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Very high energy gamma-ray astronomy PDF

238 Pages·2003·4.184 MB·English
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Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy Series in Astronomy and Astrophysics SeriesEditors: MBirkinshaw,UniversityofBristol,UK MElvis,Harvard–SmithsonianCenterforAstrophysics,USA JSilk,UniversityofOxford,UK The Series in Astronomy and Astrophysics includes books on all aspects of theoretical and experimental astronomy and astrophysics. Books in the series range in level from textbooks and handbooks to more advanced expositions of currentresearch. Otherbooksintheseries ThePhysicsofInterstellarDust EKru¨gel DarkSky,DarkMatter JMOverduinandPSWesson DustintheGalacticEnvironment,2ndEdition DCBWhittet AnIntroductiontotheScienceofCosmology DJRaineandEGThomas TheOriginandEvolutionoftheSolarSystem MMWoolfson ThePhysicsoftheInterstellarMedium JEDysonandDAWilliams DustandChemistryinAstronomy TJMillarandDAWilliams(eds) ObservationalAstrophysics REWhite(ed) StellarAstrophysics RJTayler(ed) Forthcomingtitles NumericalMethodsinAstrophysics PBodenheimer,GLaughlin,MRozyczkaandHWYorke Series in Astronomy and Astrophysics Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy Trevor Weekes Whipple Observatory, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA Institute of Physics Publishing Bristol and Philadelphia (cid:1)c IOPPublishingLtd2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,withoutthepriorpermission of the publisher. Multiple copying is permitted in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency under the terms of its agreementwithUniversitiesUK(UUK). Trevor Weekes has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and PatentsAct1998tobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork. BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN0750306580 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataareavailable SeriesEditors: MBirkinshaw,UniversityofBristol,UK MElvis,Harvard–SmithsonianCenterforAstrophysics,USA JSilk,UniversityofOxford,UK CommissioningEditor:JohnNavas ProductionEditor:SimonLaurenson ProductionControl:SarahPlenty CoverDesign:VictoriaLeBillon Marketing:NicolaNeweyandVerityCooke Published by Institute of Physics Publishing, wholly owned by The Institute of Physics,London InstituteofPhysicsPublishing,DiracHouse,TempleBack,BristolBS16BE,UK US Office: Institute of Physics Publishing, The Public Ledger Building, Suite 929,150SouthIndependenceMallWest,Philadelphia,PA19106,USA TypesetinLATEX2ε byText2Text,Torquay,Devon PrintedintheUKbyMPGBooksLtd,Bodmin,Cornwall To Ann who gave me moral support through four decades of gamma-ray astronomy Contents Foreword xiii 1 Foundationsofgamma-rayastronomy 1 1.1 Astronomicalexploration 1 1.2 Therelativisticuniverse 2 1.3 Definitions 4 1.4 Theheroiceraofgamma-rayastronomy 5 1.4.1 Theearlypromise 5 1.4.2 Peculiaritiesofgamma-raytelescopes 6 1.4.3 VHEgamma-raytelescopesontheground 7 Historicalnote:seminalpaper 10 1.4.4 HEgamma-raytelescopesinspace 11 2 Veryhighenergygamma-raydetectors 13 2.1 Theatmosphericwindows 13 2.2 Electromagneticcascadeinatmosphere 14 2.3 Thevisibleelectromagneticcascade 14 2.4 AtmosphericCherenkovtechnique 18 2.4.1 Generalproperties 18 2.4.2 Featuresofthetechnique 21 2.5 Thebackgroundofcosmicradiation 25 2.5.1 Chargedcosmicrays 25 2.5.2 Fluxsensitivity 27 2.6 AtmosphericCherenkovimagingdetectors 28 2.6.1 Principle 28 2.6.2 Angularresolution 30 2.6.3 Energyresolution 30 2.6.4 Existingimagingtelescopes 30 2.6.5 Arrays 34 2.7 Otherground-baseddetectors 38 2.7.1 Particleairshowerarrays 38 2.7.2 SolarpowerstationsasACTs 38 Historicalnote:Cherenkovimages 40 viii Contents 3 Highenergygamma-raytelescopesinspace 42 3.1 Introduction 42 3.2 Pairproductiontelescopes:highenergy 42 3.3 Comptontelescopes 46 3.4 Futurespacetelescopes 48 3.4.1 INTEGRAL 48 3.4.2 Swift 49 3.4.3 Lightimagingdetectorforgamma-rayastronomy(AGILE) 49 3.4.4 AlphaMagneticSpectrometer(AMS) 50 3.4.5 TheGamma-rayLarge-AreaSpaceTelescope(GLAST) 50 Historicalnote:CGROrescue 54 4 Galacticplane 55 4.1 Studyofthegalacticplane 55 4.2 Gamma-rayobservations 58 4.2.1 HEobservations 58 4.2.2 VHEobservations 58 4.3 Interpretation 60 4.4 Energyspectrum 62 Historicalnote 65 5 Supernovaeandsupernovaremnants 67 5.1 Supernovaexplosions 67 5.2 Energyconsiderations 68 5.3 Acceleration 70 5.4 Detectionatoutburst 71 5.5 Supernovaremnantclassification 72 5.6 SNRsascosmicraysources 74 Historicalnote:SN1987a 75 6 Gamma-rayobservationsoftheCrabNebula 77 6.1 Significance 77 6.2 Opticalandx-rayobservations 78 6.3 Gamma-rayhistory 79 6.3.1 HEobservations 79 6.3.2 VHEobservations 82 6.4 Gammasource 83 6.4.1 TheCrabresolved 83 6.4.2 Thestandardcandle 85 6.4.3 Interpretation 88 Historicalbox:Crabpictograph 90 Contents ix 7 Gamma-rayobservationsofsupernovaremnants 92 7.1 Introduction 92 7.2 Plerions 92 7.2.1 SNR/PSR1706-44 92 7.2.2 Vela 93 7.3 Shell-typeSNRs 93 7.3.1 SN1006 93 7.3.2 RXJ1713.7-3946 95 7.3.3 CassiopeiaA 95 7.3.4 Otherpossibledetections 97 Historicalnote:supernovaof1006 99 8 Gamma-raypulsarsandbinaries 102 8.1 Generalpropertiesofpulsars 102 8.2 Gamma-rayobservations 104 8.2.1 Generalcharacteristics 104 8.2.2 Spectralenergydistribution 105 8.2.3 Lightcurves 106 8.3 Models 109 8.3.1 Polarcapmodels 109 8.3.2 Outergapmodels 109 8.4 Outlook 111 8.5 Binaries 111 Historicalnote:CygnusX-3 113 9 Unidentifiedsources 116 9.1 HEobservations 116 9.2 Populationstudies 117 9.3 Individualidentifications 120 9.3.1 CG135+01 120 9.3.2 3EGJ0634+0521:binarypulsar? 121 9.3.3 3EGJ1835+5918:Geminga-likepulsar? 121 9.3.4 Galacticcenter 121 9.4 Microquasars 122 9.5 VHEobservations 123 Historicalnote:Geminga 124 10 Extragalacticsources 126 10.1 Introduction 126 10.2 Galaxies:classification 126 10.3 Normalgalaxies 127 10.4 Starburstgalaxies 128 10.5 Activegalaxies 128 10.5.1 Radiogalaxies 129 10.5.2 Activegalacticnuclei 130

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