Constraints on the intergalactic magnetic field from $\gamma$-ray observations of GRB 190114C

Abstract

Very high energy photons from cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are expected to interact with extragalactic background light (EBL) and produce electron-positron pairs when they propagate through intergalactic medium (IGM). These relativistic pairs will then up-scatter cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons and emit secondary GeV emission. Meanwhile, the motion of these pairs are deflected by intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF), so the secondary GeV photons arrive later than the primary emission. It has been suggested that the properties of the secondary GeV emission can be used to constrain IGMF. Recently, TeV gamma-ray emission has been detected, for the first time, from a GRB (GRB 190114C) by the MAGIC telescope and its steep $\gamma -\mathrm{ray}$ spectrum shows a clear evidence of absorption by EBL. We then constrain the IGMF with the GeV flux limit obtained from the $Fermi$-LAT observations. We find a limit of $>10^{-19.5}$ G for the coherence length of $\lambda \le 1$ Mpc. Although this limit is weaker than that obtained by using blazars, it represents the first limit from $\gamma -\mathrm{ray}$ observations of GRBs, which provides an independent constraint on IGMF. We also find that, for transient $\gamma -\mathrm{ray}$ sources, one can choose a favorable time window to search for the echo emission at a particular energy.

6 pages, 5 figures, Accepted by PRD

References in corpus (8)

• On the Origin of Cosmic Magnetic Fields
• Teraelectronvolt emission from the $\gamma$-ray burst GRB 190114C
• Observation of inverse Compton emission from a long $\gamma$-ray burst
• Probing the Nature of the Weakest Intergalactic Magnetic Fields with the High Energy Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• GRB 190114C: from prompt to afterglow?
• Cascading on extragalactic background light
• ELMAG 3.01: A three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation of electromagnetic cascades on the extragalactic background light and in magnetic fields
• Properties of the Intergalactic Magnetic Field Constrained by Gamma-ray Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts

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• LiteBIRD Science Goals and Forecasts: Primordial Magnetic Fields
• Implication of GRB 221009A: Can TeV Emission Come from the GRB Prompt Phase?
• Constraints on the intergalactic magnetic field strength from $\gamma$-ray observations of GRB 221009A
• Intergalactic magnetic field studies by means of $\gamma$-ray emission from GRB 190114C
• Very high-energy gamma rays from GRB 180720B and GRB 190829A with external Compton emission
• Prospects for detection of the pair-echo emission from TeV gamma-ray bursts
• Constraints on the intergalactic magnetic field from Fermi-LAT observations of GRB 221009A