduced by considering the electromagnetic cascade induced by ultra-relativistic protons or electrons accelerated in the prompt emission phase. The average flux of these extra PL components positively correlates with that of the main spectral components, which implies they may share the same physical origin.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Constraints on Hořava-Lifshitz gravity from GRB 170817A

In this work we focus on a toy model: (3+1)-dimensional Hořava-Lifshitz gravity coupling with an anisotropic electromagnetic (EM) field which is generated through a Kaluza-Klein reduction of a (4+1)-dimensional Hořava-Lifshitz gravity. This model exhibits a remarkable feature that it has the same velocity for both gravitational and electromagnetic waves. This feature makes it possible to restrict the parameters of the theory from GRB 170817A. In this work we use this feature to discuss possible constraints on the parameter $β$ in the theory, by analyzing the possible Lorentz invariance violation effect of the GRB 170817A. This is achieved by analyzing potential time delay of gamma-ray photons in this event. It turns out that it places a stringent constraint on this parameter. In the most ideal case, it gives $|1-\sqrtβ|<(10^{-19}-10^{-18})$.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Unexpected Dip in the Solar Gamma-Ray Spectrum

The solar disk is a bright source of multi-GeV gamma rays, due to the interactions of hadronic cosmic rays with the solar atmosphere. However, the underlying production mechanism is not understood, except that its efficiency must be greatly enhanced by magnetic fields that redirect some cosmic rays from ingoing to outgoing before they interact. To elucidate the nature of this emission, we perform a new analysis of solar atmospheric gamma rays with 9 years of Fermi-LAT data, which spans nearly the full 11-year solar cycle. We detect significant gamma-ray emission from the solar disk from 1 GeV up to $\gtrsim200$ GeV. The overall gamma-ray spectrum is much harder ($\sim E_γ^{-2.2}$) than the cosmic-ray spectrum ($\sim E_{\rm CR}^{-2.7}$). We find a clear anticorrelation between the solar cycle phase and the gamma-ray flux between 1-10 GeV. Surprisingly, we observe a spectral dip between $\sim$30-50 GeV in an otherwise power-law spectrum. This was not predicted, is not understood, and may provide crucial clues to the gamma-ray emission mechanism. The flux above 100 GeV, which is brightest during the solar minimum, poses exciting opportunities for HAWC, LHAASO, IceCube, and KM3NeT.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

The three-parameter correlations about optical plateaus of gamma-ray bursts

Well-sampled optical light curves of 50 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with plateau features are compiled from the literature. By empirical fitting, we obtained the parameters of the optical plateaus, such as the decay slopes ($α_{\rm 1}$ and $α_{\rm 2}$), the break times ($T_{\rm b}$), and the corresponding optical fluxes ($F_{\rm b}$) at the break times. The break time of optical plateaus ranges from tens of seconds to $10^6$ seconds, with a typical value about $10^4$ seconds. We have calculated the break luminosity, and it mainly ranges from $10^{44}$ erg $s^{-1}$ to $10^{47}$ erg $s^{-1}$, which is generally two or three orders of magnitude less than the corresponding break luminosity of the X-ray afterglow plateaus. We reanalyzed the optical plateaus and also found that a significantly tighter correlation exists when we added the isotropic equivalent energy of GRBs $E_{\rm γ,iso}$ into the $L_{\rm b,z}-T_{\rm b,z}$ relation. The best fit correlation is obtained to be $L_{\rm b,z}\propto T_{\rm b,z}^{-0.9}E_{\rm γ,iso}^{0.4}$. We next explored the possible correlations among $L_{\rm b,z}$, $T_{\rm b,z}$ and $E_{\rm p,i}$, and found there is also a tight correlation between them, which takes the form of $L_{\rm b,z}\propto T_{\rm b,z}^{-0.9}E_{\rm p,i}^{0.5}$. We argue that these two tight $L_{\rm b,z}-T_{\rm b,z}-E_{\rm γ,iso}$ and $L_{\rm b,z}-T_{\rm b,z}-E_{\rm p,i}$ correlations are more physical, and it may be directly related to radiation physics of GRBs. The tight correlations are possible to be used as standard candles.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Evidence for a New Component of High-Energy Solar Gamma-Ray Production

The observed multi-GeV gamma-ray emission from the solar disk --- sourced by hadronic cosmic rays interacting with gas, and affected by complex magnetic fields --- is not understood. Utilizing an improved analysis of the Fermi-LAT data that includes the first resolved imaging of the disk, we find strong evidence that this emission is produced by two separate mechanisms. Between 2010-2017 (the rise to and fall from solar maximum), the gamma-ray emission is dominated by a polar component. Between 2008-2009 (solar minimum) this component remains present, but the total emission is instead dominated by a new equatorial component with a brighter flux and harder spectrum. Most strikingly, although 6 gamma rays above 100 GeV are observed during the 1.4 years of solar minimum, none are observed during the next 7.8 years. These features, along with a 30-50 GeV spectral dip which will be discussed in a companion paper, were not anticipated by theory. To understand the underlying physics, Fermi and HAWC observations of the imminent Cycle 25 solar minimum are crucial.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Discovery of GeV gamma-ray emission from the LMC B0443-6657 with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

We report the discovery of gamma-ray detection from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) B0443-6657 using the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the \textit{Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope}. LMC B0443-6657 is a flat spectrum radio source, possibly associated with a supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC N4). Employing the LAT data of 8 years, our results show a significant excess ($>9.4σ$) of gamma-ray in the range of 0.2--100\,GeV above the gamma-ray background. A power-law function is found to be adequate to describe the $0.2-100$ GeV $γ$-ray spectrum, which yields a photon flux of $3.27\pm0.53\ \mathrm{photon\ \,cm}^2\ \mathrm{s}^{-1}$ with a photon index of $2.35\pm0.11$, corresponding to an isotropic gamma-ray luminosity of $5.3\times10^{40}\ \mathrm{erg\ \,s}^{-1}$. The hadronic model predicts a low X-ray and TeV flux while the leptonic model predicts an observable flux in these two energy bands. The follow-up observations of the LMC B0443-6657 in X-ray or TeV band would distinguish the radiation models of gamma-rays from this region.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2017

Evidence of an Internal Dissipation Origin for the High-energy Prompt Emission of GRB 170214A

The origin of the prompt high-energy ($>100$MeV) emission of Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs), detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, is still under debate, for which both the external shock origin and internal dissipation origin have been suggested. In the internal dissipation scenario, the high energy emission is expected to exhibit significant temporal variability, tracking the keV/MeV fast variable behavior. Here, we report a detailed analysis on the Fermi data of GRB~170214A, which is sufficiently bright in the high energy to enable a quantitative analysis of the correlation between high-energy emission and keV/MeV emission with high statistics. Our result shows a clear temporal correlation between high-energy and keV/MeV emission in the whole prompt emission phase as well as in two decomposed short time intervals. Such correlation behavior is also found in some other bright LAT GRBs, i.e., GRB 080916C, 090902B and 090926A. For these GRBs as well as GRB 090510, we also find the rapid temporal variability in the high-energy emission. We thus conclude that the prompt high-energy emission in these bright LAT GRBs should be due to internal origin.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2017

An evolving GeV spectrum from prompt to afterglow: the case of GRB 160509A

We present the high-energy emission properties of GRB 160509A, from its prompt mission to late afterglow phase. GRB 160509A contains two emission episodes: 0-40s and 280-420s after the burst onset (t0). The relatively high fluence of GRB 160509A allows us to establish an evolving spectrum above 100 MeV. During the first emission episode, the >100 MeV spectrum is soft with Γ=>3.0, which can be smoothly connected to keV energies with a Band function with a high-energy cutoff. The >100 MeV spectrum rapidly changes to a hard spectrum with Γ<=1.5 after t0+40s. The existence of very energetic photons, e.g., a 52 GeV that arrives t0+77 seconds, and a 29 GeV that arrives t0+70 ks, is hard to reconcile by the synchrotron emission from forward-shock electrons, but likely due to inverse Compton mechanism (e.g., synchrotron self-Compton emission). A soft spectrum (Γ~2) between 300s and 1000s after the burst onset is also found at a significance of about 2 standard deviations, which suggests a different emission mechanism at work for this short period of time. GRB 160509A represents the latest example where inverse Compton emission has to be taken into account in explaining the afterglow GeV emission, which had been suggested long before the launch of Fermi LAT.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2017

Evidence of a spectral break in the gamma-ray emission of the disk component of Large Magellanic Cloud: a hadronic origin?

It has been suggested that high-energy gamma-ray emission ($>100{\rm MeV}$) of nearby star-forming galaxies may be produced predominantly by cosmic rays colliding with the interstellar medium through neutral pion decay. The pion-decay mechanism predicts a unique spectral signature in the gamma-ray spectrum, characterized by a fast rising spectrum and a spectral break below a few hundreds of MeV. We here report the evidence of a spectral break around 500 MeV in the disk emission of Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is found in the analysis of the gamma-ray data extending down to 60 MeV observed by {\it Fermi}-Large Area Telescope. The break is well consistent with the pion-decay model for the gamma-ray emission, although leptonic models, such as the electron bremsstrahlung emission, cannot be ruled out completely.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Search for high energy gamma-ray emission from tidal disruption events with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Massive black holes at galaxy center may tear apart a star when the star passes occasionally within the disruption radius, which is the so-called tidal disruption event(TDE). Most TDEs radiate with thermal emission resulted from the accretion disk, but three TDEs have been detected in bright non-thermal X-ray emission, which is interpreted as arising from the relativistic jets. Search for high-energy gamma-ray emission from one relativistic TDE (Swift J164449.3+573451) with the \textsl{Fermi} Large Area Telescope (LAT) has yielded non-detection. In this paper, we report the search for high energy emission from the other two relativistic TDEs (Swift J2058.4+0516 Swift J1112.2-8238) during the flare period. No significant GeV emission is found, with an upper limit fluence in LAT energy range being less than $1\%$ of that in X-rays. Compared with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and blazars, these TDEs have the lowest flux ratio between GeV emission and X-ray emission. The non-detection of high-energy emission from relativistic TDEs could be due to that the high-energy emission is absorbed by soft photons in the source. Based on this hypothesis, upper limits on the bulk Lorentz factors, $Γ\la 30$, are then obtained for the jets in these TDEs. We also search for high-energy gamma-ray emission from the nearest TDE discovered to date, ASASSN-14li. No significant GeV emission is found and an upper limit of $L(\rm 0.1-10 GeV)\le 4.4\times 10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$ (at $95\%$ confidence level) is obtained for the first $10^{7}$ s after the disruption.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

First detection of GeV emission from an ultraluminous infrared galaxy: Arp 220 as seen with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Cosmic rays (CRs) in starburst galaxies produce high energy gamma-rays by colliding with the dense interstellar medium (ISM). Arp 220 is the nearest ultra luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) that has star-formation at extreme levels, so it has long been predicted to emit high-energy gamma-rays. However, no evidence of gamma-ray emission was found despite intense efforts of search. Here we report the discovery of high-energy gamma-ray emission above 200 MeV from Arp 220 at a confidence level of $\sim 6.3 σ$ using 7.5 years of \textsl {Fermi} Large Area Telescope observations. The gamma-ray emission shows no significant variability over the observation period and it is consistent with the quasi-linear scaling relation between the gamma-ray luminosity and total infrared luminosity for star-forming galaxies, suggesting that these gamma-rays arise from CR interactions. As the high density medium of Arp 220 makes it an ideal CR calorimeter, the gamma-ray luminosity can be used to measure the efficiency of powering CRs by supernova (SN) remnants given a known supernova rate in Arp 220. We find that this efficiency is about $4.2\pm2.6\%$ for CRs above 1 GeV.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

How Bad/Good Are the External Forward Shock Afterglow Models of Gamma-Ray Bursts?

The external forward shock (EFS) models have been the standard paradigm to interpret the broad-band afterglow data of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). One prediction of the models is that some afterglow temporal breaks at different energy bands should be achromatic. Observations in the Swift era have revealed chromatic afterglow behaviors at least in some GRBs, casting doubts on the EFS origin of GRB afterglows. In this paper, we perform a systematic study to address the question: how bad/good are the external forward shock models? Our sample includes 85 GRBs well-monitored X-ray and optical lightcurves. Based on how well the data abide by the EFS models, we categorize them as: Gold sample: (Grade I and II) include 45/85 GRBs. They show evidence of, or are consistent with having, an achromatic break. The temporal/spectral behaviors in each afterglow segment are consistent with the predictions (closure relations) of the EFS models. Silver sample: (Grade III and IV) include 37/85 GRBs. They are also consistent with having an achromatic break, even though one or more afterglow segments do not comply with the closure relations. Bad sample: (Grade V), 3/85 shows direct evidence of chromatic behaviors, suggesting that the EFS models are inconsistent with the data. These are included in the Bad sample. We further perform statistical analyses of various observational properties ($α$, $β$, $t_b$ and model parameters (energy injection index q, p, $θ_j$, $η_γ$, etc) of the GRBs in the Gold Sample, and derive constraints on the magnetization parameter $ε_B$ in the EFS. Overall, we conclude that the simplest EFS models can account for the multi-wavelength afterglow data of at least half of the GRBs. When more advanced modeling (e.g., long-lasting reverse shock, structured jets) is invoked, up to $>90 \%$ of the afterglows may be interpreted within the framework of the ESF models.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Measuring the bulk Lorentz factors of gamma-ray bursts with Fermi

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powered by ultra-relativistic jets. Usually a minimum value of the Lorentz factor of the relativistic bulk motion is obtained based on the argument that the observed high energy photons ($\gg {\rm MeV}$) can escape without suffering from absorption due to pair production. The exact value, rather than a lower limit, of the Lorentz factor can be obtained if the spectral cutoff due to such absorption is detected. With the good spectral coverage of the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on \textsl{Fermi}, measurements of such cutoff become possible, and two cases (GRB~090926A and GRB~100724B) have been reported to have high-energy cutoffs or breaks. We systematically search for such high energy spectral cutoffs/breaks from the LAT and the Gamma-ray burst monitor (GBM) observations of the prompt emission of GRBs detected since August 2011. Six more GRBs are found to have cutoff-like spectral feature at energies of $\sim10-500$~MeV. Assuming that these cutoffs are caused by pair-production absorption within the source, the bulk Lorentz factors of these GRBs are obtained. We further find that the Lorentz factors are correlated with the isotropic gamma-ray luminosity of the bursts, indicating that more powerful GRB jets move faster.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

A Correlated Study of Optical and X-ray Afterglows of GRBs

We study an extensive sample of 87 GRBs for which there are well sampled and simultaneous optical and X-ray light-curves. We extract the cleanest possible signal of the afterglow component, and compare the temporal behaviors of the X-ray light-curve, observed by Swift XRT, and optical data, observed by UVOT and ground-based telescopes for each individual burst. Overall we find 62\% GRBs that are consistent with the standard afterglow model. When more advanced modeling is invoked, up to 91\% of the bursts in our sample may be consistent with the external shock model. A large fraction of these bursts are consistent with occurring in a constant interstellar density medium (ISM) (61\%) while only 39\% of them occur in a wind-like medium. Only 9 cases have afterglow light-curves that exactly match the standard fireball model prediction, having a single power law decay in both energy bands which are observed during their entire duration. In particular, for the bursts with chromatic behavior additional model assumptions must be made over limited segments of the light-curves in order for these bursts to fully agree with the external shock model. Interestingly, for 54\% of the X-ray and 40\% of the optical band observations the end of the shallow decay ($t^{\sim-0.5}$) period coincides with the jet break ($t^{\sim-p}$) time, causing an abrupt change in decay slope. The fraction of the burst that consistent with the external shock model is independent of the observational epochs in the rest frame of GRBs. Moreover, no cases can be explained by the cooling frequency crossing the X-ray or optical band.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Discovery of GeV emission from the direction of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 2146

Recent detection of high-energy gamma-ray emission from starburst galaxies M82 and NGC 253 suggests that starburst galaxies are huge reservoirs of cosmic rays and these cosmic rays convert a significant fraction of their energy into gamma-rays by colliding with the dense interstellar medium. In this paper, we report the search for high-energy gamma-ray emission from several nearby star-forming and starburst galaxies using the 68 month data obtained with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We found a $\sim5.5σ$ detection of gamma-ray emission above 200{\rm MeV} from a source spatially coincident with the location of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC~2146. Taking into account also the temporal and spectral properties of the gamma-ray emission, we suggest that the gamma-ray source is likely to be the counterpart of NGC~2146. The gamma-ray luminosity suggests that cosmic rays in NGC~2146 convert most of their energy into secondary pions, so NGC~2146 is a "proton calorimeter". It is also found that NGC~2146 obeys the quasi-linear scaling relation between the gamma-ray luminosity and total infrared luminosity for star-forming galaxies, strengthening the connection between massive star formation and gamma-ray emission of star-forming galaxies. Possible TeV emission from NGC~2146 is predicted and the implications for high-energy neutrino emission from starburst galaxies are discussed.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

An inverse Compton origin for the 55 GeV photon in the late afterglow of GRB 130907A

The extended high-energy gamma-ray (>100 MeV) emission which occurs well after the prompt gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is usually explained as the afterglow synchrotron radiation. Here we report the analysis of the Fermi Large Area Telescope observations of GRB 130907A. A 55 GeV photon compatible with the position of the burst was found at about 5 hours after the prompt phase. The probability that this photon is associated with GRB 130907A is higher than 99.96%. The energy of this photon exceeds the maximum synchrotron photon energy at this time and its occurrence thus challenges the synchrotron mechanism as the origin for the extended high-energy >10 GeV emission. Modeling of the broad-band spectral energy distribution suggests that such high energy photons can be produced by the synchrotron self-Compton emission of the afterglow.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

A Comprehensive Study of Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Emission: II. Afterglow Onset and Late Re-Brightening Components

We continue our systematic statistical study of various components in gamma-ray burst (GRB) optical lightcurves. We decompose the early onset bump and the late re-brightening bump with empirical fits and analyze their statistical properties. Among the 146 GRBs that have well-sampled optical lightcurves, the onset and re-brightening bumps are observed in 38 and 26 GRBs, respectively. It is found that the typical rising and decaying slopes for both the onset and re-brightening bumps are ~1.5 and -1.15, respectively. No early onset bumps in the X-ray band are detected to be associated with the optical onset bumps, while an X-ray re-brightening bump is detected for half of the re-brightening optical bumps. The peak luminosity is anti-correlated with the peak time, L_p\propto t_{p}^{-1.81+/-0.32} and L_p\propto t_{p}^{-0.83+/-0.17} for the onset and re-brightening bumps, respectively. Both L_p and the isotropic energy release of the onset bumps are correlated with E_{γ, iso}, whereas no similar correlation is found for the re-brightening bumps. Taking the onset bumps as probes for the properties of the fireballs and their ambient medium, we find that the typical power-law index of the relativistic electrons is 2.5 and the medium density profile behaves as n\propto r^{-1} within the framework of the synchrotron external shock models. With the medium density profile obtained from our analysis, we also confirm the correlation between initial Lorentz factor (Γ_0) and E_{γ, iso} in our previous work. The jet component that produces the re-brightening bump seems to be on-axis and independent of the prompt emission jet component. Its typical kinetic energy budget would be about one order of magnitude larger than the prompt emission component, but with a lower Γ_0, typically several tens.

astro-ph.HE↗