GeV Photons from Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays Accelerated in Gamma Ray Bursts
- 9 June 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 78 (23) , 4328-4331
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.78.4328
Abstract
-ray bursts are produced by the dissipation of the kinetic energy of a highly relativistic fireball, via the formation of a collisionless shock. When this happens, ultrahigh energy cosmic rays up to are produced. I show in this Letter that these particles produce, via synchrotron emission as they cross the acceleration region, photons up to 300 GeV, which carry away a small, , but non-negligible fraction of the total burst energy. I show that, when the shock occurs with the interstellar medium, the optical depth to photon-photon scattering, which might cause energy degradation of the photons, is small. Expected fluences, , are within the range of planned detectors.
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