High-energy afterglow emission from gamma-ray bursts

Yi Zhong Fan*, Tsvi Piran, Ramesh Narayan, Da Ming Wei

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

100 Scopus citations

Abstract

We calculate the very high-energy (sub-GeV to TeV) inverse Compton emission of GRB afterglows. We argue that this emission provides a powerful test of the currently accepted afterglow model. We focus on two processes: synchrotron self-Compton emission within the afterglow blast wave, and external inverse Compton emission which occurs when flare photons (produced by an internal process) pass through the blast wave. We show that if our current interpretations of the Swift X-ray telescope (XRT) data are correct, there should be a canonical high-energy afterglow emission light curve. Our predictions can be tested with high-energy observatories such as GLAST, Whipple, HESS and MAGIC. Under favourable conditions we expect afterglow detections in all these detectors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1483-1501
Number of pages19
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume384
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2008

Keywords

  • Gamma rays: bursts
  • ISM: jets and outflows
  • Radiation mechanisms: non-thermal

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