This is a White Paper in support of the mission concept of the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT), proposed as a medium-sized ESA mission. We discuss the potential of LOFT for the study of high-energy radiation from thunderstorms and lightning. For a summary, we refer to the paper.
The population of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) has been expanded considerably in the last decade. Not only is their number increasing, but also various classes of them have been revealed. Among different classes of MSPs, the behaviour of black widows and redbacks are particularly interesting. These systems consist of an MSP and a low-mass companion star in compact binaries with an orbital period of less than a day. In this article, we give an overview of the high energy nature of these two classes of MSPs. Updated catalogues of black widows and redbacks are presented and their X ray/$gamma$-ray properties are reviewed. Besides the overview, using the most updated eight-year Fermi Large Area Telescope point source catalog, we have compared the $gamma$-ray properties of these two MSP classes. The results suggest that the X-rays and $gamma$-rays observed from these MSPs originate from different mechanisms. Lastly, we will also mention the future prospects of studying these spider pulsars with the novel methodologies as well as upcoming observing facilities.
A part of early type stars is characterised by strong dipole magnetic field that is modified by the outflow of dense wind from the stellar surface. At some distance from the surface (above the Alfven radius), the wind drives the magnetic field into the reconnection in the equatorial region of the dipole magnetic field. We propose that electrons accelerated in these reconnection regions can be responsible for efficient comptonization of stellar radiation producing gamma-ray emission. We investigate the propagation of electrons in the equatorial region of the magnetosphere by including their advection with the equatorial wind. The synchrotron and IC spectra are calculated assuming that a significant part of the wind energy is transferred to relativistic electrons. As an example, the parameters of luminous, strongly magnetized star HD 37022 ($Theta^1$ Ori C) are considered. The IC gamma-ray emission is predicted to be detected either in the GeV energy range by the Fermi-LAT telescope or in the sub-TeV energies by the Cherenkov Telescope Array. However, since the stellar winds are often time variable and the magnetic axis can be inclined to the rotational axis of the star, the gamma-ray emission is expected to show variability with the rotational period of the star and, on a longer time scale, with the stellar circle of the magnetic activity. Those features might serve as tests of the proposed scenario for gamma-ray emission from single, luminous stars.
Very-high-energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) gamma radiation has already been detected from several supernova remnants (SNRs). These objects, which are well-studied in radio, optical and X-ray wavelengths, constitute one of the most intriguing source classes in VHE astronomy. H.E.S.S., an array of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes in Namibia, has recorded an extensive dataset of VHE gamma-ray observations covering the central region of the Milky Way, both from pointed observations as well as from the Galactic Plane Survey conducted in the inner region of the Galaxy. From radio observations, several hundred SNRs are known in the Milky Way, but until now only few of them have been identified as VHE gamma-ray emitters. Using the H.E.S.S. dataset and a large ensemble of radio SNRs localized in the inner region of the Galaxy, the standard framework that links the origin of cosmic rays to the gamma-ray visibility of SNRs can now be tested. Here we present the ensemble of investigated SNRs and discuss constraints on the parameter space used within a theoretical model of hadronic VHE gamma-ray production.
We study high-energy emission from the mergers of neutron star binaries as electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves aside from short gamma-ray bursts. The mergers entail significant mass ejection, which interacts with the surrounding medium to produce similar but brighter remnants than supernova remnants in a few years. We show that electrons accelerated in the remnants can produce synchrotron radiation in X-rays detectable at $sim 100$ Mpc by current generation telescopes and inverse Compton emission in gamma rays detectable by the emph{Fermi} Large Area Telescopes and the Cherenkov Telescope Array under favorable conditions. The remnants may have already appeared in high-energy surveys such as the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image and the emph{Fermi} Large Area Telescope as unidentified sources. We also suggest that the merger remnants could be the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays beyond the knee energy, $sim 10^{15}$ eV, in the cosmic-ray spectrum.
We study a two component dark matter candidate inspired by the Minimal Walking Technicolor model. Dark matter consists of a dominant SIMP-like dark atom component made of bound states between primordial helium nuclei and a doubly charged technilepton, and a small WIMP-like component made of another dark atom bound state between a doubly charged technibaryon and a technilepton. This scenario is consistent with direct search experimental findings because the dominant SIMP component interacts too strongly to reach the depths of current detectors with sufficient energy to recoil and the WIMP-like component is too small to cause significant amount of events. In this context a metastable technibaryon that decays to $e^+e^+$, $mu^+ mu^+$ and $tau^+ tau^+$ can in principle explain the observed positron excess by AMS-02 and PAMELA, while being consistent with the photon flux observed by FERMI/LAT. We scan the parameters of the model and we find the best possible fit to the latest experimental data. We find that there is a small range of parameter space that this scenario can be realised under certain conditions regarding the cosmic ray propagation and the final state radiation. This range of parameters fall inside the region where the current run of LHC can probe, and therefore it will soon be possible to either verify or exclude conclusively this model of dark matter.