2 Gamma-Ray Production and Absorption

Processes

Roland Diehl

2.1 Introduction to Astronomy with Gamma-Rays

How do γ-rays compare with other types of radiation? ‘Radiation’ in common
language describes ‘energy packages’ which travel on straight paths. ‘Elec-
tromagnetic radiation’ is characterized by variations of electric and magnetic
fields in space and time. Another type of ‘radiation’ are ‘cosmic rays’, very
energetic particles discovered early in the 20th century in the upper atmo-
sphere of the Earth and known to pervade interstellar space. These particles
are called ‘cosmic radiation’ because with their high energies they propagate
at the speed of light and in certain aspects behave like photons of similar
energies (γ-rays)’.
In order to understand the nature of γ-rays in comparison to other elec-
tromagnetic radiation, we remind the reader about ‘wave–particle’ dualism:
We may usefully describe electromagnetic radiation either in terms of a prop-
agating particle with energy1 E = h̄ω or in terms of waves with wavelength2
λ = c/ν with characteristic diffraction and interference patterns. The more
appropriate description depends on the energy of the radiation, more pre-
cisely on the relation between the wavelength of the radiation and the struc-
tural dimensions of the matter it interacts with, i.e., typical distances between
atoms, lattice constants, fiber thicknesses, grain sizes, field curvature.3 Unlike
common ‘light’, γ-rays do not reflect off surfaces; they have high penetration
power.
The spectrum of observed electromagnetic radiation spans more than 20
orders of magnitued on the frequency scale,4 ranging from the low-frequency
long-wavelength regime of radio waves (λ ' 102 cm) through the infrared,
optical and ultraviolet regimes up to the high frequency short-wavelength
regime of X and γ-rays (λ ≤ 10−13 cm). In the regime of γ-rays, the particle
1
h̄ = 1.05×10−34 J s−1 = 6.58×10−22 MeV s is Planck’s (reduced) constant, h/2π;
ω = ν/2π, with ν the frequency of the radiation (Hz); per photon γ-rays are
thus far more energetic than, e.g., UV radiation with typical energies of 0.5 eV.
Energy conversion: 1 eV = 1.602×10−19 J.
2
c = speed of light = 2.998×1010 cm s−1 .
3
Typical structural dimensions are dust grain sizes, 10−4 cm; atoms, 10−8 cm;
atomic nuclei, 10−13 cm.
4
Cosmic ray energies range from ≥MeV up to 1020 eV.
2 Roland Diehl

description of electromagnetic radiation becomes more appropriate than the

wave description, which works well for the less energetic radiation at radio
or optical wavelengths. (The general field of high-energy astrophysics is ad-
dressed in detail by Longair, 1994, in a two-volume textbook.) This helps
us understand the penetration power of γ-rays: the wavelength of the radi-
ation is short compared to the spacing of the atoms in the material, hence
the radiation mainly ‘sees’ the atom’s components, the compact nucleus and
the electrons at comparatively large distances (which are seen by γ-rays as
almost independent from the nucleus). The atom is mostly ‘empty space’ for
a γ-ray photon; interactions occur upon relatively low probability encoun-
ters with the nucleus or electrons. It is more appropriate to view γ-rays as
energetic particles, their ‘size’ being their wavelength. In such a corpuscular
description, the energy of the photon is a better characteristic quantity than
the wavelength or frequency of the electromagnetic field. Energy is measured
in voltage units ‘eV’ for electromagnetic particles (photons), 1 MeV being the
energy an electron would have if accelerated by an electrostatic potential of
a million volts. The γ-ray domain is the energy regime above X-rays,5 above
some 100 keV. Gamma-rays with energies up to TeV = 1012 eV have been
observed, so that the domain of γ-rays spans about seven orders of magnitude
(in frequency / wavelength / energy).6
Materials which should serve as ‘mirrors’ for X- and γ-rays would need
characteristics which make a wave description (i.e., coherent scattering ge-
ometries) applicable for the γ-ray–material interactions. This becomes virtu-
ally impossible below a certain wavelength regime corresponding to X-rays of
a few 100 keV. The specific instrumental techniques of γ-ray telescopes are
described in Chap 3.
What makes γ-rays so special that we need space observatories? The above
description of the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter
tells us that different effects will characterize the absorbing power of the
Earth’s atmosphere as we go up in frequency from radio waves to γ-rays (Fig
2.1). Interaction cross sections are maximized when the wavelength of the
radiation becomes similar to the size scale of the scattering centers of matter
(‘resonances’). Radio waves (λ ≥ cm) thus easily penetrate the atmosphere;
ionized-air atmospheric turbulence has much larger typical scales, and atom
dimensions are much smaller. At optical frequencies, the electronic shells of
atoms and molecules resonate with electromagnetic radiation to efficiently
absorb photon energy — the complex structure of the atmospheric absorp-
tion reflects the species’ characteristics, molecules and water vapor absorbing
5
Useful criteria could be, e.g., the transition from atomic to nuclear physics at
tens of keV, or the rest mass of the electron of 511 keV, or the experimental
techniques being beyond focussing optics for γ-rays above a few 100 keV. Any
such lower limit for γ-rays corresponds to a wavelength of 5×10−5 µm or smaller.
6
For comparison, our eyes see the optical regime of about 0.4–0.7 µm wavelength,
from colors blue to red — a fairly modest dynamical range.
 2 Gamma-Ray Production and Absorption Processes 3

Optical Light

Radiation
Radio- Infrared
X-Rays Gamma-Rays
Waves Radiation

UV
Absorption Bands due to O3, N, O
100km

50km
Reflection

10km CO2,H2O,O3...
ν
log10

log10λ
Fig. 2.1. The Earth’s atmospheric transparency to cosmic electromagnetic radia-
tion varies considerably over the range of frequencies. Transparency of the atmo-
sphere to radio waves makes radio astronomy a ground-based discipline. Atmo-
spheric dust, water vapor, and molecules block radiation and/or provide a bright
atmospheric source in the infrared regime, which means that astronomical obser-
vations have to be made from airplanes or spacecraft. There is a narrow window
again in the optical regime which allows classical optical astronomy with ground-
based telescopes. This window is closed by atomic absorption in the UV through
X-rays, making space-based telescopes a necessity. Also beyond, in γ-rays, con-
tinuum scattering and absorption processes with atmospheric electrons and nuclei
prevent ground-based astronomy up to very high energies. Only above ∼TeV en-
ergies (>1012 eV) can electromagnetic showers induced by cosmic γ-rays in the
atmosphere be observed from the ground; indirect information about the primary
γ-ray is retained, and thus ground-based astronomy becomes feasible again

in the infrared regime, atoms like oxygen and nitrogen absorbing strongly in
the ultraviolet regime. A ‘window’ remains in what we call ‘visible’ light. For
more energetic X-ray photons, the inner electrons of atoms have characteris-
tic binding energies similar to the photon energies, and photon interactions
with these may absorb X-ray radiation with characteristic spectral absorption
edges. Into the γ-ray regime, scattering off individual electrons is the prime
attenuation effect for a γ-ray beam, a process with intrinsically continuous
spectral characteristics, and reduced in strength as the γ-rays become more
energetic. This leads to an ‘optical depth’ in γ-rays determined by the scat-
4 Roland Diehl

tering cross section of γ-rays, described by the Thompson scattering cross

section σT in the limit of low energies,7
8π 2
σT = · re , (2.1)
3
with re = 2.8×10−13 cm, the ‘classical electron radius’. At MeV γ-ray en-
ergies, nuclear interactions become important, and spectral absorption char-
acteristics derive from nuclear structure. Scattering off electrons (and then
significantly also off protons) becomes inelastic above the X-ray regime with
transfer of energy to the particle (‘Compton scattering’), and is more forward-
beamed than Thompson scattering; the decreasing electron scattering cross
section in the γ-ray regime is described by the Klein–Nishina formula:8
πme c2 2Eγ 1
σKN = re2 · · [ln( + )]. (2.2)
Eγ me c2 2
The different ‘windows’ from the surface of the Earth into space determine
the techniques used for astronomy: optical, radio, and very-high γ-ray astron-
omy can be ground-based, while spaceborne instrumentation is required for
ultraviolet, X-ray, γ-ray and infrared telescopes.
The relative penetration power of γ-rays derives from the absence of
atomic interactions. In a ‘thick’ layer of material a γ-ray will however even-
tually collide with an individual atomic nucleus or electron in spite of their
relatively large spacing. The γ-ray’s arrival direction gets lost in repetitive
interactions, the energy being redistributed among secondary particles and
photons. The penetration depth for γ-rays corresponds to a few grams of ma-
terial per cm2 . For a characteristic thickness of the Earth’s atmosphere of 10
km, and a typical density of air of 1 mg cm−3 this amounts to 1000 g cm−2 .
Thus, the Earth’s atmosphere is a thick shield! Gamma-ray telescopes must
therefore be operated at high altitudes, above 40 km, to be able to measure
cosmic γ-rays directly.9

2.2 Production Processes

What are the processes that make γ-rays? (See also the general textbooks
on celestial γ-rays by Fichtel and Trombka, 1997; Stecker, 1971; Paul and
7
Eγ /me c2  1, hence at the upper end of the X-ray regime (me c2 = 0.511
MeV). The Thompson cross section corresponds to the geometrical cross sec-
tion associated with the classical electron radius r0 = e2 /me c2 , σT = 8πr02 /3 =
0.665 × 10−24 cm2
8
Here in the high-energy limit Eγ /me c2  1.
9
Additionally, the cosmic-ray nuclear interactions with the gas of the Earth’s upper
atmosphere result in its bright glow with γ-rays, much brighter than any cosmic
sources. Instruments for cosmic γ-rays have to avoid viewing this luminous layer
at 25–30 km altitude and be adequately constructed to not confuse γ-rays from
the Earth’s atmosphere below with γ-rays from celestial sources.
 2 Gamma-Ray Production and Absorption Processes 5

Laurent, 1998, for more details.) Electromagnetic radiation may be ‘thermal’

or ‘nonthermal’. Thermal radiation emerges from a large population of elec-
tromagnetically interacting particles in equilibrium, with their mean energy
characterized by particle temperature. The spectrum of radiation intensity
follows the ‘blackbody’ distribution, which reflects the dynamical equilibrium
of state population in the radiation field and the multi-particle system:
8πhν 3 1
I(ν) = · hν/kT (2.3)
c3 e −1
is the energy density10 of radiation at frequency ν, which is a function of
particle temperature T and Boltzmann’s constant k. Collisions and coupling
interactions between radiating material and radiation are so intense that the
energy densities of both are identical. When the ‘fire’ becomes hotter, the
blackbody distribution shifts its median towards more energetic radiation, so
that each of the photons carries more energy. From Wien’s law, the product
of temperature and the wavelength of the peak of the radiation spectrum is
a constant: 0.2898 (cm K) = λmax · T . From this relation, λmax falls into the
visible regime for ∼6000 K, the approximate temperature of the sun’s surface,
the big bang residual radiation at 2.7 K temperature peaks at a wavelength
below a millimeter. For thermal γ-rays of 1 MeV, the corresponding temper-
ature of a fireball would be above 2×109 K.11
Nonthermal processes are thus more typical sources of γ-rays, with specific
interactions of matter fields and radiation. A physical process may generate
a γ-ray, but we now do not require that the entire source environment is
thermalized and thus emits blackbody radiation where this γ-ray emission
dominates all radiation processes. In general, all elementary particles which
take part in an electromagnetic interaction may be sources of γ-rays, if accel-
erated in some way through external fields of any kind. Likewise, if a system
of particles (including electromagnetically interacting particles) changes its
state to another one with different energy, the energy difference (or parts
thereof) may be radiated in the form of electromagnetic field quanta, hence
also γ-rays.
Several processes can be distinguished as shown in Fig. 2.2. ( For a more thor-
ough treatment of electromagnetic-field interactions see textbooks by Jack-
son, 1999; Rybicki and Lightman, 1979; Rauch and Rohrlich, 1980; Heitler,
1960).

Charged Particles in Strong Electric or Magnetic Fields

The motion of a charged particle (e.g. electron) can be viewed as a charge cur-
rent along its trajectory. The particle’s charge produces a Coulomb field; its
10
Per surface area of the black body, (Ws cm−2 )
11
Nuclear fusion inside the sun occurs at 15×106 K, corresponding to keV’s in
thermal energy. In comparison, γ-ray fireballs would be even hotter.
6 Roland Diehl

Accelerated Charged Inverse Compton

Particles Scattering

Mg*

Mg

De-Excitation of Atomic Annihilation of Particle-

Nuclei Antiparticle Pairs

Fig. 2.2. Charged particle acceleration results in photon emission. As an example

for charged-particle acceleration the case of bremsstrahlung is illustrated (top left).
Weak decays inside nuclei result in excited nuclear states, which often decay through
γ-ray emission (bottom left). Likewise, the decay of unstable particles such as pions,
and the annihilation of particle–antiparticle pairs constitute γ-ray source processes
(bottom right). Soft photons of energies lower than γ-ray energies may gain energy
from electromagnetic-field interactions. The inverse-Compton process on energetic
electrons or protons is illustrated (top right) as the most important example

motion thus corresponds to an electromagnetic field, varying as the charged

particle moves. Any acceleration of the charged particle now can be viewed
as dynamic modification of this electromagnetic field, at the expense of the
charged particle’s energy of motion. Thus kinetic energy is transformed into
energy of the electromagnetic field. Again, for the high energies of such elec-
tromagnetic energy loss into γ-rays, the particle picture becomes more appro-
priate, and quanta of electromagnetic energy, the γ-ray photons, are emitted
by accelerated charged particles, ‘particle’ momenta being conserved.
The motion of a charged particle in a magnetic field B is described by its
‘pitch angle’ θ, the angle between the particle trajectory and the direction of
the magnetic field, and can be described as gyration of the particle around
the field direction, with characteristic gyration frequency νg = eB/2πme .
The radiated energy originates from the velocity component perpendicular
to the magnetic field, the acceleration of the charged particle being the vec-
 2 Gamma-Ray Production and Absorption Processes 7

tor product v ⊗ B. The resulting synchrotron photon spectrum peaks at a

frequency
3 2 3 eB
νc = γ νg sinθ = γ 2 · . (2.4)
2 2 2πme · sinθ
Energetic electrons (' 1000 MeV) moving in the interstellar magnetic field12
thus radiate ‘synchrotron’ photons, which can be observed in the radio regime.13
As a scaling estimate, a high-energy (cosmic ray) electron in a typical inter-
stellar magnetic field would radiate synchrotron photons at
Ee 2 B
Ehν ' 0.05 · ( ) · (eV ). (2.5)
(T eV ) (3µG)
Both higher magnetic field strength or more energetic particles shift this
radiation up in energy, into optical regimes for particle accelerators in high-
energy physics laboratories, and into the γ-ray regime near the surface of
neutron stars,14 where magnetic fields are many orders of magnitude higher.
Even the curvature of magnetic field lines in the vicinity of neutron stars
can provide sufficient ‘bending’ acceleration to charged particles that move
along these field lines, so that ‘curvature γ-rays’ are emitted. In pulsars, where
magnetic fields are 1010 G and more, we attribute part of the observable γ-
rays to this process.
Charged-particle acceleration through electric fields is more important for
production of γ-rays and results in ‘bremsstrahlung’ emission. For example,
an electron passing very close by an atomic nucleus will experience the strong
positive charge of the nucleus, so that the electron’s trajectory is substantially
changed by such acceleration. From this change in electron energy due to the
electron–ion collision, we obtain the total intensity per unit frequency in
bremsstrahlung radiation15
Z 2 e6 n 192ve
Iν (Ee ) = 3 3 3 2
· ln( 1/3 ). (2.6)
12π 0 c me ve Z c
12
Measured in Gauss in most astrophysical literature. 1 G = 10−4 T; the typical
magnetic field strength in the interstellar medium is a few µG.
13
In extreme cases such as young supernova remnants, synchrotron emission may
occur in the UV/X-ray regime
14
In magnetic fields above a critical strength of ∼1013 G, relativistic effects and the
quantum phenomena of pair creation and multi-photon states result in a more
complex description of the radiation field, called ‘magneto-bremsstrahlung’ or
‘synchro-curvature radiation’ (see Chap 6).
15
Iν (Ee ) is integrated over the collision process, in units of erg cm−2 . We assume
the much heavier ion is at rest. e = 1.602×10−19 C is the electron’s charge, ve
the electron velocity and me its mass, Z · e the ion charge, n the number den-
sity of matter, and 0 =8.8542×10−3 C2 erg−1 cm−1 the dielectric constant or
permittivity of the vacuum.
8 Roland Diehl

The spectrum of bremsstrahlung radiation remains flat up to roughly the

electron kinetic energy, i.e. up to16
Eγ = (γ − 1)me c2 . (2.7)
It drops sharply towards zero above, as effectively all the kinetic energy of
the electron has been transferred to the bremsstrahlung photon.
Depending upon the energy distribution of electrons and ions, one dis-
tinguishes ‘thermal’ and ‘nonthermal’ bremsstrahlung again; this specifies
whether the charged-particle energy distribution has been thermalized through
collisions, or if ‘nonthermal’ and reflecting, e.g., a particle-acceleration pro-
cess such as Fermi acceleration. For a hot plasma, the specific radiation power
or emissivity17 in thermal bremsstrahlung may be expressed as a function of
temperature
kν = 5.443 × 10−39 · Z 2 · g(ν, T ) · exp(−Eγ /kT ) · T −1/2 · ne np . (2.8)
The ‘Gaunt factor’ g(ν, T ) encodes the characteristic collision impact param-
eter distribution for a plasma of specific composition and temperature, and
may be approximated in the γ-ray regime by (Eγ /kT )1/2 .
For nonthermal particle spectra, electron energy distributions of a power-
law type
dNe (E)/dE ∼ E −α (2.9)
are frequently found, with α ' 1 − 3. Depending upon energy, ion–electron
bremsstrahlung dominates electron–electron bremsstrahlung at low energies,
while in the high-energy γ-ray regime the ratio of both rises to order unity.
Inverse bremsstrahlung, which is the photon emission from energetic pro-
tons and ions colliding with ambient electrons or ions, is negligible in most
circumstances.
Summarizing, the acceleration of charged particles of high energy by a
suitable force field may result in γ-rays. Hence, observation of γ-rays may
be used to study energetic particles moving in strong fields. ‘Energetic’ here
means travelling almost at the speed of light with MeV energies; fields must
be strong enough to change the particle’s motion by a significant amount.

Inverse Compton Scattering

Up-scattering of photons of lower energy through collisions with energetic
particles is termed the ‘Inverse-Compton process’. As we employ the ‘parti-
cle’ description for γ-rays, we may imagine them to collide with other particles
16 1
With the electron’s Lorentz factor γ = p 2
.
1− v2
c
17
Per unit frequency, in W cm−3 Hz−1 , using T for the temperature of the plasma
in K; k = 8.6174×10−5 eV K−1 is Boltzmann’s constant, and n the electron and
ion number density per cm3 .
 2 Gamma-Ray Production and Absorption Processes 9

such as electrons. This is known as the Compton scattering process. Equiv-

alently, we may also view the electromagnetic field which corresponds to a
photon to penetrate into the regime of the strong electromagnetic field caused
by the charged particle (‘wave’ or ‘field’ description). In ‘normal’ Compton
scattering a γ-ray photon will collide with one of the many atomic electrons
within some material and be scattered in the collision, transferring some of
its energy to the electron. The inverse energetics may also apply, however,
and provide a process for γ-ray production: if photons of lower energy collide
with energetic electrons, these photons may gain energy in the collisions, thus
being promoted in energy, e.g., from X-rays to γ-rays. This ‘inverse-Compton
scattering’ is important in regions of high photon densities. Other examples
are compact stars where an accretion disk is sufficiently hot to emit X-rays,
and the compact object generates beams of charged particles in its vicin-
ity (see below). The spectral intensity distribution of inverse-Comptonized
isotropic photons of frequency ν0 and photon density N (ν0 ) from scattering
off high-energy electrons of Lorentz factor γ is
3σT c N (ν0 ) ν 2 ν2
jν (ν0 ) = · · ν · [2ν · ln( ) + ν + 4γ ν 0 − ], (2.10)
16γ 4 ν02 4γ 2 ν0 2γ 2 ν0
with σT as the Thompson scattering cross section.18 The typical energy of
inverse-Compton-scattered photons rises rapidly with energy:
Ee 2 Eph
Eγ ' 1.3( ) ·( )(GeV ), (2.11)
(T eV ) 2 × 10−4 (eV )
with an ambient photon-field19 typical energy Eph . Therefore the inverse-
Compton process plays an important role for cosmic γ-ray sources. The black-
body thermal radiation of the ambient field may be expressed as the energy
distribution of photons, as number density (photons cm−3 ) of ambient pho-
tons with energy E = hν,
(Ehν /me c2 )2 1
nBB (Ehν ) = 2 3
· , (2.12)
π λc exp(Ehν /kT ) − 1
using the definition of the Compton wavelength λC = h/2πme c. These pho-
tons may be up-scattered to γ-ray energies by collision with high-energy
electrons of energy Ee .

Nuclear Transitions
The nuclear (or strong) force is responsible for the binding of protons and
neutrons in the atomic nucleus. It outweighs the Coulomb repulsion between
18
At high energies, energy transfer to the electron may become important. This
will imply treatment through the Compton scattering formalism, replacing the
Thompson cross section with the Klein–Nishina expression.
19
Photons from the cosmic 3 K background radiation are characterized by a typical
energy 2×10−4 eV and energy density of 0.26 eV cm−3 .
10 Roland Diehl

the protons closely packed in the nucleus. As a quantum system, the nucleus
has specific, quantized states of energy for this compact assembly of nucleons,
which can be thought of to be similar than states of electrons in atomic shells,
by analogy. 20 These nuclear states have typical energy spacings of ∼MeV;
hence any transition in states of atomic nuclei may involve absorption or
emission of MeV γ-rays,
n
X −→n−1 Y ∗ + e+ −→n−1 Y + γ. (2.13)

Therefore whenever some energetic interaction brings disorder into the state
of a nucleus, we expect γ-ray line emission from nuclear de-excitation. Ener-
getic collisions from cosmic rays with interstellar gas nuclei are one example,
radioactive decay of a freshly synthesized nucleus another. In radioactive de-
cay, one of the particles of the nucleus transforms into one of another kind as
a consequence of the ‘weak force’; neutrons decay into protons (‘β − -decay’),
or protons can transform into neutrons (‘β + -decay’). The so-caused disor-
der in the tight arrangement of nucleons is unstable under the influence of
the strong and electric forces, and new, stable arrangements are obtained,
through emission of the energy difference, often as a γ-ray in the MeV regime.
Some characteristic energy levels of first-excited states which are important
for γ-ray astronomy are 4.438 MeV (12 C∗ ), 6.129 MeV (16 O∗ ), and 1.809
MeV (26 Mg∗ ). The cross section for excitation of nuclei into these levels is
maximized in resonances, i.e. when the collision energy is in the vicinity of
the energy of the excited level. This implies that low-energy cosmic-ray in-
teractions become visible in the domain of γ-ray lines. Generally, observation
of characteristic γ-ray lines thus tell us about nuclear transitions in a region
of either nucleosynthesis or cosmic-ray interactions.

Decays and Annihilation

Pion decay is somewhat similar to above nuclear processes. The pion is an
elementary particle involved in the strong nuclear interaction. Pions are cre-
ated during strong-interaction events such as collisions of cosmic-ray protons
with ambient-gas nuclei. Neutral pions (π o ) decay rapidly into two γ-ray pho-
tons, with an energy distribution peaking at ∼70 MeV, half the rest mass
of the pion. Observation of a pion decay peak in a γ-ray spectrum thus pro-
vides insight into collisions of energetic (>135 MeV) protons with nuclei.
The pion decay γ-ray bump is broadened as the momentum distribution of
20
This corresponds to the shell model of the nucleus; for heavier nuclei a drop
model better describes the nucleus (see nuclear physics literature for details). In
atomic shell transitions between electron states, familiar line radiation is emitted.
Inelastic collisions of unbound electrons in the vicinity of nuclei may also result
in photon emission; this process is called ‘free–free emission’, from scattering of
the electrons between ‘free’ or unbound atomic states; as opposed to ‘bound–free’
transitions, which emit UV/X-ray line radiation.
 2 Gamma-Ray Production and Absorption Processes 11

the high-energy collision adds a Doppler shift and broadening. For beamed
annihilation (e.g. in jets), the peak will be Doppler-shifted towards higher
energies.
Annihilation of pairs of particle and anti-particle also produces γ-rays.
From equivalence of mass and energy, field energy may be converted into pairs
of particles and anti-particles in sufficiently strong electromagnetic fields.
Even vacuum field fluctuations would produce virtual pairs of particles and
antiparticles; however in a strong field, the trajectories of both particles di-
verge sufficiently such that the inverse ‘annihilation process’ does not occur
immediately. The lightest particle–antiparticle pair that can be generated is
the electron and its antiparticle, the positron, each with 511 keV rest mass;
creation requires a minimum energy of 1.022 MeV. The inverse process occurs
when a particle encounters its antiparticle, and is called ‘annihilation’; the
mass of both particles is radiated as electromagnetic energy. Conservation
laws demand that electron–positron annihilation will produce two (or more)
photons. Distribution of the rest mass energy among these photons results
in 0.511 MeV photons for two-photon annihilation, in the rest frame of the
annihilation process. Positrons and electrons also may form a bound, atom-
like system, which exists in two different states distinguished by the relative
orientations of particle spins. The parallel-spin state forms a triplet in ex-
ternal fields and decays into three photons because of spin and momentum
conservation, so that three photons share the 1.022 MeV total annihilation
energy; this produces a γ-ray spectrum with a maximum energy of 511 keV
and a continuum distribution towards lower energies.
Radioactive decay processes involving ‘β-decays’ also produce posi-trons.
Through the weak interaction, a proton can decay into a positron and a
neutron (plus an electron-neutrino νe , but we ignore this highly penetrating
particle here).
Annihilation photons originate in the vicinity of radioactive decay regions,
or energetic environments capable of positron production by other processes.
The surface and vicinity of compact stars (neutron stars and black holes) may
have such high energy density both from gravity and from strong magnetic
fields compressed from the original star. Similarly, hadronic antiparticles (an-
tiprotons and antimatter nuclei) in the universe may annihilate upon collision
with normal matter and be responsible for spectral features at correspond-
ingly higher energies in the γ-ray spectrum.

Charged particles bound in strong magnetic fields

Just as the electric (or Coulomb) force holds electrons close to a nucleus
in the quantized system of an atom, strong magnetic fields can force elec-
trons into orbits around their field lines, leading to quantized energy levels
for allowed electron energies. Magnetic fields close to neutron stars can be
sufficiently strong for the steps between such allowed electron orbit levels to
be in the regime of tens of keV, the low γ-ray regime (or high X-ray regime).
12 Roland Diehl

Electron transitions from one allowed state to another will eject or absorb
photons of this characteristic energy difference, producing so-called cyclotron
line radiation. Note that only the motion perpendicular to the magnetic field
is quantized, the parallel velocity component is unaffected by the magnetic
field. The ‘Landau’ energy levels E = hνc may be obtained from the cyclotron
frequency
νc = ZeB/2πγm0 , (2.14)
for a particle
p with charge Ze and velocity v [hence with a Lorentz factor
γ = 1/ 1 − (v 2 /c2 )] in a magnetic field B. For field strength values around
1012 G as observed in strongly magnetized neutron stars, cyclotron lines fall
in the X-ray regime,21 from h̄ω ' 12 keV B/(1012 G).

We have seen that the processes which create γ-rays are different in general
from the more familiar thermal blackbody radiation. The relevant physical
processes involve rather special conditions. Generally speaking, violent pro-
cesses are at play. Observation of γ-rays enables us to study such exceptional
places in nature and thus explores a different aspect of the universe than
optical observation.

2.3 Gamma-Ray Interactions, Absorption Processes

How does a γ-ray interact with matter? From the above description, we learn
that, unlike optical light which is deflected from mirror surfaces, γ-rays do
not interact with the surface of materials. The γ-rays mainly scatter off elec-
trons within materials, and they randomly penetrate to some variable depth
of material before their interaction. Scattering of γ-rays is itself a random
process with a wide spectrum of possible results, averaging to the distribu-
tions presented above when many interactions are summed; the individual
fate of a γ-ray photon in a material is not predictable. Moreover, scattering
of incident γ-ray photons will generally be incoherent, i.e. the scattered pho-
tons are unrelated, and do not form, e.g., patterns of diffraction. The wave
description of electromagnetic interactions with matter is inappropriate; we
apply a particle interaction model instead.
The interaction processes vary with the energy of the γ-ray, and are as
follows (from low to high energy; see Fig 2.2):
• Photoelectric absorption: Atomic electrons are removed from their nuclei,
thus reducing the energy of the γ-ray photon by the electron’s binding
energy. This is the dominant process at energies below 100 keV.
• Compton scattering: Electrons are hit by the γ-ray photons, and gain
a fraction of the photon’s kinetic energy in this collision. This is the
dominant interaction process in the 0.1 MeV to a few MeV regime.
21
The cyclotron frequency of a non-relativistic electron (γ = 1) is 2.8 MHz G−1 .
 2 Gamma-Ray Production and Absorption Processes 13

• Pair creation: In the presence of an electric field (usually of the atomic

nucleus), the γ-ray energy may be converted into a particle–antiparticle
pair, electron and positron. From momentum conservation, these two
particles move in opposite directions so that the momentum component
perpendicular to the γ-ray cancels; transformation into the laboratory
system makes them appear to fork out of the γ-ray’s incidence direction
with a narrow opening angle, which decreases with energy. This interac-
tion process cannot occur below a threshold of 1.022 MeV, and the cross
section increases with energy so that it dominates over Compton scatter-
ing above several MeV. The same process can occur in dense photon fields
through collisions of energetic photons (Nikischow effect; photon–photon
pair production, see also Chap 2.3).
• Quantized absorption: Systems such as atomic nuclei or charged parti-
cles captured in strong magnetic fields are characterized by states with
level differences in the regime of γ-ray energies. Hence, state transitions
of such systems may absorb γ-rays resonantly, e.g. forming an excited
nucleus. When the reverse transition to the system ground state is in-
hibited (e.g. from transition selection rules, or high collision frequencies),
other interactions may dissipate the excitation energy, e.g., into lattice
phonons, and no fluorescent γ-ray emission occurs; the γ-ray is absorbed.
This process is analogous to formation of optical absorption lines such as
Fraunhofer lines.

2.4 Cosmic Gamma-Ray Sources

According to the characteristic production processes, we may distinguish the
following different types of cosmic γ-ray sources, as described in subsequent
chapters in detail:
• Fireballs, such as found in γ-ray bursts, and possibly in the vicinity of
black holes
• Explosive events of extreme energy density, such as supernovae and novae
• Energetic collisions, such as in the vicinity of accreting compact objects,
particle jet sources (microquasars, active galactic nuclei), or cosmic ray
collisions with ambient matter, or in solar flares
• Charged-particle beams in the vicinity of compact objects – hence strong
gravitational or magnetic fields (quasars, active galactic nuclei)
The thermal radiation from an optically thick ‘γ-ray fireball’ constitutes
probably the most extreme and violent source from the above. The Big Bang,
but also explosions of stars in supernovae (or γ-ray bursts) in principle ap-
proximate this extreme. In explosive events, gigantic amounts of energy may
be released within short times (fractions of seconds) into dense environments,
and thus provide extreme heat. However, we rarely can see the γ-ray pho-
tosphere of such a fireball due to the scattering and absorption of overlying
14 Roland Diehl

matter surrounding the fireball site. Fireball ‘temperatures’ may exceed sev-
eral 109 K and cause atomic nuclei to dissolve and rearrange upon cooling
down, with radioactive nuclei as by-products, whose decay may produce γ-
rays. Direct γ-ray observations of sufficiently hot fireballs may be possible
for events where the energy release is not covered by stellar envelopes, such
as neutron star collisions and similarly extreme and rare events, which have
been discussed as possible explanations of γ-ray bursts. Moreover, γ-rays
may provide unique insights to such processes, even though originating from
secondary, nonthermal processes, as in the case of radioactive decay.
Neutron stars are highly compact objects, with '1 solar mass compressed
into a 10 km-sized sphere. They are known to be common sources of X-rays,
mostly caused by release of gravitational energy when matter falls onto their
surface. The complex path of matter accreting onto the star in strong grav-
itational and magnetic fields is the subject of broad astrophysical studies,
involving radiation from radio frequencies to γ-rays. The extreme plasma
motions near neutron stars cause complicated accretion disk configurations
and beams of particles, and these in turn produce the fascinating diversity of
pulsing phenomena of these objects in the X-ray regime. Nuclear excitation
of infalling matter from close to the neutron star’s surface can be expected to
result in characteristic γ-ray line emission. Further out in the magnetosphere,
γ-rays within a broad frequency range are known to be produced in isolated
neutron stars whose magnetosphere is relatively undisturbed by accreting
matter. Their γ-ray emission is attributed to curvature radiation of parti-
cles accelerated by large electric fields. The observed pulsing behavior varies
strongly with frequency of the radiation and can be explored to diagnose the
plasma acceleration and magnetic field configurations in great detail.
Charged-particle accelerators and relativistic-plasma interactions on gi-
gantic dimensions are observed in the extremely luminous nuclei of a sub-
type of galaxies, the ‘active galactic nuclei’. Here particle energies apparently
achieve the highest values allowed from the principles of physics, γ-rays up
to 10 TeV have been seen from such objects. Spectacular jets of plasma are
ejected from these active galaxies, extending many thousand light years into
space. Intense γ-ray emission has been observed from such galaxies (called
therefore γ-ray blazars) when we view such jets directly (under viewing angles
of the jet axis of a few degrees at most). We still do not know what powers
the inner cores of these galaxies to make them far more luminous than the
entire population of the 1010 stars of normal galaxies. From detailed studies
of nearby accreting compact stars we may learn how gravitational energy can
be converted into such jet-like plasma beams. Extreme magnetospheres can
be studied in γ-ray pulsars. Combining these lessons, we may have a better
understanding of the extreme phenomena in active galactic nuclei and near
black holes.
We speculate that the combined γ radiation from active galactic nuclei
may comprise the bulk of the diffuse sky brightness in γ-rays, called the
 2 Gamma-Ray Production and Absorption Processes 15

cosmic diffuse γ-ray background. Gamma-ray lines from the radioactivity of

cosmological supernovae superimpose (with their characteristic redshift) to
add to the cosmic diffuse γ-ray background in the '1 MeV regime; potentially
this contribution can be identified from its distinct spectral edges.
The bright large-scale γ-ray emission observed from our Galaxy is caused
by the interaction of cosmic rays with interstellar gas. bremsstrahlung and
pion decay processes cause a diffuse glow of the Galaxy in γ-rays from
MeV energies up to 104 MeV, supplemented by inverse-Compton γ-rays from
starlight boosted by cosmic rays. This γ-ray glow provides a unique tracer to
study cosmic rays indirectly throughout the Galaxy. The sources of cosmic
rays, in particular the origin of charged particles with energies up to 1020
eV,22 , are still unknown. Acceleration in the expanding remnants of super-
nova explosions has been proposed as the most likely source. The composition
of accelerated material is investigated through direct cosmic-ray isotope mea-
surements and nucleosynthesis arguments, to eventually reveal the injection
process into such particle acceleration regions.23 The Sun itself and the γ-ray
emission from solar-flare particle interactions in the upper solar atmosphere
provides a nearby laboratory to study details of such interactions with supe-
rior obervational resolution.

2.5 The Fate of Gamma-Rays Between Source and

Detector

On their journey from the source region to our detectors, γ-rays may traverse
environments with substantial interaction probabilities, both in the vicinity
of the source region as well as close to our telescope platform. Absorption
and scattering will be parts of our measurement, and we must account for
them in our studies.
Low-energy γ-rays traverse long paths of interstellar space without scat-
tering or absorption. The interstellar gas and dust absorbs optical radiation
readily at equivalent column densities of 1023 hydrogen atoms cm−2 and
prevents useful measurements; this much material amounts to less than 0.1
g cm−2 , which is practically transparent to γ-rays. Such an effective material
thickness corresponds roughly to occultation by a sheet of paper: optically,
we cannot see through easily, but γ-rays hardly notice this material. We
note however that even in ‘empty’ intergalactic space, γ-ray source photons
may suffer energy losses over the large distances24 from cosmic sources to
22
Ultra-high-energy cosmic-rays (UHECR).
23
This explanation appears inadequate for energies above 1015 eV; thus plasma-
jet-related acceleration sites similar to active galactic nuclei may be needed for
higher energies.
24
The nearest galaxies are at distances of 100 kpc, while quasar distances are more
appropriately expressed in terms of Doppler redshift of spectral lines, expressed
as fractional redshift from z = 0 (= no shift, nearby, ∼Mpc) out to z ' 4, the
16 Roland Diehl

0 starlight
-1 Cen A
τ>1
-2 Virgo
log10(z)

-3
τ<1
-4 cosmic 2.7K background

-5

-6

-7
10 12 14 16 18
log10 (Eγ)[eV]

Fig. 2.3. The horizon of high-energy γ-rays. The shaded region marks the regime
of large optical depth, i.e., γ-rays at these energies from sources at these redshifts
will not reach us. The basis for this curve is an ambient photon distribution and
intensity composed of the cosmic microwave background and average starlight. The
contribution of each component to the absorption from γ − γ-pair production is
indicated

γ-ray telescopes. Over such large distances, even a normally unimportant

interaction process may become crucial. On a large scale, the universe is
dominated by radiation, with major components from starlight and from the
cosmic-diffuse 2.7 K microwave glow remaining from the Big Bang. Gamma-
ray photons may interact with these ambient photons, producing e+ e− pairs.
Therefore the horizon for γ-rays is limited by this pair production process,
despite their penetrating nature. Photon–photon pair production is possible
only above a threshold energy given by the rest mass of the pair,
2m2e c4 1 + z −2 30GeV
Eth−pp = 2
∼ 1( ) · (eV ) (2.15)
[1 − cos(φ)](1 + z) Eγ 4 Eγ
(for head-on collisions, φ is the photon collision angle). We see that above
∼30 GeV the energy loss of γ-rays in interstellar space from scattering with
starlight becomes significant and limits the horizon to ∼500 Mpc at 1 TeV,
while at higher energies scattering on cosmic background photons effectively
most distant quasars observed so far, corresponding to 105 Mpc. The details of
the conversion from redshift to distance depend on the cosmological model.
 2 Gamma-Ray Production and Absorption Processes 17

cuts the visibility distance to the few nearest galaxies only (Fig ??). Con-
versely, sources at distances above z ∼ 2 cannot be seen directly above this
energy. The γ-ray horizon is shown in Fig ?? for the upper regime of the γ-ray
domain in terms of redshift of the source. Note that photon–photon pair pro-
duction results in high-energy charged particles; these will inverse-Compton
scatter on the same photons, and redistribute the high-energy γ-ray energy
to lower γ-ray energies, according to
1+z Ee
Eγ,IC ∼ 10 · ( )( )(M eV ), (2.16)
4 30GeV
thus producing a diffuse-cosmic continuum spectrum in the form of a power-
law I ∝ E −α with index α ∼ 2.
In dense environments, interactions with charged particles are more im-
portant than photon–photon processes, and γ-rays will mostly scatter off
electrons, losing part of their energy to the plasma in this way. This Compton
scattering will therefore modify the shape of the spectrum of γ-rays, and we
must account for the plasma conditions in order to reveal the original source
γ-ray spectrum through proper calculation. Note that photons may also gain
energy in such plasma collisions, if the plasma is more energetic than the
photons; this results in observation of ‘Comptonized’ γ radiation (see Chap
2.2 and Fig 2.2 above). Line features in spectra can be significantly distorted
by these effects, and scattering too. We can use such distortions to diagnose
the plasma conditions, from the measured profile of γ-ray lines. Even if unaf-
fected by additional scattering, the line profile will tell us about the relative
motion of the γ-ray source and our observing telescope: Doppler shift of the
original frequency tells us about the kinetic energies within the source, such
as the expanding motion of radioactive matter after a supernova explosion,
translating velocities of '1000s of km s−1 into a line width of ∼0.1 MeV for
a 1 MeV line energy (normally, this line would be narrower than the best in-
strumental resolution of '1 keV). Note that the gravitational field of compact
sources such as neutron star surfaces can also result in substantial changes in
line energies: photons have a hard time leaving the star against this strong
gravitational force, and can lose '20% of their energy, with a corresponding
downward frequency shift.
Getting close to the detector, γ-rays again encounter material in the up-
per atmosphere of the Earth. Interactions in the upper atmosphere result
in electromagnetic showers with large numbers of secondaries. At very high
γ-ray energies, these are directly used for ground-level detection of the inci-
dent γ-ray. Telescopes for cosmic γ-ray measurements at lower energies have
to operate at least at altitudes above ∼40 km, i.e. with residual-atmosphere
thicknesses below ∼3 g cm−2 . For these measurements, secondaries produced
in the upper atmosphere and within the generally massive spacecraft plat-
form of the telescope provide undesired background. This, and even more so
the enormous bombardment of the spacecraft by charged particles from the
radiation belts and from cosmic radiation, results in a glow of γ-rays from
18 Roland Diehl

such spacecraft and instruments. The next chapter illustrates that γ-ray tele-
scopes have to be built with complex detector configurations and triggering
techniques; additionally, powerful analysis algorithms must be employed to
discriminate the primary cosmic γ-rays from the instrumental background.
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