# Untitled Document

Compton Electrons and Electromagnetic Pulse in Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts

J. I. Katz

Department of Physics and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences

Washington U., St. Louis, Mo. 63130

Abstract

When gamma-rays emerge from a central source they may undergo Compton scattering in surrounding matter. The resulting Compton-scattered electrons radiate. Coherent radiation by such Compton electrons follows nuclear explosions above the Earth’s atmosphere. Particle acceleration in instabilities produced by Compton electron currents may explain the radio emission of SN1998bw. Bounds on coherent radiation are suggested for supernovae and gamma-ray bursts; these bounds are very high, but it is unknown if coherent radiation occurs in these objects.

High altitude (exoatmospheric) nuclear explosions are well known to produce striking electromagnetic phenomena on the surface of the Earth. These phenomena, termed HEMP (High altitude ElectroMagnetic Pulse) or EMP (Karzas and Latter 1962, 1965) occur when prompt gamma-rays following nuclear fission, radiative neutron capture or inelastic neutron scattering suffer Compton scattering in the upper atmosphere. The Compton electrons, with energies typically $`1`$ MeV, are preferentially directed along the direction of the incident gamma-rays, radially away from the gamma-ray source, and move at a speed close to the speed of light. They are deflected by the geomagnetic field and radiate synchrotron radiation. Because the gamma-rays and Compton electrons are produced over an interval $`<10^7`$ sec, shorter than the characteristic gyroperiod of the radiation ($`10^6`$ sec, allowing for the relativistic energy of the electrons) this radiation is coherent; it may be regarded as the effect of a continuously distributed time-dependent current density, rather than as the radiation of individual electrons. The number of radiating electrons is very large so that the currents and coherent radiation intensity are high, and are limited by the condition that the radiation field not exceed the geomagnetic field, for the radiation field of the Compton current acts to screen the geomagnetic field. In fact, the radiation may be crudely approximated as the diamagnetic field exclusion by the conducting swarm of Compton electrons. In atmospheric EMP the Compton electrons produce large numbers of low energy electrons by collisional ionization, and the effects of these electrons on the emergent radiation are the chief subject of the published calculations.

Analogous phenomena may be produced by astronomical events. Karzas and Latter (1965) indicate a threshold gamma-ray fluence for the observation of EMP of $`10^6`$ erg/cm<sup>2</sup>. This is less than the fluence of many observed gamma-ray bursts (GRB), in some cases by more than two orders of magnitude. However, GRB do not produce observable EMP in the Earth’s atmosphere because their emission occurs over a duration from milliseconds to minutes, several orders of magnitude (even for the shortest GRB) longer than the electrons’ gyroperiod in the geomagnetic field. As a result the EMP, although coherent in the sense that many electrons radiate in phase, is much reduced in amplitude because it is an incoherent average over a very large number of cycles of electron gyromotion; the source current varies slowly, with only a very small Fourier component at synchrotron frequencies; in contrast, EMP from nuclear explosions is produced by a current distribution which is essentially a Dirac $`\delta `$-function in time. Incoherent radiation by the individual electrons does have the usual synchrotron spectrum, but because these fields add incoherently the total power is small.

It may also be possible for radiation, analogous to EMP, by Compton electrons to be produced within distant astronomical objects rather than in the Earth’s atmosphere. This distant radiation may, in principle, be detected at Earth. Unfortunately, known astronomical sources of gamma-rays are not nearly as impulsive as nuclear bombs, so the resulting radiation cannot be predicted to be coherent. However, in some cases plasma phenomena may unexpectedly produce intense coherent radiation, so this possibility cannot be disregarded with confidence. A familiar example is the radio emission of pulsars, which is intense enough to observe only because, in a manner not yet well understood, coherent radiation by clumps of electrons is produced.

Many supernovae produce large quantities of the radioactive isotope <sup>56</sup>Ni, which decays by electron capture with a 6.1 day half life to <sup>56</sup>Co, which in turn decays, 80% by electron capture and 20% by e<sup>+</sup> emission, with a 77 day half life to stable <sup>56</sup>Fe. These decays produce gamma-rays of several energies; the most important and abundant are the 0.812 MeV gamma-ray produced in 85% of <sup>56</sup>Ni decays and the 0.847 MeV and 1.24 MeV gamma-rays produced in 100% and 66%, respectively, of <sup>56</sup>Co decays. These gamma-rays then undergo Compton scattering as they travel through the expanding supernova debris. In the very energetic SN1998bw nearly 1 M of <sup>56</sup>Ni was prodced (Iwamoto, et al. 1998). SN1998bw was remarkable for its unprecedentedly intense, and double-peaked, radio emission, with evidence of a self-absorption frequency of several GHz, declining with time, and large magnetic fields (Kulkarni, et al. 1998).

The characteristic time scales of the Compton currents are set by the radioactive half lives and the hydrodynamic expansion time scale, each of which is many days. It is thus unlikely that there will be coherent synchrotron emission, as in nuclear EMP. However, other kinds of emission are possible. Katz (1999) suggested that as the Compton electrons propagate into surrounding matter there will be counterstreaming plasma instabilities which may accelerate a few electrons to the Lorentz factors $`10^2`$ required to explain the observed synchrotron radiation. The synchrotron photosphere advances at the speed of the mildly relativistic Compton electrons, in agreement with the observed (Kulkarni, et al. 1998) Lorentz factor of expansion of the synchrotron source of 1.6–2. This model is consistent with the observed double-peaked time history of the radio intensity, for the first peak may be associated with Compton electrons following <sup>56</sup>Ni decay. The second peak may occur when a second front of more energetic Compton electrons, produced by the more energetic gamma-rays of <sup>56</sup>Co decay, overtake the slower initial wave of Compton electrons.

The inferred magnetic fields in SN1998bw are $`10^1`$ gauss. Such fields are remarkably large for such a large astronomical object, apparently implying a large magnetic flux (although only the magnitude, and not the sign or direction, of the magnetic field is inferred form the observations). Despite this, the magnetic field may contain only a small fraction of the supernova energy, although this last conclusion is very sensitive to the expansion Lorentz factor of the radio source. The synchrotron radiation by the Compton electrons is therefore expected to be at unobservably low frequencies $`1`$ MHz. The observed radio emission implies a power law electron distribution function extending to much higher energies. There is no evidence of coherent emission, nor would it be expected from electrons accelerated by a local plasma instability driven by a smoothly varying flux of Compton electrons.

An upper bound on the power radiated in coherent EMP by a source of size $`R`$ is given by the condition that the radiation field not exceed the background magnetic field $`B`$:

$$P<\frac{B^2}{8\pi }4\pi R^2c10^{41}\left(\frac{B}{0.1\mathrm{gauss}}\right)^2\left(\frac{R}{3\times 10^{16}\mathrm{cm}}\right)^2\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{sec}.$$

This is about two orders of magnitude in excess of the observed (presumably incoherent) radio luminosity of SN1998bw. It is possible for the incoherent synchrotron radiation power to exceed this bound on the coherent power; this would correspond to the condition that synchro-Compton radiation exceed synchrotron radiation in power, which violates no fundamental condition, although it is not often observed.

The plasma physics of GRB is more complex. Their multi-peaked temporal structure implies the existence of many interacting relativistic shells. In order to explain the dissipative interaction of shells with each other (and with an external medium) there must be collective plasma interaction. In order to accelerate electrons to energies sufficient to produce the observed radiation by the synchrotron process there must be at least approximate electron-ion equipartition, again by some ill-understood collective process. Coherent emission can only be a speculation, but it is worthwhile to bound it.

In order to bound the possible intensity of coherent EMP from GRB it is necessary to bound their magnetic fields and dimensions. The dimensions can be reasonably, but very roughly, estimated from the observed time scales of variations and Lorentz factors inferred by a variety of complex arguments. The magnetic fields are, however, nearly unknown. An earlier estimate (Katz 1994) of coherent EMP assumed microgauss interstellar fields, and concluded that even if coherent EMP were produced it would be unobservably weak. That estimate might be applicable if GRB involved only an “external” shock between the relativistic debris and the interstellar medium, but even in that case the appropriate field may be a turbulently amplified field in the shocked interstellar medium, possibly orders of magnitude higher. It is now generally accepted that GRB involve “internal” shocks between debris flows of differing Lorentz factors. Then the appropriate magnetic fields may be those of the shocked debris clouds, which may approach equipartition with the particle kinetic energy, although this last value is controversial and estimates differing by several orders of magnitude exist. Alternatively, it may be that GRB are powered by low frequency electromagnetic radiation from a magnetized accretion disc (Katz 1997). If this radiation is not completely converted to pair gas the magnetic energy density will be a significant fraction of the relativistic hydrodynamic energy density in the wind. In either case, the upper bound on the coherent EMP may approach the GRB power itself, although it is impossible to predict how the close the actual coherent power (if there is any at all) comes to this bound. Characteristic frequencies are also very uncertain, but typically of order GHz.

An additional, and stricter, bound may be obtained by noting that the radiating matter in GRB models is optically very thin, with Compton optical depths typically $`10^6`$, although dependent on very uncertain parameters. This sets an upper bound on the efficiency of conversion of photon energy in Compton scattering. This upper bound is further reduced because in most models the photons have energy $`m_ec^2`$ in the co-moving frame, so only a small fraction of their energy is transferred to the electron in a scattering event. This suggests, very crudely, an overall efficiency bound of $`<10^9`$.

The conditions for coherent EMP may be met in the evaporation of small primordial black holes, for their final burst of gamma-rays is very brief. The difficulty (aside from the very speculative assumption that such objects exist) is in the astronomical environment. In intergalactic or other nearly empty space the Compton scattering length is very long (a problem exacerbated by the decline of the Klein-Nishina cross-section with energy) and the production of Compton electrons is negligible. If the black hole is captured by dense matter, and is found within a star, planet, or similar object, then no radiation is observable because of absorption by the matter. The most favorable conditions may be those of a black hole in a giant molecular cloud, protostar, or a similar object, with column densities of order the Compton scattering length, but the expected event rates are very low, if not zero. For such favorably located small black holes, detection of their EMP may be more sensitive than direct observation of their gamma-rays.

References

Iwamoto, K., et al. 1998 Nature 395, 672.

Karzas, W. J. and Latter, R. 1962 J. Geophys. Res. 67, 4635

Karzas, W. J. and Latter, R. 1965 Phys. Rev. B137, 1369.

Katz, J. I. 1994 Ap. J. 422, 248.

Katz, J. I. 1997 Ap. J. 490, 633.

Katz, J. I. 1999 Ap. J. submitted (astro-ph/9904053).

Kulkarni, S. R., et al. 1998 Nature 395, 663.