High-energy gamma-ray afterglows from low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts

The observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) such as 980425, 031203 and 060218, with luminosities much lower than those of other classic bursts, lead to the definition of a new class of GRBs -- low-luminosity GRBs. The nature of the outflow responsible for them is not clear yet. Two scenarios have been suggested: one is the conventional relativistic outflow with initial Lorentz factor of order of \Gamma_0\ga 10 and the other is a trans-relativistic outflow with $\Gamma_0\simeq 1-2$. Here we compare the high energy gamma-ray afterglow emission from these two different models, taking into account both synchrotron self inverse-Compton scattering (SSC) and the external inverse-Compton scattering due to photons from the cooling supernova or hypernova envelope (SNIC). We find that the conventional relativistic outflow model predicts a relatively high gamma-ray flux from SSC at early times ($<10^4 {\rm s}$ for typical parameters) with a rapidly decaying light curve, while in the trans-relativistic outflow model, one would expect a much flatter light curve of high-energy gamma-ray emission at early times, which could be dominated by both the SSC emission and SNIC emission, depending on the properties of the underlying supernova and the shock parameter $\epsilon_e$ and $\epsilon_B$. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope should be able to distinguish between the two models in the future.Comment: Published in ApJ, 29 pages (aastex style), 6 figure

Photon-subtracted squeezed thermal state: nonclassicality and decoherence

{\small We investigate nonclassical properties of the field states generated by subtracting any number photon from the squeezed thermal state (STS). It is found that the normalization factor of photon-subtracted STS (PSSTS) is a Legendre polynomial of squeezing parameter }${\small r}${\small \ and average photon number }$\bar{n}$ {\small of thermal state. Expressions of several quasi-probability distributions of PSSTS are derived analytically. Furthermore, the nonclassicality is discussed in terms of the negativity of Wigner function (WF). It is shown that the WF of single PSSTS always has negative values if }$\bar{n}<\sinh^{2}r${\small \ at the phase space center. The decoherence effect on PSSTS is then included by analytically deriving the time evolution of WF. The results show that the WF of single PSSTS has negative value if }$2\kappa t<\ln\{1-(2\bar{n}+1)(\bar{n}-\sinh^{2}${\small }$[(2\mathfrak{N}+1)(\bar{n}\cosh2r+\sinh^{2}r)]\}${\small, which is dependent not only on average number }$\mathfrak{N}${\small \ of environment, but also on }$\bar{n}$ {\small and }$r${\small . }Comment: 22 pages, five figures, submitted to PRA (2010/3/25

Detection of gamma-ray emission from the Coma cluster with Fermi Large Area Telescope and tentative evidence for an extended spatial structure

Many galaxy clusters have giant halos of non-thermal radio emission, indicating the presence of relativistic electrons in the clusters. Relativistic protons may also be accelerated by merger and/or accretion shocks in galaxy clusters. These cosmic-ray (CR) electrons and/or protons are expected to produce gamma-rays through inverse-Compton scatterings or inelastic $pp$ collisions respectively. Despite of intense efforts in searching for high-energy gamma-ray emission from galaxy clusters, conclusive evidence is still missing so far. Here we report the discovery of $\ge 200$ MeV gamma-ray emission from the Coma cluster direction with an unbinned likelihood analysis of the 9 years of {\it Fermi}-LAT Pass 8 data. The gamma-ray emission shows a spatial morphology roughly coincident with the giant radio halo, with an apparent excess at the southwest of the cluster. Using the test statistic analysis, we further find tentative evidence that the gamma-ray emission at the Coma center is spatially extended. The extended component has an integral energy flux of $\sim 2\times 10^{-12}{\rm \ erg\ cm^{-2}\ s^{-1}}$ in the energy range of 0.2 - 300 GeV and the spectrum is soft with a photon index of $\simeq-2.7$. Interpreting the gamma-ray emission as arising from CR proton interaction, we find that the volume-averaged value of the CR to thermal pressure ratio in the Coma cluster is about $\sim 2\%$. Our results show that galaxy clusters are likely a new type of GeV gamma-ray sources, and they are probably also giant reservoirs of CR protons.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by Physical Review D, more spatial models for the gamma-ray emission are used, systematic checks on the results are adde