Gamma-ray astronomy

Abstract:

We have shown previously that a broad correlation between the peak radio luminosity and the variability time-scales, approximately L ∝ τ5, exists for variable synchrotron emitting sources and that different classes of astrophysical sources occupy different regions of luminosity and time-scale space. Based on those results, we investigate whether the most basic information available for a newly discovered radio variable or transient – their rise and/or decline rate – can be used to set initial constraints on the class of events from which they originate. We have analysed a sample of ≈800 synchrotron flares, selected from light curves of ≈90 sources observed at 5–8 GHz, representing a wide range of astrophysical phenomena, from flare stars to supermassive black holes. Selection of outbursts from the noisy radio light curves has been done automatically in order to ensure reproducibility of results. The distribution of rise/decline rates for the selected flares is modelled as a Gaussian probability distribution for each class of object, and further convolved with estimated areal density of that class in order to correct for the strong bias in our sample. We show in this way that comparing the measured variability time-scale of a radio transient/variable of unknown origin can provide an early, albeit approximate, classification of the object, and could form part of a suite of measurements used to provide early categorization of such events. Finally, we also discuss the effect scintillating sources will have on our ability to classify events based on their variability time-scales.

Abstract:

Much attention has been given in the literature to the effects of astrophysical events on human and land-based life. However, little has been discussed on the resilience of life itself. Here we instead explore the statistics of events that completely sterilise an Earth-like planet with planet radii in the range 0.5-1.5R ⊕ and temperatures of ∼300 K, eradicating all forms of life. We consider the relative likelihood of complete global sterilisation events from three astrophysical sources - supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, large asteroid impacts, and passing-by stars. To assess such probabilities we consider what cataclysmic event could lead to the annihilation of not just human life, but also extremophiles, through the boiling of all water in Earth's oceans. Surprisingly we find that although human life is somewhat fragile to nearby events, the resilience of Ecdysozoa such as Milnesium tardigradum renders global sterilisation an unlikely event.

Abstract:

The black hole (BH) binary V404 Cyg entered the outburst phase in 2015 June after 26 yr of X-ray quiescence, and with its behaviour broke the outburst evolution pattern typical of most BH binaries. We observed the entire outburst with the Swift satellite and performed timeresolved spectroscopy of its most active phase, obtaining over a thousand spectra with exposures from tens to hundreds of seconds. All the spectra can be fitted with an absorbed power-law model, which most of the time required the presence of a partial covering. A blueshifted iron-Kα line appears in 10 per cent of the spectra together with the signature of high column densities, and about 20 per cent of the spectra seem to show signatures of reflection. None of the spectra showed the unambiguous presence of soft disc-blackbody emission, while the observed bolometric flux exceeded the Eddington value in 3 per cent of the spectra. Our results can be explained assuming that the inner part of the accretion flow is inflated into a slim disc that both hides the innermost (and brightest) regions of the flow, and produces a cold, clumpy, high-density outflow that introduces the high absorption and fast spectral variability observed. We argue that the BH in V404 Cyg might have been accreting erratically or even continuously at Eddington/super-Eddington rates - thus sustaining a surrounding slim disc - while being partly or completely obscured by the inflated disc and its outflow. Hence, the largest flares produced by the source might not be accretion-driven events, but instead the effects of the unveiling of the extremely bright source hidden within the system.