Klein-Nishina effects on the high-energy afterglow emission of gamma-ray bursts

Details Klein-Nishina effects on the high-energy afterglow emission of gamma-ray bursts Klein-Nishina effects on the high-energy afterglow emission of gamma-ray bursts

2009-11-21

arxiv.org/abs/0911.4189v1

Astrophysical Journal 712 (2010) 1232-1240.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

8 page (emulateapj style), 8 figures, submitted to ApJ

Scientific paper

10.1088/0004-637X/712/2/1232

Extended high-energy(>100MeV) gamma-ray emission that lasts much longer than the prompt sub-MeV emission has been detected from quite a few gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) by Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) recently. A plausible scenario is that this emission is the afterglow synchrotron emission produced by electrons accelerated in the forward shocks. In this scenario, the electrons that produce synchrotron high-energy emission also undergo inverse-Compton (IC) loss and the IC scattering with the synchrotron photons should be in the Klein-Nishina regime. Here we study effects of the Klein-Nishina scattering on the high-energy synchrotron afterglow emission. We find that, at early times the Klein-Nishina suppression effect on those electrons that produce the high-energy emission is usually strong and therefore their inverse-Compton loss is small with a Compton parameter Y < a few for a wide range of parameter space. This leads to a relatively bright synchrotron afterglow at high energies that can be detected by Fermi LAT. As the Klein-Nishina suppression effect weakens with time, the inverse-Compton loss increases and could dominate over the synchrotron loss in some parameter space. This will lead to a faster temporal decay of the high-energy synchrotron emission than what is predicted by the standard synchrotron model, which may explain the observed rapid decay of the early high-energy gamma-ray emission in GRB090510 and GRB090902B.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Klein-Nishina effects on the high-energy afterglow emission of gamma-ray bursts does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Klein-Nishina effects on the high-energy afterglow emission of gamma-ray bursts, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Klein-Nishina effects on the high-energy afterglow emission of gamma-ray bursts will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-316254