Burst Emission Research Articles

Polarized radio emission of RRAT J1854+0306

ABSTRACT Polarized radio emission of RRAT J1854+0306 is investigated with single pulses using Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope. Its emission is characterized by nulls, narrow and weak pulses, and occasional wide and intense bursts with a nulling fraction of 53.2 per cent. Its burst emission is typically of one rotation, and occasionally of two or three or even five rotations at the most, but without significant periodicity. The integrated pulse profile has an ‘S’-shaped position angle curve that is superposed with orthogonal modes, from which geometry parameters are obtained. Individual pulses exhibit diverse profile morphology with single, double, or multiple peaks. The intensity and width of these pulses are highly correlated, and bright pulses generally have wide profiles with multiple peaks. These nulling behaviours, profile morphology, and polarization demonstrate that a rotating radio transient has the same physical origins as the normal pulsars.

Linear to circular conversion in the polarized radio emission of a magnetar

AbstractRadio emission from magnetars provides a unique probe of the relativistic, magnetized plasma within the near-field environment of these ultra-magnetic neutron stars. The transmitted waves can undergo birefringent and dispersive propagation effects that result in frequency-dependent conversions of linear to circularly polarized radiation and vice versa, thus necessitating classification when relating the measured polarization to the intrinsic properties of neutron star and fast radio burst emission sites. We report the detection of such behaviour in 0.7–4 GHz observations of the P = 5.54 s radio magnetar XTE J1810−197 following its 2018 outburst. The phenomenon is restricted to a narrow range of pulse phase centred around the magnetic meridian. Its temporal evolution is closely coupled to large-scale variations in magnetic topology that originate from either plastic motion of an active region on the magnetar surface or free precession of the neutron star crust. Our model of the effect deviates from simple theoretical expectations for radio waves propagating through a magnetized plasma. Birefringent self-coupling between the transmitted wave modes, line-of-sight variations in the magnetic field direction and differences in particle charge or energy distributions above the magnetic pole are explored as possible explanations. We discuss potential links between the immediate magneto-ionic environments of magnetars and those of fast radio burst progenitors.

The escape of fast radio burst emission from magnetars

ABSTRACT We reconsider the escape of high-brightness coherent emission of fast radio bursts (FRBs) from magnetars’ magnetospheres, and conclude that there are numerous ways for the powerful FRB pulse to avoid non-linear absorption. Sufficiently strong surface magnetic fields, $\ge 10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the quantum field, limit the waves’ non-linearity to moderate values. For weaker fields, the electric field experienced by a particle is limited by a combined ponderomotive and parallel-adiabatic forward acceleration of charges by the incoming FRB pulse along the magnetic field lines newly opened during FRB/coronal mass ejection. As a result, particles surf the weaker front part of the pulse, experiencing low radiative losses, and are cleared from the magnetosphere for the bulk of the pulse to propagate. We also find that initial mildly relativistic radial plasma flow further reduces losses.

Spectral and type I X-ray burst studies of 4U 1702−429 using AstroSat observations

ABSTRACT 4U 1702−429, an atoll-type neutron star low-mass X-ray binary, was observed twice by the AstroSat/Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) and Large Area X-ray Proportional Counters (LAXPC-20) on 2018 April 27 and 2019 August 8. Persistent emission spectra of the source were well fitted with the model combination - constant × tbabs (thcomp × diskbb+powerlaw). The parameters obtained from the spectral analysis revealed the source to be in a hard spectral state during the observations. Time-resolved spectral analyses were performed on the three type I X-ray bursts detected from the source. Burst analysis showed that the source underwent a photospheric radius expansion. Consequently, the radius of the neutron star and distance to the source (with isotropic and anisotropic burst emission) were obtained as 12.65$\substack{+0.90\\-0.86}$ km and 6.92$\substack{+0.16\\-0.09}$ and 8.43$\substack{+0.20\\-0.10}$ kpc, respectively.

Intermittent Criticality Multi‐Scale Processes Leading to Large Slip Events on Rough Laboratory Faults

AbstractWe discuss data of three laboratory stick‐slip experiments on Westerly Granite samples performed at elevated confining pressure and constant displacement rate on rough fracture surfaces. The experiments produced complex slip patterns including fast and slow ruptures with large and small fault slips, as well as failure events on the fault surface producing acoustic emission bursts without externally‐detectable stress drop. Preparatory processes leading to large slips were tracked with an ensemble of ten seismo‐mechanical and statistical parameters characterizing local and global damage and stress evolution, localization and clustering processes, as well as event interactions. We decompose complex spatio‐temporal trends in the lab‐quake characteristics and identify persistent effects of evolving fault roughness and damage at different length scales, and local stress evolution approaching large events. The observed trends highlight labquake localization processes on different spatial and temporal scales. The preparatory process of large slip events includes smaller events marked by confined bursts of acoustic emission activity that collectively prepare the fault surface for a system‐wide failure by conditioning the large‐scale stress field. Our results are consistent overall with an evolving process of intermittent criticality leading to large failure events, and may contribute to improved forecasting of large natural earthquakes.

Emission lines due to ionizing radiation from a compact object in the remnant of Supernova 1987A.

The nearby Supernova 1987A was accompanied by a burst of neutrino emission, which indicates that a compact object (a neutron star or black hole) was formed in the explosion. There has been no direct observation of this compact object. In this work, we observe the supernova remnant with JWST spectroscopy, finding narrow infrared emission lines of argon and sulfur. The line emission is spatially unresolved and blueshifted in velocity relative to the supernova rest frame. We interpret the lines as gas illuminated by a source of ionizing photons located close to the center of the expanding ejecta. Photoionization models show that the line ratios are consistent with ionization by a cooling neutron star or a pulsar wind nebula. The velocity shift could be evidence for a neutron star natal kick.

Rotating Massive Strangeon Stars and X-Ray Plateau of Short GRBs

Strangeon stars, which are proposed to describe the nature of pulsar-like compact stars, have passed various observational tests. The maximum mass of a non-rotating strangeon star could be high, which implies that the remnants of binary strangeon star mergers could even be long-lived massive strangeon stars. We study rigidly rotating strangeon stars in the slowly rotating approximation, using the Lennard-Jones model for the equation of state. Rotation can significantly increase the maximum mass of strangeon stars with unchanged baryon numbers, enlarging the mass-range of long-lived strangeon stars. During spin-down after merger, the decrease of radius of the remnant will lead to the release of gravitational energy. Taking into account the efficiency of converting the gravitational energy luminosity to the observed X-ray luminosity, we find that the gravitational energy could provide an alternative energy source for the plateau emission of X-ray afterglow. The fitting results of X-ray plateau emission of some short gamma-ray bursts suggest that the magnetic dipole field strength of the remnants can be much smaller than that of expected when the plateau emission is powered only by spin-down luminosity of magnetars.

Can Fallback Accretion on the Magnetar Model Power the X-Ray Flares Simultaneously Observed with Gamma Rays of Gamma-Ray Bursts?

The prompt emission, X-ray plateau, and X-ray flares of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to be from internal dissipation, and the magnetar as the central engine with propeller fallback accretion is proposed to interpret the observed phenomena of GRBs. In this paper, by systematically searching for X-ray emission observed by Swift/X-ray Telescope, we find that seven robust GRBs include both X-ray flares and plateau emissions with measured redshift. More interestingly, the X-ray flares/bumps for those seven GRBs are simultaneously observed in the gamma-ray band. By adopting the propeller fallback accretion model to fit the observed data, it is found that the free parameters of two GRBs (140512A and 180329B) can be constrained very well, while in the other five cases, more or less, they are not all sufficiently constrained. On the other hand, this requires the conversion efficiency of the propeller to be two or three times higher than that of the spindown dipole radiation of the magnetar. If this is the case, it is contradictory to the expectation from the propeller model: namely, a dirtier ejecta should be less efficient in producing gamma-ray emissions. Our results hint that at least the magnetar central engine with propeller fallback accretion model cannot interpret very well both the GRB X-ray flares simultaneously observed in the gamma-ray band and the X-ray flares of GRBs with a high Lorentz factor.

Numerical Simulation of Photospheric Emission in Long Gamma-Ray Bursts: Prompt Correlations, Spectral Shapes, and Polarizations

We explore the properties of photospheric emission in the context of long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) using three numerical models that combine relativistic hydrodynamical simulations and Monte Carlo radiation transfer calculations in three dimensions. Our simulations confirm that photospheric emission gives rise to correlations between the spectral peak energy and luminosity that agree with the observed Yonetoku, Amati, and Golenetskii correlations. It is also shown that the spectral peak energy and luminosity correlate with the bulk Lorentz factor, as indicated in the literature. On the other hand, synthetic spectral shapes tend to be narrower than those of the observations. This result indicates that an additional physical process that can provide nonthermal broadening is needed to reproduce the spectral features. Furthermore, the polarization analysis finds that, while the degree of polarization is low for the emission from the jet core (Π < 4%), it tends to increase with viewing angle outside of the core and can be as high as Π ∼ 20%–40% in an extreme case. This suggests that the typical GRBs show systematically low polarization compared to softer, dimmer counterparts (X-ray-rich GRBs and X-ray flashes). Interestingly, our simulations indicate that photospheric emission exhibits large temporal variation in the polarization position angle (Δψ ∼ 90°), which may be compatible with those inferred in observations. A notable energy dependence of the polarization property is another characteristic feature found in the current study. Particularly, the difference in the position angle among different energy bands can be as large as ∼90°.

Mountaintop Gamma Ray Observations of Three Terrestrial Gamma‐Ray Flashes at the Säntis Tower, Switzerland With Coincident Radio Waveforms

AbstractWe report on the mountain top observation of three terrestrial gamma‐ray flashes (TGFs) that occurred during the summer storm season of 2021. To our knowledge, these are the first TGFs observed in a mountaintop environment and the first published European TGFs observed from the ground. A gamma‐ray sensitive detector was located at the base of the Säntis Tower in Switzerland and observed three unique TGF events with coincident radio sferic data characteristic of TGFs seen from space. We will show an example of a “slow pulse” radio signature (Cummer et al., 2011, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL048099; Lu et al., 2011, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JA016141; Pu et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082743; Pu et al., 2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089427), a −EIP (Lyu et al., 2016, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL070154; Lyu et al., 2021, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093627; Wada et al., 2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031730), and a double peak TGF associated with an extraordinarily powerful and complicated positive‐polarity sferic, where each TGF peak is possibly preceded by a short burst of stepped leader emission.

Pc1 hydromagnetic emissions of chevron type

The article presents the results of studying novel bursts of ULF emissions within 0.5–2.5 Hz (Pc1 geomagnetic pulsations) with a simultaneous increase (~0.01 Hz/min) and decrease in frequency (~0.01 Hz/min) lagging by ~5÷10 min from the initial mean frequency (~0.6 Hz). From their formal resemblance with the stripes on military officer uniforms, these emissions are called Pc1 chevrons. The bursts were observed during strong short-term geomagnetic disturbances (~1 hour): substorms with high gradient of ionospheric currents+ intensification (dD/dt or dH/dt ~1–1.3 nT/s). We present the main parameters and couplings of these emissions with substorm geophysical phenomena of 11.02.1985, 06.04.1997 and 18.07.2013 events. Polar satellite observations of auroras are compared with LANL-91, 94 and THEMIS-A observations of charged particle fluxes. Possible mechanisms generating oscillations are also discussed.

Prompt GRB polarization from non-axisymmetric jets

ABSTRACT Time-resolved linear polarization (Π) measurements of the prompt gamma-ray burst emission can reveal its dominant radiation mechanism. A widely considered mechanism is synchrotron radiation, for which linear polarization can be used to probe the jet’s magnetic-field structure, and in turn its composition. In axisymmetric jet models, the polarization angle (PA) can only change by 90°, as Π temporarily vanishes. However, some time-resolved measurements find a continuously changing PA, which requires the flow to be non-axisymmetric in at least one out of its emissivity, bulk Lorentz factor, or magnetic field. Here, we consider synchrotron emission in non-axisymmetric jets, from an ultrarelativistic thin shell, comprising multiple radially expanding mini-jets (MJs) or emissivity patches within the global jet, that yield a continuously changing PA. We explore a wide variety of possibilities with emission consisting of a single pulse or multiple overlapping pulses, presenting time-resolved and integrated polarization from different magnetic field configurations and jet angular structures. We find that emission from multiple incoherent MJs/patches reduces the net polarization due to partial cancellation in the Stokes plane. When these contain a large-scale ordered field in the plane transverse to the radial direction, Π always starts near maximal and then declines over the single pulse or shows multiple highly polarized peaks due to multiple pulses. Observing $\Pi \lesssim 40~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ (15 per cent) integrated over one (several) pulse(s) will instead favour a shock-produced small-scale field either ordered in the radial direction or tangled in the plane transverse to it.

Prompt gamma-ray burst emission from internal shocks – new insights

ABSTRACT Internal shocks are a leading candidate for the dissipation mechanism that powers the prompt γ-ray emission in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). In this scenario a compact central source produces an ultra-relativistic outflow with varying speeds, causing faster parts or shells to collide with slower ones. Each collision produces a pair of shocks – a forward shock (FS) propagating into the slower leading shell and a reverse shock (RS) propagating into the faster trailing shell. The RS’s lab-frame speed is always smaller, while the RS is typically stronger than the FS, leading to different conditions in the two shocked regions that both contribute to the observed emission. We show that optically thin synchrotron emission from both (weaker FS + stronger RS) can naturally explain key features of prompt GRB emission such as the pulse shapes, time evolution of the νFν peak flux and photon energy, and the spectrum. Particularly, it can account for two features commonly observed in GRB spectra: (i) a sub-dominant low-energy spectral component (often interpreted as ‘photospheric’-like), or (ii) a doubly broken power-law spectrum with the low-energy spectral slope approaching the slow-cooling limit. Both features can be obtained while maintaining high-overall radiative efficiency without any fine tuning of the physical conditions.

Internal Shock with a Background Magnetic Field for the Prompt Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts—A Case Study of GRB 211211A

It is proposed that the synchrotron emission from an internal shock with a decaying shock-generated magnetic field can account for the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Generally, a jet from the central engine of a GRB is launched with a significant magnetization, and thus there would be a background magnetic field, rather than only the shock-generated magnetic field, in the emission region. In this paper, we study the synchrotron emission of internal shocks with both a decaying shock-generated magnetic field and a nondecaying background magnetic field. It is found that a shoulder with spectral index −1/2 appears in the low-energy regime of the radiation spectrum. The shoulder becomes dominant by increasing the ratio of the background magnetic field energy to the initial value of the shock-generated magnetic field energy f B. Correspondingly, a radiation spectrum with two bumps or a plateau around the peak of the ν F ν −ν spectrum may appear. Owing to the decay of the shock-generated magnetic field, the radiation spectral morphology in the high-energy regime is not a power-law function even though a power-law distribution of electrons is injected. We apply our model to GRB 211211A, of which the hard main emission is suggested to originate from the synchrotron emission. Compared with the spectral fitting results with a Band function and the synchrotron emission from the standard straightforward internal shocks, our model presents a perfect fitting to the observations. The fitting results show that f B is around 0.41–0.99 for the hard main emission of this burst.

Insight-HXMT observations on thermonuclear X-ray bursts from 4U 1608–52 in 2022: The accretion rate dependent anisotropy of burst emission

Thermonuclear X-ray bursts occur on the surface of an accreting neutron star (NS), and their characteristics and interplay with the surrounding circumstance could be a clue to understand the nature of the NS and accretion process. For this purpose, Insight-HXMT has performed high cadence observations on the bright thermonuclear X-ray burster–4U 1608–52 during its outburst in July and August 2022; nine bursts were detected, including seven bursts with the photospheric radius expansion (PRE). Time-resolved spectroscopy of the bright PRE bursts reveals that an enhancement of accretion rate or the Comptonization of the burst emission by the corona could reduce the residuals when fitting their spectra with the conventional model–blackbody. The inferred energy increment rate of the burst photon gained from the corona is up to ∼40%, even though the bursts have different peak fluxes and locate at different accretion rates. Moreover, the flux shortage of the rising PRE is observed in the bursts at a high mass accretion rate, but not for the burst with a faint persistent emission, which has been predicted theoretically but first observed in this work. If the flux shortage is due to the disk obscuration, i.e., the burst emission is anisotropic, the phenomenon above could indicate that the anisotropy of the burst emission is accretion rate dependent, which could also be evidence of the truncated disk in the low/hard state.

On the Escape of Low-frequency Waves from Magnetospheres of Neutron Stars

We study the nonlinear decay of the fast magnetosonic (fms) into the Alfvén waves in relativistic force-free magnetohydrodynamics. The work has been motivated by models of pulsar radio emission and fast radio bursts (FRBs), in which the emission is generated in neutron star magnetospheres at conditions when not only the Larmor but also the plasma frequencies significantly exceed the radiation frequency. The decay process places limits on the source luminosity in these models. We estimated the decay rate and showed that the phase volume of Alfvén waves available for the decay of an fms wave is infinite. Therefore, the energy of fms waves could be completely transferred to the small-scale Alfvén waves not via a cascade, as in the Kolmogorov turbulence, but directly. Our results explain the anomalously low radio efficiency of the Crab pulsar and show that FRBs could not be produced well within magnetar magnetospheres.

Eccentric catastrophes & what to do with them

Analytic modeling of gravitational waves (GWs) from inspiraling eccentric binaries poses an interesting mathematical challenge. When constructing analytic waveforms in the frequency domain, one has to contend with the fact that the phase of the Fourier integral in non-monotonic, resulting in a breakdown of the standard stationary phase approximation (SPA). In this work, we study this breakdown within the context of catastrophe theory. We find that the SPA holds in the context of eccentric Keplerian orbits when the Fourier frequency satisfies , where are integer multiples of the apocenter/pericenter frequencies, respectively. For values outside of this interval, the phase undergoes a fold catastrophe, giving rise to an Airy function approximation of the Fourier integral. Using these two different approximations, we generate a matched asymptotic expansion that approximates generic Fourier integrals of Keplerian motion for bound orbits across all frequency values. This asymptotic expansion is purely analytic and closed-form. We discuss several applications of this investigation and the resulting approximation, specifically: (1) the development and improvement of effective fly-by waveforms for binary black holes, (2) the transition from burst emission in the high eccentricity limit to wave-like emission in the quasi-circular limit, which results in an analogy between eccentric GW bursts and Bose–Einstein condensates, and (3) the calculation of f-mode amplitudes in eccentric binary neutron stars and black hole-neutron star binaries in terms of complex Hansen coefficients. The techniques and approximations developed herein are generic, and will be useful for future studies of GWs from eccentric binaries within the context of post-Newtonian theory.

Pre-merger alert to detect prompt emission in very-high-energy gamma-rays from binary neutron star mergers: Einstein Telescope and Cherenkov Telescope Array synergy

The current generation of very-high-energy gamma-ray (VHE; E &gt; 30 GeV) detectors (MAGIC and H.E.S.S.) have recently demonstrated the ability to detect the afterglow emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). However, the GRB prompt emission, typically observed in the 10 keV–10 MeV band, is still undetected at higher energies. Here, we investigate the perspectives of multi-messenger observations to detect the earliest VHE emission from short GRBs. Considering binary neutron star mergers as progenitors of short GRBs, we evaluate the joint detection efficiency of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observing in synergy with the third generation of gravitational-wave detectors, such as the Einstein Telescope (ET) and Cosmic Explorer (CE). In particular, we evaluate the expected capabilities to detect and localize gravitational-wave events in the inspiral phase and to provide an early warning alert able to drive the VHE search. We compute the amount of possible joint detections by considering several observational strategies, and demonstrate that the sensitivity of CTA make the detection of the VHE emission possible even if it is several orders fainter than that observed at 10 keV–10 MeV. We discuss the results in terms of possible scenarios of the production of VHE photons from binary neutron star mergers.

Repeated Type III Burst Groups Associated with a B-Class Flare and a Narrow-Width CME

We have analysed a solar event from 27 September 2021, which included a small GOES B-class flare, a compact and narrow-width CME, and radio type III bursts that appeared in groups. The long-duration, repeated metric type III burst emission indicates continuous electron acceleration at high altitudes. The flaring active region was surrounded by strong magnetic fields and large-scale loops, which guided the outflow of the CME plasmoid and hence the narrow, bullet-like appearance of the CME. Radio imaging and EUV observations confirmed the direction of particle propagation and the depletion of matter from the solar source region. We observed V-shaped type III burst emission lanes, which also explain the field configuration and suggest a possible location for repeated reconnection that occurred at a constant altitude.

Observational Characteristics of Radiation-mediated Shocks in Photospheric Gamma-Ray Burst Emission

Emission from the photosphere in gamma-ray burst jets can be substantially affected by subphotospheric energy dissipation, which is typically caused by radiation-mediated shocks. We study the observational characteristics of such emission, in particular the spectral signatures. Relevant shock initial conditions are estimated using a simple internal collision framework, which then serve as inputs for a radiation-mediated shock model that generates synthetic photospheric spectra. Within this framework, we find that if the free fireball acceleration starts at r 0 ∼ 1010 cm, in agreement with hydrodynamical simulations, then the typical spectrum consists of a broad, soft power-law segment with a cutoff at high energies and a hardening in X-rays. The synthetic spectra are generally well fitted with a standard cutoff power-law (CPL) function, as the hardening in X-rays is commonly outside the observable energy range of current detectors. The CPL-fits yield values for the low-energy index, α, and the peak energy, E peak, that are centered around ∼ −0.8 and ∼220 keV, respectively, similar to typical observed values. We also identify a nonnegligible parameter region for what we call optically shallow shocks: shocks that do not accumulate enough scatterings to reach a steady-state spectrum before decoupling and thereby produce more complex spectra. These occur for optical depths , where u u = γ u β u is the dimensionless specific momentum of the upstream as measured in the shock rest frame.