A quantum gas of ultracold polar molecules, with long-range and anisotropic interactions, not only would enable explorations of a large class of many-body physics phenomena but also could be used for quantum information processing. We report on the creation of an ultracold dense gas of potassium-rubidium ( ⁴⁰ K ⁸⁷ Rb) polar molecules. Using a single step of STIRAP (stimulated Raman adiabatic passage) with two-frequency laser irradiation, we coherently transfer extremely weakly bound KRb molecules to the rovibrational ground state of either the triplet or the singlet electronic ground molecular potential. The polar molecular gas has a peak density of 10 ¹² per cubic centimeter and an expansion-determined translational temperature of 350 nanokelvin. The polar molecules have a permanent electric dipole moment, which we measure with Stark spectroscopy to be 0.052(2) Debye (1 Debye = 3.336 × 10 ^–30 coulomb-meters) for the triplet rovibrational ground state and 0.566(17) Debye for the singlet rovibrational ground state.

A thermal radiative component is likely to accompany the first stages of the prompt emission of Gamma-ray bursts (GRB's) and X-ray flashes (XRF's). We analyze the effect of such a component on the observable spectrum, assuming that the observable effects are due to a dissipation process occurring below or near the thermal photosphere. We consider both the internal shock model and a 'slow heating' model as possible dissipation mechanisms. For comparable energy densities in the thermal and the leptonic component, the dominant emission mechanism is Compton scattering. This leads to a nearly flat energy spectrum (\nu F_\nu \propto \nu^0) above the thermal peak at ~10-100 keV and below 10-100 MeV, for a wide range of optical depths 0.03 <~ \tau_{\gamma e} <~ 100, regardless of the details of the dissipation mechanism or the strength of the magnetic field. At lower energies steep slopes are expected, while above 100 MeV the spectrum depends on the details of the dissipation process. For higher values of the optical depth, a Wien peak is formed at 100 keV - 1 MeV, and no higher energy component exists. For any value of \tau_{\gamma e}, the number of pairs produced does not exceed the baryon related electrons by a factor larger than a few. We conclude that dissipation near the thermal photosphere can naturally explain both the steep slopes observed at low energies and a flat spectrum above 10 keV, thus providing an alternative scenario to the optically thin synchrotron - SSC model.Comment: Discussion added on the results of Baring & Braby (2004); Accepted for publication in Ap.

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope observed the bright and long GRB090902B, lying at a redshift of z = 1.822. Together the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) cover the spectral range from 8 keV to >300 GeV is covered. Here we show that the prompt burst spectrum is consistent with emission from the jet photosphere combined with non-thermal emission described by a single power-law with photon index -1.9. The photosphere gives rise to a strong quasi-blackbody spectrum which is somewhat broader than a single Planck function and has a characteristic temperature of ~290keV. We derive the photospheric radius Rph = (1.1 \pm 0.3) x 10^12 Y^{1/4} cm and the bulk Lorentz factor of the flow, which is found to vary by a factor of two and has a maximal value of Gamma = 750 Y^{1/4}. Here Y is the ratio between the total fireball energy and the energy emitted in the gamma-rays. We find that during the first quarter of the prompt phase the photospheric emission dominates, which explains the delayed onset of the observed flux in the LAT compared to the GBM. We model the photospheric emission with a multi-color blackbody and its shape indicates that the photospheric radius increases at higher latitudes. We interpret the broad band emission as synchrotron emission at R ~ 4x10^15 cm. Our analysis emphasize the importance of having high temporal resolution when performing spectral analysis on GRBs, since there is strong spectral evolution.

We present a systematic analysis of the spectral and temporal properties of 17 GRBs co-detected by GBM and LAT on board the Fermi satellite by May 2010. We performed a time-resolved spectral analysis of all the bursts with the finest temporal resolution allowed by statistics, in order to avoid temporal smearing of different spectral components. We found that the time-resolved spectra of 14 out of 17 GRBs are best modeled with the Band function over the entire Fermi spectral range, which may suggest a common origin for emissions detected by LAT and GBM. GRB 090902B and GRB 090510 require the superposition between an MeV component and an extra power law component, with the former having a sharp cutoff above E_p. For GRB 090902B, this MeV component becomes progressively narrower as the time bin gets smaller, and can be fit with a Planck function as the time bin becomes small enough. In general, we speculate that phenomenologically there may be three elemental spectral components : (I) a Band-function component (e.g. in GRB 080916C) that extends in a wide energy range and does not narrow with reducing time bins, which may be of the non-thermal origin; (II) a quasi-thermal component (e.g. in GRB 090902B) with the spectra progressively narrowing with reducing time bins; and (III) another non-thermal power law component extending to high energies. The spectra of different bursts may be decomposed into one or more of these elemental components. We compare this sample with the BATSE sample and investigate some correlations among spectral parameters. We discuss the physical implications of the data analysis results for GRB prompt emission, including jet compositions (matter-dominated vs. Poynting-flux-dominated outflow), emission sites (internal shock, external shock or photosphere), as well as radiation mechanisms (synchrotron, synchrotron self-Compton, or thermal Compton upscattering).

Propagation of photons in relativistically expanding plasma outflows, characterized by steady Lorentz factor Gamma is considered. Photons that are injected in regions of high optical depth are advected with the flow until they escape at the photosphere. Below the photosphere, the photons are coupled to the plasma via Compton scattering. I show here, that as a result of the slight misalignment of the scattering electrons velocity vectors, the (local) comoving photon energy decreases with radius as epsilon'(r) ~ r^{-2/3}. This mechanism dominates the photon cooling in scenarios of faster adiabatic cooling of the electrons. I then show that the photospheric radius of a relativistically expanding plasma wind strongly depends on the angle to the line of sight, theta. For theta <~ 1/Gamma, r_{ph} is theta independent, while for theta >~ 1/Gamma, r_{ph} ~ theta^2. I show that the theta dependence of the photosphere implies that for flow parameters characterizing GRBs, thermal photons originating from below the photosphere can be observed up to tens of seconds following the inner engine activity decay. I calculate the probability density function P(r,theta) of a thermal photon to escape the plasma at radius r and angle theta. Using this function, I show that following the termination of the internal photon injection mechanism, the thermal flux decreases as F_{BB}^{ob.} ~ t^{-2}, and that the decay of the photon energy with radius results in a power law decay of the observed temperature, T^{ob.}(t) ~ t^{-2/3} at early times, which changes to t^{-1/2} later. Detailed numerical results are in very good agreement with the analytical predictions. I discuss the consequences of this temporal behavior in view of the recent evidence for a thermal emission component observed during the prompt emission phase of GRBs.Comment: Typo corrected; Accepted for publication in Ap

Relativistic outflows in the form of jets are common in many astrophysical objects. By their very nature, jets have angle-dependent velocity profiles, Γ = Γ(r, θ, ϕ), where Γ is the outflow Lorentz factor. In this work we consider photospheric emission from non-dissipative jets with various Lorentz factor profiles, of the approximate form Γ ≈ Γ₀/[(θ/θ_j)^p + 1], where θ_j is the characteristic jet opening angle. In collimated jets, the observed spectrum depends on the viewing angle, θ_v. We show that for narrow jets (θ_jΓ₀ ≲ few), the obtained low-energy photon index is α ≈ −1 (dN/dE ∝ E^α), independent of viewing angle, and weakly dependent on the Lorentz factor gradient (p). A similar result is obtained for wider jets observed at θ_v ≈ θ_j. This result is surprisingly similar to the average low-energy photon index seen in gamma-ray bursts. For wide jets (θ_jΓ₀ ≳ few) observed at θ_v ≪ θ_j, a multicolour blackbody spectrum is obtained. We discuss the consequences of this theory on our understanding of the prompt emission in gamma-ray bursts.