Prompt TeV Emission from Cosmic Rays Accelerated by Gamma Ray Bursts Interacting with Surrounding Stellar Wind

TL;DR

This paper proposes that cosmic rays from gamma ray bursts interacting with stellar winds produce detectable TeV gamma rays, offering a new observational signature of GRB environments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism for TeV gamma-ray production from GRB-accelerated cosmic rays interacting with stellar wind bubbles.

Findings

TeV gamma rays can be produced via hadronic interactions in stellar wind bubbles.

These gamma rays are potentially observable by current ground-based detectors.

The model links GRB cosmic ray acceleration to observable high-energy signals.

Abstract

Protons accelerated in the internal shocks of a long duration gamma ray burst can escape the fireball as cosmic rays by converting to neutrons. Hadronic interactions of these neutrons inside a stellar wind bubble created by the progenitor star will produce TeV gamma rays via neutral meson decay and synchrotron radiation by charged pion-decay electrons in the wind magnetic field. Such gamma rays should be observable from nearby gamma ray bursts by currently running and upcoming ground-based detectors.