arXiv subjects

Shigeo S. Kimura

Publications and source records attributed to Shigeo S. Kimura.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Upscattered Cocoon Emission in Short Gamma-ray Bursts as High-energy Gamma-ray Counterparts to Gravitational Waves

We investigate prolonged engine activities of short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs), such as extended and/or plateau emissions, as high-energy gamma-ray counterparts to gravitational waves (GWs). Binary neutron-star mergers lead to relativistic jets and merger ejecta with $r$-process nucleosynthesis, which are observed as SGRBs and kilonovae/macronovae, respectively. Long-term relativistic jets may be launched by the merger remnant as hinted in X-ray light curves of some SGRBs. The prolonged jets may dissipate their kinetic energy within the radius of the cocoon formed by the jet-ejecta interaction. Then the cocoon supplies seed photons to non-thermal electrons accelerated at the dissipation region, causing high-energy gamma-ray production through the inverse Compton scattering process. We numerically calculate high-energy gamma-ray spectra in such a system using a one-zone and steady-state approximation, and show that GeV--TeV gamma-rays are produced with a duration of $10^2-10^5$ seconds. They can be detected by {\it Fermi}/LAT or CTA as gamma-ray counterparts to GWs.

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arXiv2019

High-energy emissions from neutron star mergers

In 2017, LIGO-Virgo collaborations reported detection of the first neutron star merger event, GW170817, which is accompanied by electromagnetic counterparts from radio to gamma rays. Although high-energy neutrinos were not detected from this event, mergers of neutron stars are expected to produce such high-energy particles. Relativistic jets are launched when neutron stars merge. If the jets contain protons, they can emit high-energy neutrinos through photomeson production. In addition, neutron star mergers produce massive and fast ejecta, which can be a source of Galactic high-energy cosmic rays above the knee. We briefly review what we learned from the multi-messenger event, GW170817, and discuss prospects for multi-messenger detections and hadronic cosmic-ray production related to the neutron star mergers.

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arXiv2018

Delayed jet breakouts from binary neutron star mergers

Short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) are thought to be produced by binary NS mergers. While a sGRB requires a relativistic jet to break out of ejecta, the jet may be choked and fails to produce a successful sGRB. We propose a "delayed breakout" scenario where a late-time jet launched by a long-term engine activity can penetrate ejecta even if a prompt jet is choked. Observationally, such a late-time jet is supported by the long-lasting high-energy emissions in sGRBs. Solving the jet propagation in ejecta, we show that a typical late-time activity easily achieves the delayed breakout. This event shows not prompt $γ$-rays but long-time X-ray emissions for $\sim10^{2-3}\,\rm{s}$ or even $\sim10^{4-5}\,\rm{s}$. Some delayed events may be already detected as soft-long GRBs without supernova signatures. In an optimistic case, a few events coincident with gravitational-waves (GWs) are detected by the second-generation GW detectors every year. X-ray followups of merger events without $γ$-rays will be a probe of long-lasting engine activities in binary mergers.

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arXiv2018

Super-Knee Cosmic Rays from Galactic Neutron Star Merger Remnants

The detection of gravitational waves and electromagnetic counterparts from a binary neutron star (BNS) merger confirmed that it is accompanied by the launch of fast merger ejecta. Analogous to supernova remnants, forward shocks formed by the interaction of the ejecta with interstellar material will produce high-energy cosmic rays. We investigate the possibility that Galactic neutron star merger remnants (NSMRs) significantly contribute to the observed cosmic rays in the energy range between the knee and the ankle. Using typical parameters obtained by modeling of GW170817, we find that NSMRs can accelerate iron nuclei up to $\sim500$ PeV. We calculate the cosmic-ray spectrum and composition observed on Earth, and show that the Galactic NSMR scenario can account for the experimental cosmic-ray data in the 20 -- 1000 PeV range. Our model can naturally explain the hardening feature around 20 PeV for total cosmic-ray spectrum, which has been observed by the Telescope Array Low Energy extension and the IceTop air shower array.

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arXiv2018

Trans-Ejecta High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Binary Neutron Star Mergers

The observations of a macronova/kilonova accompanied by gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger (GW170817) confirmed that neutron star coalescences produce copious ejecta. The coincident gamma-ray detection implies the existence of a relativistic jet in this system. During the jet's propagation within the ejecta, high-energy photons and neutrinos can be produced. The photons are absorbed by the ejecta, while the neutrinos escape and can be detected. Here, we estimate such trans-ejecta neutrino emission, and discuss how neutrino observations could be used to differentiate between gamma-ray burst emission scenarios. We find that neutrinos from the internal shocks inside the ejecta may be detectable by IceCube within a few years of operation, and will likely be detected with IceCube-Gen2. The neutrino signals coincident with gravitational waves would enable us to reveal the physical quantities of the choked jets even without electromagnetic signals.

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arXiv2018

Low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts as the sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray nuclei

Recent results from the Pierre Auger Collaboration have shown that the composition of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) becomes gradually heavier with increasing energy. Although gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been promising sources of UHECRs, it is still unclear whether they can account for the Auger results because of their unknown nuclear composition of ejected UHECRs. In this work, we revisit the possibility that low-luminosity GRBs (LL GRBs) act as the sources of UHECR nuclei, and give new predictions based on the intrajet nuclear composition models considering progenitor dependencies. We find that the nuclear component in the jet can be divided into two groups according to the mass fraction of silicon nuclei, Si-free and Si-rich. Motivated by the connection between LL GRBs and transrelativistic supernovae, we also consider the hypernova ejecta composition. Then, we discuss the survivability of UHECR nuclei in the jet base and internal shocks of the jets, and show that it is easier for nuclei to survive for typical LL GRBs. Finally, we numerically propagate UHECR nuclei ejected from LL GRBs with different composition models and compare the resulting spectra and composition to Auger data. Our results show that both the Si-rich progenitor and hypernova ejecta models match the Auger data well, while the Si-free progenitor models have more difficulty in fitting the spectrum. We argue that our model is consistent with the newly reported cross correlation between the UHECRs and starburst galaxies, since both LL GRBs and hypernovae are expected to be tracers of the star-formation activity. LL GRBs have also been suggested as the dominant origin of IceCube neutrinos in the PeV range, and the LL GRB origin of UHECRs can be critically tested by near-future multimessenger observations.

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arXiv2018

Ultrahigh-energy Cosmic-ray Nuclei from Black Hole Jets: Recycling Galactic Cosmic Rays through Shear Acceleration

We perform Monte Carlo simulations of transrelativistic shear acceleration dedicated to a jet-cocoon system of active galactic nuclei. A certain fraction of galactic cosmic rays in a halo is entrained, and sufficiently high-energy particles can be injected to the reacceleration process and further accelerated up to 100 EeV. We show that the shear reacceleration mechanism leads to a hard spectrum of escaping cosmic rays, $dL_E/dE\propto E^{-1}-E^0$, distinct from a conventional $E^{-2}$ spectrum. The supersolar abundance of ultrahigh-energy nuclei is achieved due to injections at TeV-PeV energies. As a result, we find that the highest-energy spectrum and mass composition can be reasonably explained by our model without contradictions with the anisotropy data.

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arXiv2018

Double Neutron Star Mergers and Short Gamma-Ray Bursts: Long-Lasting High-Energy Signatures and Remnant Dichotomy

The recent detection of gravitational waves and electromagnetic counterparts from the double neutron star merger event GW+EM170817, supports the standard paradigm of short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) and kilonovae/macronovae. It is important to reveal the nature of the compact remnant left after the merger, either a black hole or neutron star, and their physical link to the origin of the long-lasting emission observed in SGRBs. The diversity of the merger remnants may also lead to different kinds of transients that can be detected in future. Here we study the high-energy emission from the long-lasting central engine left after the coalescence, under certain assumptions. In particular, we consider the X-ray emission from a remnant disk and the non-thermal nebular emission from disk-driven outflows or pulsar winds. We demonstrate that late-time X-ray and high-frequency radio emission can provide useful constraints on properties of the hidden compact remnants and their connections to long-lasting SGRB emission, and we discuss the detectability of nearby merger events through late-time observations at $\sim30-100$ d after the coalescence. We also investigate the GeV-TeV gamma-ray emission that occurs in the presence of long-lasting central engines, and show the importance of external inverse-Compton radiation due to up-scattering of X-ray photons by relativistic electrons in the jet. We also search for high-energy gamma-rays from GW170817 in the Fermi-LAT data, and report upper limits on such long-lasting emission. Finally, we consider the implications of GW+EM170817 and discuss the constraints placed by X-ray and high-frequency radio observations.

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arXiv2017

Outflow-Driven Transients from the Birth of Binary Black Holes II: Primary-Induced Accretion Transients

We discuss the electromagnetic radiation from newborn binary black holes (BBHs). As a consequence of the evolution of massive stellar binaries, a binary consisting of a primary black hole (BH) and a secondary Wolf-Rayet star is expected as a BBH progenitor system. We investigate optical transients from the birth of BBHs powered by the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton accretion onto the primary BH, which occur $\sim1-10$ Gyr earlier than gravitational wave signals at the BH-BH merger. When the secondary massive star collapses into a BH, it may eject a fraction of its outer material and may form a disk around the primary BH and induces a powerful disk wind. These primary-induced winds can lead to optical transients with a kinetic energy of $\sim10^{47}-3\times10^{48}$ erg, an ejecta velocity of $10^8-10^9\rm~cm~s^{-1}$, a duration of a few days, and an absolute magnitude ranging from about $-11$ to $-14$. The light curves and late-time spectra of these transients are distinctive from those of ordinary supernovae, and detection of this type of transient is possible by future optical transient surveys if the event rate of this transient is comparable to the merger rate of BBHs. This paper focuses on the emissions from disk-driven transients induced by the primary BH, different from the first paper that focuses on wind-driven transients from the tidally-locked secondary massive star.

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arXiv2017

Outflow-Driven Transients from the Birth of Binary Black Holes I: Tidally-Locked Secondary Supernovae

We propose a new type of electromagnetic transients associated with the birth of binary black holes (BBHs), which may lead to merger events accompanied by gravitational waves in $\sim0.1-1$ Gyr. We consider the newborn BBHs formed through the evolution of isolated massive stellar binaries. For a close massive binary, consisting of a primary black hole (BH) and a secondary Wolf-Rayet (WR) star that are orbiting around each other, the spin period of the WR star can be tidally synchronized to its orbital period. Then, the angular momentum of the outer material of the WR star is large enough to form an accretion disk around a newborn, secondary BH, following its core-collapse. This disk may produce an energetic outflow with a kinetic energy of $\sim10^{50}-10^{52}$ erg and an outflow velocity of $\sim10^{10}\rm~cm~s^{-1}$, resulting in an optical transient with an absolute magnitude from $\sim -14$ to $\sim-17$ with a duration of around a day. This type of transient also produces detectable radio signals $\sim1-10$ years after the birth of BBHs, via synchrotron emission from non-thermal electrons accelerated at external shocks. The predicted optical transients have a shorter duration than ordinary core-collapse supernovae. Dedicated optical transient surveys can detect them, and distinguish it from ordinary SNe using the different features of its light curve and late-time spectrum. In the paper I, we investigate disk-driven outflows from the secondary BH, whereas possible signals from the primary BH will be discussed in the paper II.

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arXiv2017

High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Short Gamma-Ray Bursts: Prospects for Coincident Detection with Gravitational Waves

We investigate current and future prospects for coincident detection of high-energy neutrinos and gravitational waves (GWs). Short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) are believed to originate from mergers of compact star binaries involving neutron stars. We estimate high-energy neutrino fluences from prompt emission, extended emission, X-ray flares, and plateau emission, and show that neutrino signals associated with the extended emission are the most promising. Assuming that the cosmic-ray loading factor is $\sim10$ and the Lorentz factor distribution is lognormal, we calculate the probability of neutrino detection from extended emission by current and future neutrino detectors, and find that the quasi-simultaneous detection of high-energy neutrinos, gamma rays, and GWs is possible with future instruments or even with current instruments for nearby SGRBs having extended emission. We also discuss stacking analyses that will also be useful with future experiments such as IceCube-Gen2.

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arXiv2017

Sagittarius A* as an Origin of the Galactic PeV Cosmic Rays?

Supernova remnants (SNRs) have commonly been considered as a source of the observed PeV cosmic rays (CRs) or a Galactic PeV particle accelerator ("Pevatron"). In this work, we study Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), which is the low-luminosity active galactic nucleus of the Milky Way Galaxy, as another possible canditate of the Pevatron, because it sometimes became very active in the past. We assume that a large number of PeV CRs were injected by Sgr A* at the outburst about 10^7 yr ago when the Fermi bubbles were created. We constrain the diffusion coefficient for the CRs in the Galactic halo on the condition that the CRs have arrived on the Earth by now, while a fairly large fraction of them have escaped from the halo. Based on a diffusion-halo model, we solve a diffusion equation for the CRs and compare the results with the CR spectrum on the Earth. The observed small anisotropy of the arrival directions of CRs may be explained if the diffusion coefficient in the Galactic disk is smaller than that in the halo. Our model predicts that a boron-to-carbon ratio should be energy-independent around the knee, where the CRs from Sgr A* become dominant. It is unlikely that the spectrum of the CRs accelerated at the outburst is represented by a power-law similar to the one for those responsible for the gamma-ray emission from the central molecular zone (CMZ) around the Galactic center.

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arXiv2016

From Birth to Death of Protoplanetary Disks: Modeling Their Formation, Evolution, and Dispersal

Formation, evolution, and dispersal processes of protoplanetary disks are investigated and the disk lifetime is estimated. Gravitational collapse of a pre-stellar core forms both a central star and a protoplanetary disk. The central star grows by accretion from the disk, and irradiation by the central star heats up the disk and generates thermal wind, which results in the disk dispersal. We calculate the evolution of protoplanetary disks from their parent pre-stellar cores to dispersal of the disks. We find that the disk lifetimes of typical pre-stellar cores are around 2--4 million years (Myr). A pre-stellar core with high angular momentum forms a larger disk whose lifetime is long, while a disk around a X-ray luminous star has a short lifetime. Integrating the disk lifetimes under various mass and angular velocity of prestellar cores and X-ray luminosities of young stellar objects, we obtain disk fraction at a given stellar age and mean lifetime of the disks. Our model indicates that the mean lifetime of protoplanetary disks is 3.7 Myr, which is consistent with the observational estimate from young stellar clusters. We also find that the dispersion of X-ray luminosity is needed to reproduce the observed disk fraction.

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arXiv2016

Evolution of an Accretion Disk in Binary Black Hole Systems

We investigate evolution of an accretion disc in binary black hole (BBH) systems and possible electromagnetic counterparts of the gravitational waves from mergers of BBHs. Perna et al. (2016) proposed a novel evolutionary scenario of an accretion disc in BBHs in which a disc eventually becomes "dead", i.e., the magnetorotational instability (MRI) becomes inactive. In their scenario, the dead disc survives until {\it a few seconds before} the merger event. We improve the dead disc model and propose another scenario, taking account of effects of the tidal torque from the companion and the critical ionization degree for MRI activation more carefully. We find that the mass of the dead disc is much lower than that in the Perna's scenario. When the binary separation sufficiently becomes small, the mass inflow induced by the tidal torque reactivates MRI, restarting mass accretion onto the black hole. We also find that this disc "revival" happens {\it more than thousands of years before} the merger. The mass accretion induced by the tidal torque increases as the separation decreases, and a relativistic jet could be launched before the merger. The emissions from these jets are too faint compared to GRBs, but detectable if the merger events happen within $\lesssim 10$ Mpc or if the masses of the black holes are as massive as $\sim 10^5 M_{\odot}$.

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arXiv2016

Diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Galactic center and implications of its past activities

It has been indicated that low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) are accelerating high-energy cosmic-ray (CR) protons in their radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs). If this is the case, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) should also be generating CR protons, because Sgr A* is a LLAGN. Based on this scenario, we calculate a production rate of CR protons in Sgr A* and their diffusion in the central molecular zone (CMZ) around Sgr A*. The CR protons diffusing in the CMZ create gamma-rays through pp interaction. We show that the gamma-ray luminosity and spectrum are consistent with observations if Sgr A* was active in the past.

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arXiv2016

Turbulent Cosmic-Ray Reacceleration and the Curved Radio Spectrum of the Radio Relic in the Sausage Cluster

It has often been thought that the northern radio relic in the galaxy cluster CIZA J2242.8+5301 (the "Sausage" Cluster) is associated with cosmic ray (CR) electrons that are accelerated at a shock through the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) mechanism. However, recent radio observations have shown that the radio spectrum is curved, which is inconsistent with the prediction of a simple DSA model. Moreover, the CR electron spectrum before being affected by radiative cooling seems to be too hard for DSA. In this study, we show that these facts are natural consequences if the electrons are reaccelerated in turbulence downstream of the shock. In this model, DSA is not the main mechanism for generating high-energy electrons. We find that the mean free path of the electrons should be much shorter than the Coulomb mean free path for efficient reacceleration. The scale of the turbulent eddies must be smaller than the width of the relic. We also predict hard X-ray spectra of inverse Compton scattering of photons.

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arXiv2016

Stochastic Particle Acceleration in Turbulence Generated by the Magnetorotational Instability

We investigate stochastic particle acceleration in accretion flows. It is believed that the magnetorotational instability (MRI) generates turbulence inside accretion flows and that cosmic rays (CRs) are accelerated by the turbulence. We calculate equations of motion for CRs in the turbulent fields generated by MRI with the shearing box approximation without back reaction to the field. The results show that the CRs randomly gain or lose their energies through the interaction with the turbulent fields. The CRs diffuse in the configuration space anisotropically: The diffusion coefficient in direction of the unperturbed flow is about twenty times higher than the Bohm coefficient, while those in the other directions are only a few times higher than the Bohm. The momentum distribution is isotropic, and its evolution can be described by the diffusion equation in momentum space where the diffusion coefficient is a power-law function of the CR momentum. We show that the shear acceleration efficiently works for energetic particles. We also cautiously note that in the shearing box approximation, particles that cross the simulation box many times along the radial direction suffer unphysical runaway acceleration by the Lorentz transformation, which needs to be taken with special care.

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arXiv2015

Hadronic origin of multi-TeV gamma rays and neutrinos from low-luminosity active galactic nuclei: implications of past activities of the Galactic center

Radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs) in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) have been suggested as cosmic-ray and neutrino sources that may largely contribute to the observed diffuse neutrino intensity. We show that this scenario naturally predicts hadronic multi-TeV gamma-ray excesses around Galactic centers. The protons accelerated in the RIAF in Sagittarius A$^*$ (Sgr A$^*$) escape and interact with dense molecular gas surrounding Sgr A$^*$, which is known as the central molecular zone (CMZ), and produce gamma rays as well as neutrinos. Based on a theoretical model that is compatible with the IceCube data, we calculate gamma-ray spectra of the CMZ and find that the gamma rays with $\gtrsim 1$ TeV may have already been detected with the High Energy Stereoscopic System, if Sgr A$^*$ was more active in the past than it is today as indicated by various observations. Our model predicts that neutrinos should come from the CMZ with a spectrum similar to the gamma-ray spectrum. We also show that such a gamma-ray excess is expected for some nearby galaxies hosting LLAGNs.

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