Observation of inverse Compton emission from a long γ-ray burst.

Long-duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs) originate from ultra-relativistic jets launched from the collapsing cores of dying massive stars. They are characterized by an initial phase of bright and highly variable radiation in the kiloelectronvolt-to-megaelectronvolt band, which is probably produced within the jet and lasts from milliseconds to minutes, known as the prompt emission1,2. Subsequently, the interaction of the jet with the surrounding medium generates shock waves that are responsible for the afterglow emission, which lasts from days to months and occurs over a broad energy range from the radio to the gigaelectronvolt bands1-6. The afterglow emission is generally well explained as synchrotron radiation emitted by electrons accelerated by the external shock7-9. Recently, intense long-lasting emission between 0.2 and 1 teraelectronvolts was observed from GRB 190114C10,11. Here we report multi-frequency observations of GRB 190114C, and study the evolution in time of the GRB emission across 17 orders of magnitude in energy, from 5 × 10-6 to 1012 electronvolts. We find that the broadband spectral energy distribution is double-peaked, with the teraelectronvolt emission constituting a distinct spectral component with power comparable to the synchrotron component. This component is associated with the afterglow and is satisfactorily explained by inverse Compton up-scattering of synchrotron photons by high-energy electrons. We find that the conditions required to account for the observed teraelectronvolt component are typical for GRBs, supporting the possibility that inverse Compton emission is commonly produced in GRBs.

Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes as powerful particle accelerators.

Strong electric discharges associated with thunderstorms can produce terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), i.e., intense bursts of x rays and γ rays lasting a few milliseconds or less. We present in this Letter new TGF timing and spectral data based on the observations of the Italian Space Agency AGILE satellite. We determine that the TGF emission above 10 MeV has a significant power-law spectral component reaching energies up to 100 MeV. These results challenge TGF theoretical models based on runaway electron acceleration. The TGF discharge electric field accelerates particles over the large distances for which maximal voltages of hundreds of megavolts can be established. The combination of huge potentials and large electric fields in TGFs can efficiently accelerate particles in large numbers, and we reconsider here the photon spectrum and the neutron production by photonuclear reactions in the atmosphere.

Discovery of powerful gamma-ray flares from the Crab Nebula.

The well-known Crab Nebula is at the center of the SN1054 supernova remnant. It consists of a rotationally powered pulsar interacting with a surrounding nebula through a relativistic particle wind. The emissions originating from the pulsar and nebula have been considered to be essentially stable. Here, we report the detection of strong gamma-ray (100 mega-electron volts to 10 giga-electron volts) flares observed by the AGILE satellite in September 2010 and October 2007. In both cases, the total gamma-ray flux increased by a factor of three compared with the non-flaring flux. The flare luminosity and short time scale favor an origin near the pulsar, and we discuss Chandra Observatory x-ray and Hubble Space Telescope optical follow-up observations of the nebula. Our observations challenge standard models of nebular emission and require power-law acceleration by shock-driven plasma wave turbulence within an approximately 1-day time scale.

Gamma-ray localization of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes.

Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) are very short bursts of high-energy photons and electrons originating in Earth's atmosphere. We present here a localization study of TGFs carried out at gamma-ray energies above 20 MeV based on an innovative event selection method. We use the AGILE satellite Silicon Tracker data that for the first time have been correlated with TGFs detected by the AGILE Mini-Calorimeter. We detect 8 TGFs with gamma-ray photons of energies above 20 MeV localized by the AGILE gamma-ray imager with an accuracy of ∼5-10° at 50 MeV. Remarkably, all TGF-associated gamma rays are compatible with a terrestrial production site closer to the subsatellite point than 400 km. Considering that our gamma rays reach the AGILE satellite at 540 km altitude with limited scattering or attenuation, our measurements provide the first precise direct localization of TGFs from space.

Detection of gamma-ray emission from the Vela pulsar wind nebula with AGILE.

Pulsars are known to power winds of relativistic particles that can produce bright nebulae by interacting with the surrounding medium. These pulsar wind nebulae are observed by their radio, optical, and x-ray emissions, and in some cases also at TeV (teraelectron volt) energies, but the lack of information in the gamma-ray band precludes drawing a comprehensive multiwavelength picture of their phenomenology and emission mechanisms. Using data from the AGILE satellite, we detected the Vela pulsar wind nebula in the energy range from 100 MeV to 3 GeV. This result constrains the particle population responsible for the GeV emission and establishes a class of gamma-ray emitters that could account for a fraction of the unidentified galactic gamma-ray sources.

Extreme particle acceleration in the microquasar Cygnus X-3.

Super-massive black holes in active galaxies can accelerate particles to relativistic energies, producing jets with associated gamma-ray emission. Galactic 'microquasars', which are binary systems consisting of a neutron star or stellar-mass black hole accreting gas from a companion star, also produce relativistic jets, generally together with radio flares. Apart from an isolated event detected in Cygnus X-1, there has hitherto been no systematic evidence for the acceleration of particles to gigaelectronvolt or higher energies in a microquasar, with the consequence that we are as yet unsure about the mechanism of jet energization. Here we report four gamma-ray flares with energies above 100 MeV from the microquasar Cygnus X-3 (an exceptional X-ray binary that sporadically produces radio jets). There is a clear pattern of temporal correlations between the gamma-ray flares and transitional spectral states of the radio-frequency and X-ray emission. Particle acceleration occurred a few days before radio-jet ejections for two of the four flares, meaning that the process of jet formation implies the production of very energetic particles. In Cygnus X-3, particle energies during the flares can be thousands of times higher than during quiescent states.