Cosmic rays (CRs) in starburst galaxies produce high-energy gamma-rays by colliding with the dense interstellar medium. Arp 220 is the nearest ultraluminous infrared galaxy that has star formation at extreme levels, so it has long been predicted to emit high-energy gamma-rays. However, no evidence of gamma-ray emission was found despite intense search efforts. Here we report the discovery of high-energy gamma-ray emission above 200 MeV from Arp 220 at a confidence level of ∼6.3σ using 7.5 years of Fermi Large Area Telescope observations. The gamma-ray emission shows no significant variability over the observation period and it is consistent with the quasi-linear scaling relation between the gamma-ray luminosity and total infrared luminosity for star-forming galaxies, suggesting that these gamma-rays arise from CR interactions. As the high-density medium of Arp 220 makes it an ideal CR calorimeter, the gamma-ray luminosity can be used to measure the efficiency of powering CRs by supernova (SN) remnants given a known supernova rate in Arp 220. We find that this efficiency is about 4.2 ± 2.6% for CRs above 1 GeV.

We investigate emission signatures of binary compact star gravitational wave sources consisting of strongly magnetized neutron stars (NSs) and/or white dwarfs (WDs) in their late-time inspiral phase. Because of electromagnetic interactions between the magnetospheres of the two compact stars, a substantial amount of energy will be extracted, and the resultant power is expected to be ∼ 10 38 − 10 44 erg/s in the last few seconds before the two stars merge, when the binary system contains a NS with a surface magnetic field 10 12 G. The induced electric field in the process can accelerate charged particles up to the EeV energy range. Synchrotron radiation is emitted from energetic electrons, with radiative energies reaching the GeV energy for binary NSs and the MeV energy for NS-WD or double WD binaries. In addition, a blackbody component is also presented and it peaks at several to hundreds keV for binary NSs and at several keV for NS-WD or double WD binaries. The strong angular dependence of the synchrotron radiation and the isotropic nature of the blackbody radiation lead to distinguishable modulation patterns between the two emission components. If coherent curvature radiation is presented, fast radio bursts could be produced. These components provide unique simultaneous electromagnetic signatures as precursors of gravitational wave events associated with magnetized compact star mergers and short gamma ray bursts (e.g., GRB 100717).

X-ray flares of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are usually observed in the soft X-ray range and the spectral coverage is limited. In this paper, we present an analysis of 32 GRB X-ray flares that are simultaneously observed by both BAT and XRT on board the Swift mission, so a joint spectral analysis with a wider spectral coverage is possible. Our results show that the joint spectra of 19 flares are fitted with the absorbed single power-law or the Band function models. More interestingly, the joint spectra of the other 13 X-ray flares are fitted with the absorbed single power-law model plus a black body (BB) component. Phenomenally, the observed spectra of these 13 flares are analogous to several GRBs with a thermal component, but only with a much lower temperature of kT = 1 ∼ 3 keV. Assuming that the thermal emission is the photosphere emission of the GRB fireball, we derive the fireball properties of the 13 flares that have redshift measurements, such as the bulk Lorentz factor Γ ph of the outflow. The derived Γ ph range from 50 to 150 and a relation of Γ ph to the thermal emission luminosity is found. It is consistent with the Γ 0 −L iso relation that are derived for the prompt gamma-ray emission. We discuss the physical implications of these results within the content of jet composition and radiation mechanism of GRBs and X-ray flares.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powered by ultra-relativistic jets. Usually a minimum value of the Lorentz factor of the relativistic bulk motion is obtained based on the argument that the observed high energy photons (≫ MeV) can escape without suffering from absorption due to pair production. The exact value, rather than a lower limit, of the Lorentz factor can be obtained if the spectral cutoff due to such absorption is detected. With the good spectral coverage of the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on Fermi, measurements of such cutoff become possible, and two cases (GRB 090926A and GRB 100724B) have been reported to have high-energy cutoffs or breaks. We systematically search for such high energy spectral cutoffs/breaks from the LAT and the Gamma-ray burst monitor (GBM) observations of the prompt emission of GRBs detected since August 2011. Six more GRBs are found to have cutoff-like spectral feature at energies of ∼ 10 − 500 MeV. Assuming that these cutoffs are caused by pair-production absorption within the source, the bulk Lorentz factors of these GRBs are obtained. We further find that the Lorentz factors are correlated with the isotropic gamma-ray luminosity of the bursts, indicating that more powerful GRB jets move faster.