Constraints on the intergalactic magnetic field from Fermi-LAT observations of GRB 221009A
arXiv:2512.11128 · doi:10.1103/g8rr-g7p4
Abstract
A cosmological origin of the magnetic fields in large scale structures of the Universe would require a non-negligible magnetic field in cosmic voids, which, however, remains undetected. Gamma-ray emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) offers the opportunity to indirectly probe such an intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF), as gamma rays interact with cosmic radiation fields, producing electron-positron pairs, and initiate an electromagnetic cascade. The deflection of the pairs in the IGMF results in a time-delayed signal at GeV energies. Using observations with the Fermi Large Area Telescope of the GRB 221009A, we are able to derive the most stringent constraints to date from the non-observation of the cascade and rule out magnetic fields B < 2.5 x 10^{-17} G at 95% confidence level for a coherence length larger than 1 Mpc. Our results are comparable to limits obtained from blazar observations but do not suffer from assumptions on the duty cycle of the gamma-ray source or whether inverse-Compton scattering losses dominate over the development of plasma instabilities.
Published in PRD. 14 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables
References in corpus (43)
- The Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Mission
- Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog
- Magnetic Fields in the Early Universe
- Evidence for strong extragalactic magnetic fields from Fermi observations of TeV blazars
- The extragalactic optical-infrared background radiations, their time evolution and the cosmic photon-photon opacity
- Cosmological Magnetic Fields: Their Generation, Evolution and Observation
- Extragalactic Background Light Inferred from AEGIS Galaxy SED-type Fractions
- Modeling the Extragalactic Background Light from Stars and Dust
- On The Synchrotron Self-Compton Emission from Relativistic Shocks and Its Implications for Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows
- Analytic Light-Curves of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows: Homogeneous versus Wind External Media
- On the Origin of Cosmic Magnetic Fields
- EGMF Constraints from Simultaneous GeV-TeV Observations of Blazars
- Teraelectronvolt emission from the -ray burst GRB 190114C
- A very-high-energy component deep in the Gamma-ray Burst afterglow
- The Cosmological Impact of Luminous TeV Blazars I: Implications of Plasma Instabilities for the Intergalactic Magnetic Field and Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background
- Time Delay of Cascade Radiation for TeV Blazars and the Measurement of the Intergalactic Magnetic Field
- A tera-electronvolt afterglow from a narrow jet in an extremely bright gamma-ray burst 221009A
- Sensitivity of gamma-ray telescopes for detection of magnetic fields in intergalactic medium
- Extreme TeV blazars and the intergalactic magnetic field
- Synchrotron and SSC Emission and the Blast-Wave Model of Gamma-Ray Bursts
- New limits on extragalactic magnetic fields from rotation measures
- Search for Spatial Extension in High-Latitude Sources Detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope
- An observational determination of the evolving extragalactic background light from the multiwavelength HST/CANDELS survey in the Fermi and CTA era
- Characterizing the Gamma-Ray Variability of the Brightest Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars Observed with the Fermi LAT
- GeV and higher energy photon interactions in gamma-ray burst fireballs and surroundings
- Very high energy gamma-ray emission beyond 10 TeV from GRB 221009A
- CRPropa 3.2 -- an advanced framework for high-energy particle propagation in extragalactic and galactic spaces
- Probing Intergalactic Magnetic Fields in the GLAST Era through Pair Echo Emission from TeV Blazars
- A lower bound on intergalactic magnetic fields from time variability of 1ES 0229+200 from MAGIC and Fermi/LAT observations
- The Gamma-Ray Window to Intergalactic Magnetism
- Gamma-ray observations of blazars and the intergalactic magnetic field spectrum
- Constraints on the intergalactic magnetic field using Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. blazar observations
- Probing Early Cosmic Magnetic Fields through Pair Echos from High-Redshift GRBs
- Possible Effects of Pair Echoes on Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow Emission
- Constraints on the intergalactic magnetic field from -ray observations of GRB 190114C
- Can we constrain the extragalactic magnetic field from very high energy observations of GRB 190114C?
- Modelling the propagation of very-high-energy gamma rays with the CRbeam code: Comparison with CRPropa and ELMAG codes
- The evolution of cosmic ray electrons in the cosmic web: seeding by AGN, star formation and shocks
- First constraints on the strength of the extragalactic magnetic field from -ray observations of GRB 221009A
- A delayed 400 GeV photon from GRB 221009A and implication on the intergalactic magnetic field
- Constraints on the intergalactic magnetic field strength from -ray observations of GRB 221009A
- Search of the pair echo signatures in the high-energy light curve of GRB190114C
- Intergalactic magnetic field studies by means of -ray emission from GRB 190114C