Search

The Medium Energy Gamma-ray Astronomy (MEGA) telescope concept will soon be proposed as a MIDEX mission. This mission would enable a sensitive all-sky survey of the medium-energy gamma-ray sky (0.4–50 MeV) and bridge the huge sensitivity gap between the COMPTEL and OSSE experiments on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and the visionary Advanced Compton Telescope (ACT) mission. The scientific goals include compiling a much larger catalog of sources in this energy range, performing far deeper searches for supernovae, better measuring the galactic continuum and line emissions, and identifying the components of the cosmic diffuse gamma-ray emission. MEGA records and images gamma rays by completely tracking Compton and pair creation events in a stack of double-sided Si strip detectors surrounded by a pixellated CsI calorimeter. A prototype instrument has been developed and calibrated in the laboratory and at a gamma-ray beam facility. We present calibration results from the prototype and describe the proposed satellite mission.

The next large NASA mission in the field of γ-ray astronomy is the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), which is scheduled for a launch end of 2007. This satellite consists of the main instrument LAT (Large-Area Telescope) which is sensitive in the energy range between 10 MeV and 300$>>300 GeV, and a secondary instrument, the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM), sensitive from 10 keV to 30 MeV. This omnidirectional monitor is an important instrument for γ-ray burst (GRB) science with GLAST, as it provides the link between the majority of the γ-ray busts emitting at lower energies and the high-energy events of γ-ray bursts and other transients. It will also serve as a trigger to increase the detection rate of γ-ray burst with the LAT. The GBM will provide real-time burst locations over a wide field-of-view (FoV) with sufficient accuracy to repoint the whole GLAST spacecraft. Time-resolved spectra of bursts recorded with LAT and the burst monitor will allow the investigation of the relation between the keV and the MeV–GeV emission from GRBs over seven decades in energy and will provide new insights into the physics of GRBs in general. In addition, the excellent localization of GRBs by the LAT will stimulate follow-up observations at other wavelengths which may yield clues about the nature of the burst sources.

The primary scientific mission of the Black Hole Finder Probe (BHFP), part of the NASA Beyond Einstein program, is to survey the local Universe for black holes over a wide range of mass and accretion rate. One approach to such a survey is a hard X-ray coded-aperture imaging mission operating in the 10–600 keV energy band, a spectral range that is considered to be especially useful in the detection of black hole sources. The development of new inorganic scintillator materials provides improved performance (for example, with regards to energy resolution and timing) that is well suited to the BHFP science requirements. Detection planes formed with these materials coupled with a new generation of readout devices represent a major advancement in the performance capabilities of scintillator-based gamma cameras. Here, we discuss the Coded Aperture Survey Telescope for Energetic Radiation (CASTER), a concept that represents a BHFP based on the use of the latest scintillator technology.

The small reference sample of six BATSE gamma-ray bursts with known redshifts from optical afterglows is compared with a comparison group of the 218 brightest BATSE bursts. These two groups are shown to be consistent both with respect to the distributions of the spectral peak parameter in the observer's frame and also with respect to the distributions of the frame-independent cosmological invariant parameter (CIP). Using the known values of the redshifts (z) for the reference sample, the rest-frame distribution of spectral parameters is built. The deredshifted distribution of the spectral parameters of the reference sample is compared with distribution of these parameters for the comparison group after deredshifting by the factor 1/(1 + z), with z a free parameter. Requiring consistency between these two distributions produces a collective estimation of the best fitting redshifts for the comparison group z = 1.8-3.6. These values can be considered as the average cosmological redshift of the sources of the brightest BATSE bursts. The most probable value of the peak energy of the spectrum in the rest frame is 920 keV.

The current scenario for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) involves internal shocks for the prompt GRB emission phase and external shocks for the afterglow phase. Assuming optically thin synchrotron emission from isotropically distributed energetic shocked electrons, GRB spectra observed with a low-energy power-law spectral index greater than -2/3 (for positive photon number indices E(exp alpha) indicate a problem with this model. For spectra that do not violate this condition, additional tests of the shock model can be made by comparing the low- and high-energy spectral indices, on the basis of the model's assertion that synchrotron emission from a single power-law distribution of electrons is responsible for both the low-energy and the high-energy power-law portions of the spectra. We find in most cases that the inferred relationship between the two spectral indices of observed GRB spectra is inconsistent with the constraints from the simple optically thin synchrotron shock emission model. In this sense, the prompt burst phase is different from the afterglow phase, and this difference may be related to anisotropic distributions of particles or to their continual acceleration in shocks during the prompt phase.

The early and late stages of gamma-ray bursts are studied in a statistical analysis of the large sample of long BATSE events. The primary peak is used as the boundary between the early and late stages of emission. Significant differences are found between the stages: the early stage is shorter, it has harder emission, and it becomes a smaller fraction of the total burst duration for burst groups of decreasing intensity.

The highly transient nature of cosmic low-energy gamma-ray sources offers unique insight into the astrophysics of extreme processes. Sensitive, long-term, all-sky monitoring is required to make sense of the variable emission. Instrumentation for such observations must have the combination of large effective collection area, wide field-of-view and good angular resolution. Recent advances in position-sensitive detectors and associated electronics make it possible to consider a multi-scatter Compton telescope, combined with a coded mask, as an all-sky monitor in the energy range /spl sim/10 keV to a few MeV. We present simulations of various configurations of such an instrument and show that it can provide a substantial improvement over other sky monitor strategies in this energy regime.

BATSE/OSSE observations of the high redshift quasar 4C 71.07 indicate that this is the brightest and furthest AGN so far detected above 20 keV. BATSE Earth occultation data have been used to search for emission from 4C 71.07 from nearly 3 years of observation. The mean source flux over the whole period in the BATSE energy range 20-100 keV is (13.2 +/- 1.06) x 10^(-11) erg cm^(-2) s^(-1) corresponding to a luminosity of 2 x 10^(48) erg s^(-1). The BATSE light curve over the 3 years of observations shows several flare-like events, one of which (in January 1996) is associated with an optical flare (R=16.1) but with a delay of 55 days. The OSSE/BATSE spectral analysis indicates that the source is characterized by a flat power spectrum (Gamma about 1.1 - 1.3) when in a low state; this spectral form is consistent within errors with the ASCA and ROSAT spectra. This means that the power law observed from 0.1 to 10 keV extends up to at least 1 MeV but steepens soon after to meet EGRET high energy data. BATSE data taken around the January 1996 flare suggests that the spectrum could be steeper when the source is in a bright state. The nuF-nu representation of the source is typical of a low frequency peaked/gamma-ray dominated blazar, with the synchrotron peak in the mm-FIR band and the Compton peak in the MeV band. The BATSE and OSSE spectral data seem to favour a model in which the high energy flux is due to the sum of the synchrotron self-Compton and the external Compton contributions; this is also supported by the variability behaviour of the source., 19 pages, LaTeX, plus 4 .ps figures. accepted by Astrophysical Journal

Six intensity groups with ~150 BATSE gamma-ray bursts each are compared using average emissivity curves. Time-stretch factors for each of the dimmer groups are estimated with respect to the brightest group, which serves as the reference, taking into account the systematics of counts-produced noise effects and choice statistics. A stretching/intensity anti-correlation is found with good statistical significance during the average back slopes of bursts. A stretch factor ~2 is found between the 150 dimmest bursts, with peak flux 4.1 ph cm^{-2} s^{-1}. On the other hand, while a trend of increasing stretching factor may exist for rise fronts for burst with decreasing peak flux from >4.1 ph cm^{-2} s^{-1} down to 0.7 ph cm^{-2} s^{-1}, the magnitude of the stretching factor is less than ~ 1.4 and is therefore inconsistent with stretching factor of back slope., 21 pages, 3 figures. Accepted to ApJ

The concept of emission time tau N is suggested as a temporal parameter which is complementary to the classical parameters of duration times T 50 and T 90. The emission time is defined as the time of emission of N% of the total fluence. The definition adds the time bins of high fluence in decreasing fluence rank until N% of the fluence has been reached. The emission time interval excludes low-emission intervals of bursts and so the emission time characterizes the state of high power emission. The distribution of this new parameter is found to be bimodal for bright bursts. The distributions of emission time tau-30 and tau-50, for groups based on burst intensity, are also compared.

BATSE Earth occultation data have been used to search for emission in the 20-100 keV band from all sources in the Piccinotti sample, which represents to date the only complete 2-10 keV survey of the extragalactic sky down to a limiting flux of 3.1 x 10^(-11) erg cm^(-2)$ s^(-1). Nearly four years of observations have been analyzed to reach a 5sigma sensitivity level of about 7.8x 10^(-11) erg cm^(-2) s^(-1) in the band considered. Of the 36 sources in the sample, 14 have been detected above 5sigma confidence level while marginal detection (3

We have analyzed the evolution of the spectral hardness parameter Epk as a function of fluence in gamma-ray bursts. We fit 41 pulses within 26 bursts with the trend reported by Liang & Kargatis (1996) which found that Epk decays exponentially with respect to photon fluence. We also fit these pulses with a slight modification of this trend, where Epk decays linearly with energy fluence. In both cases, we found the set of 41 pulses to be consistent with the trend. For the latter trend, which we believe to be more physical, the distribution of the decay constant is roughly log-normal, with a mean of 1.75 +/- 0.07 and a FWHM of 1.0 +/- 0.1. Regarding an earlier reported invariance in the decay constant among different pulses in a single burst, we found probabilities of 0.49 to 0.84 (depending on the test used) that such invariance would occur by coincidence, most likely due to the narrow distribution of decay constant values among pulses., 17 pages, 7 figure pages, 2 table pages, submitted to The Astrophysical Journal

The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) has triggered on 1637 cosmic gamma-ray bursts between 1991 April 19 and 1996 August 29. These events constitute the Fourth BATSE burst catalog. The current version (4Br) has been revised from the version first circulated on CD-ROM in September 1997 (4B) to include improved locations for a subset of bursts that have been reprocssed using additional data. A significant difference from previous BATSE catalogs is the inclusion of bursts from periods when the trigger energy range differed from the nominal 50-300 keV. We present tables of the burst occurrence times, locations, peak fluxes, fluences, and durations. In general, results from previous BATSE catalogs are confirmed here with greater statistical significance., Comment: 45 pages, 12 Postscript figures, accepted for publication in Ap. J. Suppl

The gamma-ray bursts (GRB) location algorithm used to produce the BATSE GRB locations is described. The general flow of control of the current location algorithm is presented and the significant properties of the various physical inputs required are identified. The development of the burst location algorithm during the releases of the BATSE 1B, 2B, and 3B gamma-ray burst catalogs is presented so that the reasons for the differences in the positions and error estimates between the catalogs can be understood. In particular, differences between the 2B and 3B locations are discussed for events that have moved significantly and the reasons for the changes explained. The locations of bursts located independently by the interplanetary network are used to illustrate the effect on burst location accuracy of various components of the algorithm. IPN data as well as locations from other gamma-ray instruments are used to calculate estimates of the systematic errors on BATSE burst locations.

A new method is proposed, which allows the study of generic signatures of cosmic gamma-ray burst time histories. We average the 64 ms resolution time profiles of 275 bright bursts detected by BATSE. The profile of each burst is normalized by the maximum number of counts at the peak of the primary pulse, and individual pulses and interpulse valleys are selected from the normalized profiles by identical selection criteria. New generic temporal parameters are introduced, which characterize the duration and equivalent width of each pulse and the duration of each valley. The histograms of the total equivalent pulse width and summed pulse duration are bimodal. Bimodality is also seen in the histogram of the mean duration of individual pulses. Bursts from the short and long peaks of these distributions correspond to the two modes of the Third BATSE Burst Catalog T(sub 50) and T(sub 90) distributions. Therefore, these new burst parameters demonstrate that the observed bimodal temporal behavior results from properties of the pulsed emission of gamma-ray bursts. The long mode of the T(sub 90) histogram includes bursts with from one to approximately 20 pulses; the logarithmic mean pulse duration is 1.17 +/- 0.09 S; for the long events with more than one pulse, the logarithmic mean valley duration is 1.28 +/- 0.15 S. Bursts of the short mode of T(sub 90) are mainly single-pulse events, and the logarithmic mean pulse duration is much smaller, 0.20 +/- 0.01 s. For multipulse bursts of the T(sub 90) long mode, marginal correlations were found between the parameters of the pulses and valleys and the number of pulses. The basic signatures of the evolution of pulses and valleys along the time course of bursts are examined. Conclusions are drawn concerning the physics of gamma-ray emission by taking into account these signatures.

The Compton attenuation theory provides an explanation for the characteristic spectral energy possessed by gamma-ray bursts. It makes several predictions that can be tested with current data, two of which are the characteristic shape of the spectrum and the presence of an X-ray excess. We have performed these tests by fitting the Compton attenuation spectral model to 25 gamma-ray bursts from the BATSE 3B catalog. Minimizing χ2 with four free parameters, we find values of χ2 with the same level of significance as the values found for the best-fitting four-parameter models of previous studies. The X-ray upturn makes the χ2 for the Compton attenuation spectrum smaller than for a comparison spectrum that is a power law over the X-ray energy band. The values of the free parameters derived from the model fits are physically meaningful, and each describes the spectrum over a different frequency band. The absence of a correlation between z and the energy in the comoving frame of the peak of the νFν curve provides support for the model's physical validity. A model fit to a gamma-ray burst's spectrum between 5 and 100 keV gives the redshift of the source; we typically find values of z between 1 and 5. The spread in z are consistent with the spread of redshifts for a broad luminosity function, but the large values require source evolution. Additional tests of the theory are available with current experiments and will be possible with several planned and proposed experiments.

We report on the temporal behavior of the high-energy power law continuum component of gamma-ray burst spectra with data obtained by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment. We have selected 126 high fluence and high flux bursts from the beginning of the mission up until the present. Much of the data were obtained with the Large Area Detectors, which have nearly all-sky coverage, excellent sensitivity over two decades of energy and moderate energy resolution, ideal for continuum spectra studies of a large sample of bursts at high time resolution. At least 8 spectra from each burst were fitted with a spectral form that consisted of a low-energy power law, a spectral break at middle energies and a high-energy continuum. In most bursts (122), the high-energy continuum was consistent with a power law. The evolution of the fitted high-energy power-law index over the selected spectra for each burst is inconsistent with a constant for 34% of the total sample. The sample distribution of the average value for the index from each burst is fairly narrow, centered on -2.12. A linear trend in time is ruled out for only 20% of the bursts, with hard-to-soft evolution dominating the sample (100 events). The distribution for the total change in the power-law index over the duration of a burst peaks at the value -0.37, and is characterized by a median absolute deviation of 0.39, arguing that a single physical process is involved. We present analyses of the correlation of the power-law index with time, burst intensity and low-energy time evolution. In general, we confirm the general hard-to-soft spectral evolution observed in the low-energy component of the continuum, while presenting evidence that this evolution is different in nature from that of the rest of the continuum., Comment: 30 pages, with 2 tables and 9 figures To appear in The Astrophysical Journal, April 1, 1998

It is shown in this study that two different types of spectral emission are generally produced in gamma-ray bursts. A subset of bursts is identified that exhibits a marked lack of fluence above 300 keV, and these bursts are shown to have luminosities about an order of magnitude lower than bursts with significant fluence above 300 keV. The bursts lacking emission above 300 keV exhibit an effectively homogeneous intensity distribution. In addition, it is shown that both types of emission are common in many bursts, demonstrating that a single source object is capable of generating both of them. These results strongly favor a gamma-ray burst source object that produces two different types of emission with varying degrees of superposition. The impact of this behavior is strong enough that it affects the properties of the burst intensity distribution, as well as the burst spectral characteristics.

We present new BATSE earth occultation observations of the 25 keV-1.8 MeV spectrum and variability of Cygnus X-1 made between August 1993 and May 1994. We observed that the normal soft gamma ray spectrum (gamma2) of Cygnus X-1 has two components: a Comptonized part seen below 300 keV, and a high-energy tail in the 0.3 - 2 MeV range. We interpret it in terms of a two-layer region, consisting of a high-energy core (with an equivalent electron temperature of approximately 210-250 keV) near the event horizon, embedded in an about 50 keV corona. In this scenario, the observed 25-300 keV photons were produced by Compton scattering of soft photons (about 0.5 keV) by the hot electrons in the outer corona. These same hard x rays were further up-scattered by a population of energetic electrons in the inner core, producing the spectral tail above 300 keV. Cygnus X-1 went through an extended sequence of transitions between August 1993 and May 1994, when the 45-140 keV flux first decreased steadily from approximately gamma2 to roughly one-quarter of its intensity over a period of about 140 days. The flux remained at this low level for about 40 days before returning, swiftly (approximately 20 days) to approximately the initial gamma2 level. During the transition, the spectrum evolved to a shape consistent with either a power law with photon index of about 2.6 or a single temperature Compton model with electron temperature kT = 110 +/- 11 keV, and optical depth t = 0.40 +/- 0.06, and then returned essentially to the original gamma2 spectrum at the end of the active period. The overall cooling of the system during the low flux period may be due to an increase in the soft photon population which effectively quenched the hot electrons in these regions through Compton scattering.

Since its discovery in 1992, GRS 1915+105 has undergone numerous X-ray outbursts with luminosities ranging from 1037 to a few ×1038 ergs s-1 (20-100 keV). The radio counterpart sometimes exhibits optically thin flares (0.1-1 Jy) in the GHz frequency range associated with superluminal ejection of radio-emitting plasma. Here we examine the temporal and spectral evolution of the hard X-ray and radio emission of GRS 1915+105. We find, during a 1993 December to 1994 April spring outburst, an exceptionally high level of activity in the GHz band coupled with the appearance of several ejection events when compared to other monitoring results. Within the derived uncertainty of the ejection times and the subsequent appearance of radio flares, there appear to be decreases or dips in the hard X-ray flux anticorrelated with increases in radio emission. These observations suggest an interaction between the hard X-ray emission region and jet production, and they imply the redirection of accretion material into jets on timescales of days or less. Although jet production may occur at high accretion rates, other factors must be important, i.e., at times, something must "break" the correlative nature of the radio and X-ray bands. We also search for long-term periodicities in the X-ray data for evidence of a binary signature in light of recent suggestions that GRS 1915+105 may be a high-mass system.

The astrophysical journal 763(2), 71 (2013). doi:10.1088/0004-637X/763/2/71, We report on the multiwavelength observations of the bright, long gamma-ray burst GRB 110731A, by the Fermi and Swift observatories, and by the MOA and GROND optical telescopes. The analysis of the prompt phase reveals that GRB 110731A shares many features with bright Large Area Telescope bursts observed by Fermi during the first three years on-orbit: a light curve with short time variability across the whole energy range during the prompt phase, delayed onset of the emission above 100 MeV, extra power-law component and temporally extended high-energy emission. In addition, this is the first GRB for which simultaneous GeV, X-ray, and optical data are available over multiple epochs beginning just after the trigger time and extending for more than 800 s, allowing temporal and spectral analysis in different epochs that favor emission from the forward shock in a wind-type medium. The observed temporally extended GeV emission is most likely part of the high-energy end of the afterglow emission. Both the single-zone pair transparency constraint for the prompt signal and the spectral and temporal analysis of the forward-shock afterglow emission independently lead to an estimate of the bulk Lorentz factor of the jet Γ ~ 500-550., Published by Univ.11032, Chicago, Ill. [u.a.]

We analyze time-averaged spectra from 86 bright gamma-ray bursts from the first 5 years of the Burst And Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on board the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory to determine whether the lowest energy data are consistent with a standard spectra form fit to the data at all energies. The BATSE Spectroscopy Detectors have the capability to observe photons as low at 5 keV. Using the gamma-ray burst locations obtained with the BATSE Large Area Detectors, the Spectroscopy Detectors' low-energy response can be modeled accurately. This, together with a postlaunch calibration of the lowest energy Spectroscopy Detector discriminator channel, which can lie in the range 5-20 keV, allows spectral deconvolution over a broad energy range, ~5 keV to 2 MeV. The additional coverage allows us to search for evidence of excess emission, or for a deficit, below 20 keV. While no burst has a significant (≥3 σ) deficit relative to a standard spectra model, we find that 12 bursts have excess low-energy emission, ranging between 1.2 and 5.8 times the model flux, that exceeds 5 σ in significance. This is evidence for an additional low-energy spectral component in at least some bursts, or for deviations from the power-law spectral form typically used to model gamma-ray bursts at energies below 100 keV.

We have used the photon energy spectra of 100 bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) obtained from data from the Large Area Detectors of the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory to examine the effects of spectral shape on cosmological models of the burst number-intensity distribution (log N – log P), where N is the number of bursts with peak photon flux greater than P. Since it has become common to use an assumed burst photon spectrum in computations of this type, we have examined the consequences of this assumption by using a range of observed burst spectra to create theoretical intensity distributions. We used a conventional Friedmann cosmology to create the models, and assumed that there is no burst source rate density evolution and that the sources are monoluminous (standard candles). This enabled us to focus on the effects of spectral shape on the log N – log P model parameters (peak luminosity and redshift). The shape of the burst spectrum has an influence on the maximum redshift consistent with the BATSE data. The variation in the burst photon spectra causes the model maximum redshifts to vary by an average of ~20%. However, the maximum redshift can differ among log N – log P models incorporating different spectra by more than a factor of 2. Thus, the use of an assumed burst spectrum in modeling the number-intensity distribution yields results that are moderately dependent upon the assumed spectral shape.

A “repeater statistic” (derived from the two-point angular correlation function and accounting for location errors) is used to identify constraints on the rate of burst repetition from the BATSE 1B catalog. Because of the anisotropic sky exposure, repeating sources should create additional effects in the large-scale distribution of close burst pairs.

No absorption lines between 15 and 100 keV have been detected in burst spectra accumulated by BATSE. Almost 250 bursts have been inspected visually, and a computerized search has begun. Our simulations show that BATSE could indeed detect lines similar to those observed byGinga in strong bursts, and our tests of the detectors' actual capabilities demonstrate they function as understood. The apparent discrepancy between BATSE andGinga is not yet compelling, and therefore the BATSE nondetections do not invalidate theGinga detections. Nonetheless, the absence of BATSE line detections indicates a low line-occurrence frequency.

Constraints are found on the gamma-ray burst luminosity function from an analysis of the combined BATSE/PVO intensity distribution. If bursts originate in an extended Galactic halo, then the intrinsic luminosity range is narrow, with bursts spanning only a factor of five or less in luminosity. If bursts originate in a simple Friedmann cosmology with Ω = 1 and Λ = 0, then very few luminosity constraints exist.

It is a well-known observation that many GRBs have spectra with curvature in the less than 1 MeV regime, but flatten out to approximately a -2 power law at higher energies. The large collecting area of BATSE allows spectral studies with unprecedented time resolution. We are conducting a systematic study of time-resolved spectroscopy of GRBs observed by BATSE. Several aspects of this survey are discussed: correlations among fit parameters and between fit parameters and intensity; screening for spectral features usingσ-residual contour maps; and an introduction to the GRB ‘topographic’ map and its possible qualitative diagnostic abilities.

We evaluated the significance of the line candidates identified by the visual search of burst spectra from BATSE's spectroscopy detectors. None of the candidates satisfy the detection criteria: anF-test probability less than 10−4 for a feature in one detector and consistency among the detectors which viewed the burst. Most of the candidates are not very significant, and are likely to be fluctuations. Because of the expectation of finding absorption lines, the search was biased towards absorption features. We do not have a quantitative measure of the completeness of the search which would form the basis of a comparison with previous missions. Therefore a more objective computerized search has begun.

The BATSE Spectroscopy Detectors (SDs) each have a thin beryllium window which allows detection of photons down to 5 keV. Until recently, exploitation of low-energy SD discriminator data has been held up by a lack of knowledge of its energy coverage. A recent series of in-flight changes in the instrument configuration has allowed the SD discriminators to be calibrated fairly accurately. With this in hand, we have surveyed BATSE GRBs for such features as X-ray precursors and after-glows in the roughly 5-10 keV band. For a large percentage of the BATSE bursts, no emission is observed in this energy band. In some cases where low-energy emission has been observed, ratios of flux histories indicate differential spectral evolution. In addition, we have obtained joint spectral fits between the low-energy data and the regular SD data, showing that a single spectral model is sometimes insufficient to fit the entire energy range.

The new method of statistical studying of cosmic gamma-ray bursts is presented based on the averaging of time profiles. The comparison is done between bright and dim events: while no differences were found between average flux curves, the hardness ratios pointed out the effect of hardness/brightness correlation.

The detection of x-ray and radio emission from the recently discovered transient source X-ray Nova Scorpii 1994 (GRO J1655 - 40), is reported.

This status report presents details on the project to search for serendipitous time-correlated optical photographic observations of γ-ray bursters. The ongoing photographic observations at nine observatories are used to look for plates which have been exposed simultaneously with a γ-ray burst detected by BATSE and contain the burst position. The results for the third year of BATSE operation are presented.

The large Area Detectors (LADs) of the BATSE experiment aboard the Comp­ ton Gamma-ray Observatory have been used recently as the first hard X-ray all-sky imager at energies between 20 keY and 300 keY. The Earth occultation process is formulated in terms of a curved Radon transform convoluted by a step transform in a selected field of view (FOV) ranging from 5° x5° to 40° x40oThe Maximum Entropy Method is then used to reconstruct an image in the hard X-ray sky. Multiple images of different regions of the sky can be produced simultaneously. A source location accuracy of 0.10 for strong sources and a sensitivity limit of 100 mCrab have been achieved in an one-day integration period.

The astrophysical journal 748(2), 151 -(2012). doi:10.1088/0004-637X/748/2/151, Due to an error at the publisher, the times given for the major tick marks in the X-axis in Figure 1 of the published article are incorrect. The correctly labeled times should be "00:52:00," "00:54:00," ... , and "01:04:00." The correct version of Figure 1 and its caption is shown below. IOP Publishing sincerely regrets this error., Published by Univ.11032, Chicago, Ill. [u.a.]

We have performed detailed temporal and time-integrated spectral analysis of 286 bursts from SGR J1550-5418 detected with the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) in January 2009, resulting in the largest uniform sample of temporal and spectral properties of SGR J1550-5418 bursts. We have used the combination of broadband and high time-resolution data provided with GBM to perform statistical studies for the source properties. We determine the durations, emission times, duty cycles and rise times for all bursts, and find that they are typical of SGR bursts. We explore various models in our spectral analysis, and conclude that the spectra of SGR J1550-5418 bursts in the 8-200 keV band are equally well described by optically thin thermal bremsstrahlung (OTTB), a power law with an exponential cutoff (Comptonized model), and two black-body functions (BB+BB). In the spectral fits with the Comptonized model we find a mean power-law index of -0.92, close to the OTTB index of -1. We show that there is an anti-correlation between the Comptonized Epeak and the burst fluence and average flux. For the BB+BB fits we find that the fluences and emission areas of the two blackbody functions are correlated. The low-temperature BB has an emission area comparable to the neutron star surface area, independent of the temperature, while the high-temperature blackbody has a much smaller area and shows an anti-correlation between emission area and temperature. We compare the properties of these bursts with bursts observed from other SGR sources during extreme activations, and discuss the implications of our results in the context of magnetar burst models., 13 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables; minor changes, ApJ in press

The non-collimated detectors of BATSE (Burst And Transient Source Experiment) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) can be used as a high sensitivity hard X-ray and low energy gamma-ray all-sky imager in the energy range between 20 keV and 2 MeV. The fluxes from sources in the sky are modulated as the spacecraft orbits the Earth. The CGRO orbital precession further allows sampling of the sky in strips corresponding to the limb of the Earth at any given time. The modulation data are transformed into images by various reconstruction methods. High sensitivity images of location accuracy of about 0.1/spl deg/ and source separation of about 1/spl deg/ are obtained. >

Detectors aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory have observed an unexplained terrestrial phenomenon: brief, intense flashes of gamma rays. These flashes must originate in the atmosphere at altitudes above at least 30 kilometers in order to escape atmospheric absorption and reach the orbiting detectors. At least a dozen such events have been detected over the past 2 years. The photon spectra from the events are very hard (peaking in the high-energy portion of the spectrum) and are consistent with bremsstrahlung emission from energetic (million-electron volt) electrons. The most likely origin of these high-energy electrons, although speculative at this time, is a rare type of high-altitude electrical discharge above thunderstorm regions.

[1] The Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (Fermi) detected 50 terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) during its first 20 months of operation. The high efficiency and large area of the GBM detectors, combined with their fine timing capabilities and relatively high throughput, allow unprecedented studies of the temporal properties of TGFs. The TGF pulses are observed to have durations as brief as ∼0.05 ms, shorter than previously measured. There is a relatively narrow distribution of pulse durations; the majority of pulses have total durations between 0.10 and 0.40 ms. In some TGF events, risetimes as short as ∼0.01 ms and falltimes as short as ∼0.03 ms are observed. Three of the 50 TGFs presented here have well-separated, double peaks. Perhaps as many as 10 other TGFs show evidence, to varying degrees, of overlapping peaks. Weak emission is seen at the leading or trailing edges of some events. Five of the 50 TGFs are considerably longer than usual; these are believed to be caused by incident electrons transported from a TGF at the geomagnetic conjugate point. TGF temporal properties can be used to discriminate between models of the origin of TGFs and also provide some basic physical properties of the TGF process.

The Gamma-ray Burst duration distribution is bi-modal with a minimum around 2 s suggesting that there are two separate populations. The GRB time profiles, believed to be the result of internal shocks, reflect the activity of the central engine. A systematic study of the GRB temporal profiles was carried out with a view to understanding the possible differences in the properties of the central engine in the two populations of GRBs. We analyse the temporal profiles of gamma-ray bursts detected by the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. We deconvolve these profiles into pulses superposed on a quadratic background. The basic pulse shapes are fitted to lognormal functions. It is found that the distributions of rise as well as decay times, their full width at half maximum and the time intervals between successive pulses for long and short GRBs are distinct and each follows a lognormal distribution. We identify several differences in the temporal properties of long and short bursts which in turn reflect the differences in the activities of central engines of the two types of GRBs.

Aims: In this paper we study the main spectral and temporal properties of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by Fermi/GBM. We investigate these key properties of GRBs in the rest-frame of the progenitor and test for possible intra-parameter correlations to better understand the intrinsic nature of these events. Methods: Our sample comprises 32 GRBs with measured redshift that were observed by GBM until August 2010. 28 of them belong to the long-duration population and 4 events were classified as short/hard bursts. For all of these events we derive, where possible, the intrinsic peak energy in the $\nu F_{\nu}$ spectrum (\eprest), the duration in the rest-frame, defined as the time in which 90% of the burst fluence was observed (\tninetyrest) and the isotropic equivalent bolometric energy (\eiso). Results: The distribution of \eprest has mean and median values of 1.1 MeV and 750 keV, respectively. A log-normal fit to the sample of long bursts peaks at ~800 keV. No high-\ep population is found but the distribution is biased against low \ep values. We find the lowest possible \ep that GBM can recover to be ~ 15 keV. The \tninetyrest distribution of long GRBs peaks at ~10 s. The distribution of \eiso has mean and median values of $8.9\times 10^{52}$ erg and $8.2 \times 10^{52}$ erg, respectively. We confirm the tight correlation between \eprest and \eiso (Amati relation) and the one between \eprest and the 1-s peak luminosity ($L_p$) (Yonetoku relation). Additionally, we observe a parameter reconstruction effect, i.e. the low-energy power law index $\alpha$ gets softer when \ep is located at the lower end of the detector energy range. Moreover, we do not find any significant cosmic evolution of neither \eprest nor \tninetyrest., Comment: accepted by A&A

Discerning the radiative dissipation mechanism for prompt emission in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) requires detailed spectroscopic modeling that straddles the {nu}F{sub {nu}} peak in the 100 keV-1 MeV range. Historically, empirical fits such as the popular Band function have been employed with considerable success in interpreting the observations. While extrapolations of the Band parameters can provide some physical insight into the emission mechanisms responsible for GRBs, these inferences do not provide a unique way of discerning between models. By fitting physical models directly, this degeneracy can be broken, eliminating the need for empirical functions; our analysis here offers a first step in this direction. One of the oldest, and leading, theoretical ideas for the production of the prompt signal is the synchrotron shock model. Here we explore the applicability of this model to a bright Fermi gamma-ray burst monitor (GBM) burst with a simple temporal structure, GRB 090820A. Our investigation implements, for the first time, thermal and non-thermal synchrotron emissivities in the RMFIT forward-folding spectral analysis software often used in GBM burst studies. We find that these synchrotron emissivities, together with a blackbody shape, provide at least as good a match to the data as the Band GRB spectral fitting function. more » This success is achieved in both time-integrated and time-resolved spectral fits. « less

[1] Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) are brief pulses of energetic radiation observed in low-earth orbit. They are associated with thunderstorms and lightning and have been observed both as gamma-ray and electron flashes depending on the position of the spacecraft with respect to the source. While gamma-ray TGFs are detected as short pulses lasting less than 1 ms, most TGFs seen by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) with durations greater than 1 ms are, instead, the result of electrons traveling from the sources along geomagnetic field lines. We perform spectral analysis of the three brightest electron TGFs detected by GBM and discover strong 511 keV positron annihilation lines, demonstrating that these electron TGFs also contain substantial positron components. This shows that pair production occurs in conjunction with some terrestrial lightning and that most likely all TGFs are injecting electron-positron beams into the near Earth environment.

We report on the preliminary analysis of fast temporal fluctuations observed in hard X-ray bursts, as recorded by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.

[1] We report on a search for correlations between terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) and lightning strokes measured using the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN). We associate 15 of a total 50 GBM-detected TGFs with individual discharges. We establish the relative timing between the TGF and the lightning stroke to an accuracy of

[1] The Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected 12 intense terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) during its first year of observation. Typical maximum energies for most of the TGFs are ∼30 MeV, with one TGF having a 38 MeV photon; two of the TGFs are softer and longer than the others. After correcting for instrumental effects, a representative bright TGF is found to have a fluence of ∼0.7 photons cm−2. Pulses are either symmetrical or have faster risetimes than fall times; they are well fit with Gaussian or lognormal functions. The fastest risetime observed was 7 μs, constraining the source radius to be less than about 2 km from the velocity of light. TGFs with multiple pulses separated in time have been known since their discovery; the GBM sample also includes clear cases of partially overlapping pulses. Four TGFs are associated with lightning locations from the World Wide Lightning Location Network. With the several μs absolute time accuracy of GBM, the time order can be confidently identified: one TGF occurred before the lightning, two were simultaneous, and one TGF occurred after the lightning.

The Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected 12 intense terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) during its first year of observation. Typical maximum energies for most of the TGFs are similar to 30 MeV, with one TGF having a 38 MeV photon; two of the TGFs are softer and longer than the others. After correcting for instrumental effects, a representative bright TGF is found to have a fluence of similar to 0.7 photons cm (2). Pulses are either symmetrical or have faster risetimes than fall times; they are well fit with Gaussian or lognormal functions. The fastest risetime observed was 7 mu s, constraining the source radius to be less than about 2 km from the velocity of light. TGFs with multiple pulses separated in time have been known since their discovery; the GBM sample also includes clear cases of partially overlapping pulses. Four TGFs are associated with lightning locations from the World Wide Lightning Location Network. With the several mu s absolute time accuracy of GBM, the time order can be confidently identified: one TGF occurred before the lightning, two were simultaneous, and one TGF occurred after the lightning.

The Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) will significantly augment the science return from the Fermi Observatory in the study of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). The primary objective of GBM is to extend the energy range over which bursts are observed downward from the energy range of the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on Fermi into the hard X-ray range where extensive previous data exist. A secondary objective is to compute burst locations on-board to allow re-orientiong the spacecraft so that the LAT can observe delayed emission from bright bursts. GBM uses an array of twelve sodium iodide scintillators and two bismuth germanate scintillators to detect gamma rays from ~8 keV to ~40 MeV over the full unocculted sky. The on-board trigger threshold is ~0.7 photons/cm2/s (50-300 keV, 1 s peak). GBM generates on-board triggers for ~250 GRBs per year., 36 pages, 18 figures, to be published in Astrophysical Journal