Multi-TeV photons from GRB 221009A: uncertainty of optical depth considered

Abstract

It is reported that the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) observed thousands of very-high-energy photons up to $\sim$18 TeV from GRB 221009A. We study the survival rate of these photons via considering the fact that they are absorbed by the extragalactic background light. By performing a set of $10^6$ Monte-Carlo simulations, we explore the parameter space allowed by current observations and estimate the probability of predicting that LHAASO detects at least one photon of 18 TeV from GRB 221009A. We find that the standard physics is compatible with the observations of 18 TeV photons within $3.5\sigma$ confidence interval. Our research method can be straightforwardly generalized to study more data sets of LHAASO and other experiments in the future.

6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, version for publication in EPJC

References in corpus (4)

• Teraelectronvolt emission from the $\gamma$-ray burst GRB 190114C
• The extragalactic background light revisited and the cosmic photon-photon opacity
• An observational determination of the evolving extragalactic background light from the multiwavelength HST/CANDELS survey in the Fermi and CTA era
• Joint photon-electron Lorentz violation parameter plane from LHAASO data

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Observability of the very-high-energy emission from GRB 221009A
• External Inverse-Compton and Proton Synchrotron Emission from the Reverse Shock as the Origin of VHE Gamma-Rays from the Hyper-Bright GRB 221009A
• GRB 221009A: An ordinary nearby GRB with extraordinary observational properties
• Invisible Neutrino Decays as Origin of TeV Gamma Rays from GRB221009A
• GRB 221009A Gamma Rays from Radiative Decay of Heavy Neutrinos?
• Revisiting Tests of Lorentz Invariance with Gamma-ray Bursts: Effects of Intrinsic Lags
• Swift/UVOT: 18 Years of Long GRB Discoveries and Advances
• Probes for String-Inspired Foam, Lorentz, and CPT Violations in Astrophysics