The Use of the BAT Instrument on Swift for the Detection of Prompt Gamma-Ray Emission from Novae

Details The Use of the BAT Instrument on Swift for the Detection of Prompt Gamma-Ray Emission from Novae The Use of the BAT Instrument on Swift for the Detection of Prompt Gamma-Ray Emission from Novae

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008aspc..401..318s&link_type=abstract

RS Ophiuchi (2006) and the Recurrent Nova Phenomenon ASP Conference Series, Vol. 401, proceedings of the conference held 12-14 J

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Gamma-rays are expected to be emitted during and immediately following a nova explosion due to the annihilation of positrons emitted by freshly produced short-lived radioactive isotopes. The expected gamma-ray emission is relatively short-lived and as nova explosions are unpredictable, the best chance of detecting the gamma-rays is with a wide field instrument. At the time when the flux is expected to reach its peak, most of the gamma-ray production is at depths such that the photons suffer several Compton scatterings before escaping, degrading their energy down to the hard X-ray band (10s of keV). SWIFT/BAT is a very wide field coded mask instrument working in the energy band 14-190 keV and so is very well suited to the search for such gamma-rays. A retrospective search is being made in the BAT data for evidence for gamma-ray emission from the direction of novae at around the time of their explosion. So far the only positive detection is of RS Ophiuchi and in this case the emission is probably due to shock heating.

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