甚高能量宇宙伽马辐射宇宙尽头的重要窗口

伽马射线天文学是高能天体物理学的一个分支，它主要研究天空中高能伽马射线光子，因此在探索宇宙的最极端与最激烈形式的非热现象中起着关键性的作用。这门学科提供了现代天体物理学与宇宙学中的许多热门课题，例如：     

伽马射线暴从何而来——观测卫星正在日益揭开产生宇宙中最大规模伽马射线暴的神秘天体

“伽马射线暴”是指在遥远的宇宙深处产生能量强烈释放，导致在极短的时间之内，就有大量的伽马射线降临地球的现象。这种宇宙伽马射线暴究竟来自何处？很长时间以来都是一个谜，甚至被称为“天文学界的最大谜团”。近年来，随着人造观测卫星技术和数量的不断进步，人类正在逐步揭开宇宙伽马射线暴的起源之谜。特别是自2005年以来，利用美国的“雨燕”号探测器和日本Here-2号观测卫星的观测结果，更让人们在研究宇宙伽马射线暴的追本溯源方面，取得了比较大的进展。另外，在追踪宇宙伽马射线暴的研究过程中，使得人们对宇宙的诞生和演化等其他谜团，也有了更深刻的认识。本文所述正是有关宇宙伽马射线暴的研究方面的最新进展。[编者按]     

高能天体物理学的“爆发”

这一时期有两篇理论高能天体物理学的论文表现出了突出的影响力:一篇是排在第5的关于伽马射线暴的论文,另一篇是关于活动星系核(AGN)的论文#6。这两篇文章都与爆发现象有关,但研究的时间尺度大不相同。伽马射线暴(GRBs)是自大爆炸以来宇宙中最充满活力的现象,它们在宇宙中有可能随时随地发生。典型的爆发一般持续1秒至数百秒的时间。大多数伽马射线暴是在巨大的恒星燃尽了核燃料时发生的。恒星的核心     

伽马射线暴

正伽马射线暴(简称伽马暴)是起源于大质量恒星坍缩(长伽马暴)或者致密双星并合(短伽马暴)等短时标极端剧烈的高能灾变天体,是宇宙大爆炸之后最猛烈的爆发现象,也是宇宙宏观速度最快的天体。伽马暴本身辐射及其余辉辐射来自新生黑洞或者磁星所驱动的极端相对论喷流,并且理论上预期其还伴随强引力波、高能中微子和高能宇宙线辐射。因此,伽马暴是研究黑洞     

1ES 0229+200的甚高能辐射与河外背景光的相互作用

利用改进的单区轻强子模型计算了BL Lac天体1ES 0229+200的内禀谱,并与三个不同的河外背景光吸收模型重建的内禀谱进行比较,发现部分吸收模型高估了河外背景光对甚高能伽马射线的吸收.     

洞悉炽热宇宙 我国第一颗空间天文观测卫星——硬X射线调制望远镜

<正>2017年6月即将发射升空的硬X射线调制望远镜将巡视整个银河系中的X射线源,详细研究X射线双星和脉冲星,甚至还能够监测伽马射线暴。很多前所未知的宇宙奥秘,都将因调制望远镜的登场而得以揭晓。仰望星空,宇宙似乎总是以空旷、冷寂、寥落、宁静的面貌出现在我们每个人眼前。但是,事实真是这样吗?在日复一日斗转星移的夜空中,潜伏的其实是一个极端炽热的高能宇宙,恒星与星系在幕后不断上演着生与死的故事。有时,我们也能窥见其中的片鳞半爪,例如超新星爆     

高能中微子天文观测进展

高能宇宙线在宇宙加速器中的产生和在宇宙空间的传播通常会伴随高能中微子的产生.高能中微子天文学是了解高能天体物理现象的独特的窗口.最近,位于南极的立方公里级的中微子探测器IceCube探测到了一批高能(Te V)事例,在5.7σ的置信度之上排除了大气背景的起源.这是人类第一次探测到的来自地外的高能中微子事例,开启了人类探索宇宙的一个新的窗口,标志着高能中微子天文学的诞生.本文简要介绍了高能中微子的探测历史,高能中微子探测器(特别是IceCube)的探测原理及现状,IceCube中微子探测结果,中微子起源的理论探讨以及高能中微子天文的未来展望.     

X眼捕捉天体新姿：钱德拉X射线天文望远镜的最新观测成果

宇宙中不仅飞驰着眼睛可以看见的光（可见光），还有眼睛看不见的光（电磁波）。这其中就有超新星爆发和黑洞等天体发出的高能“X射线”。用X射线进行观测，可以查明宇宙中正在发生的许多用可见光观测无法探知的激烈现象。美国宇航局（NASA）引以自豪的X射线太空望远镜“钱德拉”持续观测宇宙高能现象已有近10个年头，本文就来集中介绍NASA在最近一年所公布的这台X射线太空望远镜所获得的最新图像。     

LHAASO与宇宙线起源

宇宙线的能谱延展到超过10¹⁵电子伏特(PeV)的能段,这表明银河系中存在超高能的宇宙线加速源.而近期的甚高能伽马射线观测表明,长期以来被认为是主要宇宙线加速源的超新星遗迹很难把宇宙线加速到超高能.因此,寻找超高能(PeV)宇宙线加速源是宇宙线起源研究中的核心问题.其中一个最直接的方法就是寻找加速源附近宇宙线与星际气体相互作用产生的超高能伽马射线辐射.我国的高海拔宇宙线观测站(LHAASO),由于其在超高能伽马射线能段世界领先的灵敏度,成为这一研究的理想工具.LHAASO半阵列建成后一年之内,已经在银盘上观测到了十二个超高能伽马射线源,在这一领域取得了突破性的进展.本文将介绍这些已得到的观测结果,并对LHAASO全阵列建成后可能的新进展进行展望.     

3K：宇宙微波背景辐射

宇宙微波背景辐射（CMBR）是宇宙大爆炸留下的遗迹。宇宙中的光子在红移约为1100左有时和其它的重子物质发生了退耦，逐渐失去了和重子物质相互反应的热平衡过程，于是随着宇宙的演化而冷却下来，到今天的温度大约为3K。在微波背景的研究中，     

A broadband superconducting detector suitable for use in large arrays

Cryogenic detectors are extremely sensitive and have a wide variety of applications (particularly in astronomy), but are difficult to integrate into large arrays like a modern CCD (charge-coupled device) camera. As current detectors of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) already have sensitivities comparable to the noise arising from the random arrival of CMB photons, the further gains in sensitivity needed to probe the very early Universe will have to arise from large arrays. A similar situation is encountered at other wavelengths. Single-pixel X-ray detectors now have a resolving power of DeltaE < 5 eV for single 6-keV photons, and future X-ray astronomy missions anticipate the need for 1,000-pixel arrays. Here we report the demonstration of a superconducting detector that is easily fabricated and can readily be incorporated into such an array. Its sensitivity is already within an order of magnitude of that needed for CMB observations, and its energy resolution is similarly close to the targets required for future X-ray astronomy missions.     

A correlation between the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure in the Universe

Observations of distant supernovae and the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) indicate that the expansion of the Universe may be accelerating under the action of a 'cosmological constant' or some other form of 'dark energy'. This dark energy now appears to dominate the Universe and not only alters its expansion rate, but also affects the evolution of fluctuations in the density of matter, slowing down the gravitational collapse of material (into, for example, clusters of galaxies) in recent times. Additional fluctuations in the temperature of CMB photons are induced as they pass through large-scale structures and these fluctuations are necessarily correlated with the distribution of relatively nearby matter. Here we report the detection of correlations between recent CMB data and two probes of large-scale structure: the X-ray background and the distribution of radio galaxies. These correlations are consistent with those predicted by dark energy, indicating that we are seeing the imprint of dark energy on the growth of structure in the Universe.     

耀变体高能辐射的红移限制

耀变体甚高能（E100GeV）辐射能谱由于TeV伽玛光子与河外星系背景光光子之间的相互作用而比Fermi-LAT所观测到的伽玛射线能谱更软。基于同步自康普顿模型和河外星系背景光模型,利用高能辐射探测器在GeV和TeV能段对耀变体源3C66A的观测结果,对其红移进行限制。     

用EGSnrc程序包对单能电子实验过程影响因素的研究

本文运用蒙特卡罗程序EGSinpRZ和EGSnrcMP模拟了不同能量的单能电子入射过程中与AL吸收物质的作用,得到了该过程产生并且进入了灵敏区的轫致辐射光子和散射电子平均能量以及他们在相应情况下的百分比,结合两种测量方法(全峰面积法TPA和半峰面积法SPA)讨论了轫致辐射和散射对测量结果的影响;研究了实验所用放射源与其包装材料产生的轫致辐射光子对测量的影响;同时用EGSnrcMP程序模拟了吸收过程,画出了吸收曲线,并与实验吸收曲线相比较,讨论了环境本底对计数的影响.     

用EGSnrc程序包对单能电子实验过程影响因素的研究

本文运用蒙特卡罗程序EGSinpRZ和EGSnrcMP模拟了不同能量的单能电子入射过程中与AL吸收物质的作用,得到了该过程产生的并且进入了灵敏区的轫致辐射光子和散射电子平均能量以及他们在相应情况下的百分比,结合两种计算方法(全峰面积法TPA和半峰面积法SPA)讨论了轫致辐射和散射对测量结果的影响;研究了实验所用放射源与其包装材料产生的轫致辐射光子对测量的影响;同时用EGSnrcMP程序模拟了吸收曲线,并与实验吸收曲线相比较,讨论了环境本底对计数的影响.     

M87的TeV辐射光变

2005年第一次在M87中观测到TeV辐射爆发,分析表明TeV爆发的光变时标非常短且相对孤立.M87的喷流的视向倾角较大(～30?),是银河系外观测到的第一个非blazar类TeV源,这暗示着新的产生TeV辐射过程.考虑到TeV源有可能是产生于黑洞吸积盘上的等离子体云团,刚诞生的时候可能围绕中心黑洞作开普勒运动,本文在完全广义相对论框架下计算了这种情况下TeV辐射的光变.模型中不仅考虑了TeV源作开普勒运动的效应,还计算了轨道上不同点发出的TeV光子在到达无穷远处观测者的过程中被来自吸积盘上的软光子吸收的光深差异.计算表明TeV源的光变主要由不同轨道上的TeV光子的光深变化主导,TeV源作开普勒运动的效应基本可以忽略.在TeV源距离黑洞比较近的时候,随着黑洞自旋的增大光深显著减小,在黑洞自旋为零时,光深变化曲线明显不对称,TeV源越靠近黑洞这些效应越显著.     

Detection of infrared photons with a superconductor

A superconductor single photon detector based on NbN nanowire was fabricated using electron beam lithography （EBL） and reactive ion etching （RIE） for infrared photon detection. When biased well below its critical current at 4.2 K, NbN nanowire is very sensitive to the incident photons. Typical telecommunication photons with a wavelength of 1550 nm were detected by this detector. Data analysis indicates the repeating rate of the device with 200 nm NbN nanowire may be up to 100 MHz, and the quantum efficiency is about 0,01% when biased at 0.95/c.     

Measurement of polarization with the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer

Measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation can reveal with remarkable precision the conditions of the Universe when it was approximately 400,000 years old. The three most fundamental properties of the CMB are its frequency spectrum (which determines the temperature), and the fluctuations in both the temperature and polarization across a range of angular scales. The frequency spectrum has been well determined, and considerable progress has been made in measuring the power spectrum of the temperature fluctuations. But despite many efforts to measure the polarization, detection of this property of the CMB has hitherto been beyond the reach of even the most sensitive observations. Here we describe the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI), an array of radio telescopes, which for the past two years has conducted polarization-sensitive observations of the CMB from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole research station.     

Pseudo-dipole signal removal from WMAP data

We have discovered in our previous work that different observational systematics, e.g. errors from antenna pointing directions or an asynchronism between the attitude and science data may generate a pseudo-dipole signal in the full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy that have been published by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) team. We have found that the antenna sidelobe response to the Doppler signal produces a similar effect. In this work, independent from the sources, we have uniformly modeled the pseudo-dipole signal and have removed it from the published WMAP7 CMB maps by model fitting. The result demonstrates that the released WMAP CMB quadrupole is almost completely artificial.     

Detection of polarization in the cosmic microwave background using DASI. Degree Angular Scale Interferometer

The past several years have seen the emergence of a standard cosmological model, in which small temperature differences in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation on angular scales of the order of a degree are understood to arise from acoustic oscillations in the hot plasma of the early Universe, arising from primordial density fluctuations. Within the context of this model, recent measurements of the temperature fluctuations have led to profound conclusions about the origin, evolution and composition of the Universe. Using the measured temperature fluctuations, the theoretical framework predicts the level of polarization of the CMB with essentially no free parameters. Therefore, a measurement of the polarization is a critical test of the theory and thus of the validity of the cosmological parameters derived from the CMB measurements. Here we report the detection of polarization of the CMB with the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI). The polarization is deteced with high confidence, and its level and spatial distribution are in excellent agreement with the predictions of the standard theory.