The possibility of multi-TeV secondary gamma rays from GRB221009A

Document detail

ID

oai:arXiv.org:2405.05402

Topic

Astrophysics - High Energy Astroph...

Author

Kalashev, Oleg Aharonian, Felix Essey, Warren Inoue, Yoshiyuki Kusenko, Alexander

Year

2024

listing date

5/15/2024

Keywords

produced ebl gamma rays

Metrics

Abstract

The brightest gamma ray burst (GRB) ever observed, GRB221009A, produced a surprisingly large flux of gamma rays with multi-TeV energies, which are expected to be absorbed in interactions with extragalactic background light (EBL).

If the highest energy gamma rays were produced at the source, their spectral shape would have to exhibit a nonphysical spike even for the lowest levels of EBL.

We show that, for widely accepted models of EBL, the data can be explained by secondary gamma rays produced in cosmic ray interactions along the line of sight, as long as the extragalactic magnetic fields (EGMFs) are $10^{-16}$G or smaller, assuming 1 Mpc correlation length.

Our interpretation supports the widely held expectation that GRB jets can accelerate cosmic rays to energies as high as 10 EeV and above, and it has implications for understanding the magnitudes of EGMFs.

;Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

Kalashev, Oleg,Aharonian, Felix,Essey, Warren,Inoue, Yoshiyuki,Kusenko, Alexander, 2024, The possibility of multi-TeV secondary gamma rays from GRB221009A