Sign of Hard-X-Ray Pulsation from the γ-Ray Binary System LS 5039

To understand the nature of the brightest γ-ray binary system LS 5039, hard x-ray data of the object, taken with the Suzaku and NuSTAR observatories in 2007 and 2016, respectively, were analyzed. The two data sets jointly gave tentative evidence for a hard x-ray periodicity, with a period of ∼9  s and a period increase rate by ∼3×10^{-10}  s s^{-1}. Therefore, the compact object in LS 5039 is inferred to be a rotating neutron star, rather than a black hole. Furthermore, several lines of arguments suggest that this object has a magnetic field of several times ∼10^{10}  T, two orders of magnitude higher than those of typical neutron stars. The object is hence suggested to be a magnetar, which would be the first to be found in a binary. The results also suggest that the highly efficient particle acceleration process, known to be operating in LS 5039, emerges through interactions between dense stellar winds from the massive primary star, and ultrastrong magnetic fields of the magnetar.

Downward Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flash Observed in a Winter Thunderstorm

During a winter thunderstorm on 24 November 2017, a strong burst of gamma rays with energies up to ∼10  MeV was detected coincident with a lightning discharge, by scintillation detectors installed at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station at sea level in Japan. The burst had a subsecond duration, which is suggestive of photoneutron production. The leading part of the burst was resolved into four intense gamma-ray bunches, each coincident with a low-frequency radio pulse. These bunches were separated by 0.7-1.5 ms, with a duration of ≪1  ms each. Thus, the present burst may be considered as a "downward" terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), which is analogous to upgoing TGFs observed from space. Although the scintillation detectors were heavily saturated by these bunches, the total dose associated with them was successfully measured by ionization chambers, employed by nine monitoring posts surrounding the power plant. From this information and Monte Carlo simulations, the present downward TGF is suggested to have taken place at an altitude of 2500±500  m, involving 8_{-4}^{+8}×10^{18} avalanche electrons with energies above 1 MeV. This number is comparable to those in upgoing TGFs.

The corona contracts in a black-hole transient

The geometry of the accretion flow around stellar-mass black holes can change on timescales of days to months^1-3. When a black hole emerges from quiescence (that is, it 'turns on' after accreting material from its companion) it has a very hard (high-energy) X-ray spectrum produced by a hot corona^4,5 positioned above its accretion disk, and then transitions to a soft (lower-energy) spectrum dominated by emission from the geometrically thin accretion disk, which extends to the innermost stable circular orbit^6,7. Much debate persists over how this transition occurs and whether it is driven largely by a reduction in the truncation radius of the disk^8,9 or by a reduction in the spatial extent of the corona^10,11. Observations of X-ray reverberation lags in supermassive black-hole systems^12,13 suggest that the corona is compact and that the disk extends nearly to the central black hole^14,15. Observations of stellar-mass black holes, however, reveal equivalent (mass-scaled) reverberation lags that are much larger¹⁶, leading to the suggestion that the accretion disk in the hard-X-ray state of stellar-mass black holes is truncated at a few hundreds of gravitational radii from the black hole^17,18. Here we report X-ray observations of the black-hole transient MAXI J1820+070^19,20. We find that the reverberation time lags between the continuum-emitting corona and the irradiated accretion disk are 6 to 20 times shorter than previously seen. The timescale of the reverberation lags shortens by an order of magnitude over a period of weeks, whereas the shape of the broadened iron K emission line remains remarkably constant. This suggests a reduction in the spatial extent of the corona, rather than a change in the inner edge of the accretion disk.

On-ground detection of an electron-positron annihilation line from thunderclouds

Thunderclouds can produce bremsstrahlung gamma-ray emission, and sometimes even positrons. At 00:27:00 (UT) on 13 January 2012, an intense burst of gamma rays from a thundercloud was detected by the GROWTH experiment, located in Japan, facing the Sea of Japan. The event started with a sharp gamma-ray flash with a duration of <300 ms coincident with an intracloud discharge, followed by a decaying longer gamma-ray emission lasting for ∼60 s. The spectrum of this prolonged emission reached ∼10 MeV, and contained a distinct line emission at 508±3(stat.)±5(sys.) keV, to be identified with an electron-positron annihilation line. The line was narrow within the instrumental energy resolution (∼80keV), and contained 520±50 photons which amounted to ∼10% of the total signal photons of 5340±190 detected over 0.1-10 MeV. As a result, the line equivalent width reached 280±40 keV, which implies a nontrivial result. The result suggests that a downward positron beam produced both the continuum and the line photons.

Possible evidence for free precession of a strongly magnetized neutron star in the magnetar 4U 0142+61

Magnetars are a special type of neutron stars, considered to have extreme dipole magnetic fields reaching ∼ 10(11) T. The magnetar 4 U 0142+61, one of the prototypes of this class, was studied in broadband x rays (0.5-70 keV) with the Suzaku observatory. In hard x rays (15-40 keV), its 8.69 sec pulsations suffered slow phase modulations by ± 0.7 sec, with a period of ∼ 15 h. When this effect is interpreted as free precession of the neutron star, the object is inferred to deviate from spherical symmetry by ∼ 1.6 × 10(-4) in its moments of inertia. This deformation, when ascribed to magnetic pressure, suggests a strong toroidal magnetic field, ∼ 10(12) T, residing inside the object. This provides one of the first observational approaches towards toroidal magnetic fields of magnetars.

Hardening and termination of long-duration γ rays detected prior to lightning

We report the first observation of 3-30 MeV prolonged gamma-ray emission that was abruptly terminated by lightning. The gamma-ray detection was made during winter thunderstorms on December 30, 2010, by the Gamma-Ray Observation of Winter Thunderclouds experiment carried out in a coastal area along the Sea of Japan. The gamma-ray flux lasted for less than 3 min, continuously hardening closer to the lightning occurrence. The hardening at energies of 3-10 MeV energies was most prominent. The gamma-ray flux abruptly ceased less than 800 ms before the lightning flash that occurred over 5 km away from the experimental site. In addition, we observed a clear difference in the duration of the 3-10 MeV gamma rays and those >10 MeV, suggesting that the area of >10 MeV gamma-ray emission is considerably smaller than that of the lower-energy gamma rays. This work may give a manifestation that a local region emitting prolonged gamma rays connects with a distant region to initiate lightning.

Observation of an energetic radiation burst from mountain-top thunderclouds

During thunderstorms on 20 September 2008, a simultaneous detection of gamma rays and electrons was made at a mountain observatory in Japan located 2770 m above sea level. Both emissions, lasting 90 sec, were associated with thunderclouds rather than lightning. The photon spectrum, extending to 10 MeV, can be interpreted as consisting of bremsstrahlung gamma rays arriving from a source which is 60-130 m in distance at 90% confidence level. The observed electrons are likely to be dominated by a primary population escaping from an acceleration region in the clouds.

Detection of high-energy gamma rays from winter thunderclouds

A report is made on a comprehensive observation of a burstlike gamma-ray emission from thunderclouds on the Sea of Japan, during strong thunderstorms on 6 January 2007. The detected emission, lasting for approximately 40 sec, preceded cloud-to-ground lightning discharges. The burst spectrum, extending to 10 MeV, can be interpreted as consisting of bremsstrahlung photons originating from relativistic electrons. This ground-based observation provides the first clear evidence that strong electric fields in thunderclouds can continuously accelerate electrons beyond 10 MeV prior to lightning discharges.