Properties of the Intergalactic Magnetic Field Constrained by Gamma-ray Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1705.08531


The magnetic field in intergalactic space gives important information about magnetogenesis in the early universe. The properties of this field can be probed by searching for radiation of secondary e$^+ $e$^-$ pairs created by TeV photons, that produce GeV range radiation by Compton-scattering cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons. The arrival times of the GeV “echo” photons depend strongly on the magnetic field strength and coherence length. A Monte Carlo code that accurately treats pair creation is developed to simulate the spectrum and time-dependence of the echo radiation. The extrapolation of the spectrum of powerful gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) like GRB 130427A to TeV energies is used to demonstrate how the IGMF can be constrained if it falls in the $10^{-21}$ – $10^{-17}$ G range for 1 Mpc coherence length.

Read this paper on arXiv…

P. Veres, C. Dermer and K. Dhuga
Thu, 25 May 17
15/44

Comments: 8 pages, 6 figures