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Eric Grove

Publications and source records attributed to Eric Grove.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Classification of a New X-ray Catalog of Likely Counterparts to 4FGL-DR4 Unassociated Gamma-ray Sources Using a Neural Network

Our survey of the fourth $\mathit{Fermi}$ Large Area Telescope catalog (4FGL) unassociated gamma-ray source regions using the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) aboard the Neil Gehrels $\mathit{Swift}$ Observatory ($\mathit{Swift}$) provides new XRT and UVOT source detections and localizations to help identify potential low-energy counterparts to unassociated $\mathit{Fermi}$ gamma-ray sources. We present a catalog of 218 singlet and 70 multiplet $\mathit{Swift}$ X-ray sources detected within the positional uncertainty ellipses of 244 unassociated $\mathit{Fermi}$ gamma-ray sources from the 4FGL-DR4 catalog, 144 of which are not previously cataloged by Kerby et al. (2021b). For each X-ray source, we derive its X-ray flux and photon index, then use simultaneous UVOT observations with optical survey data to estimate its $V$-band magnitude. We use these parameters as inputs for a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network classifier (NNC) trained to classify sources as blazars, pulsars, or ambiguous gamma-ray sources. For the 213 singlet sources with X-ray and optical data, we classify 173 as likely blazars ($P_\mathrm{bzr} > 0.99$) and 6 as likely pulsars ($P_\mathrm{bzr} < 0.01$), with 34 sources yielding ambiguous results. Including 70 multiplet X-ray sources, we increase the number of $P_\mathrm{bzr} > 0.99$ to 227 and $P_\mathrm{bzr} < 0.01$ to 16. For the subset of these classifications that have been previously studied, a large majority agree with prior classifications, supporting the validity of using this NNC to classify the unknown and newly detected gamma-ray sources.

astro-ph.HE

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) satellite mission in development with a planned launch in 2027. COSI is a wide-field gamma-ray telescope designed to survey the entire sky at 0.2-5 MeV. It provides imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry of astrophysical sources, and its germanium detectors provide excellent energy resolution for emission line measurements. Science goals for COSI include studies of 0.511 MeV emission from antimatter annihilation in the Galaxy, mapping radioactive elements from nucleosynthesis, determining emission mechanisms and source geometries with polarization measurements, and detecting and localizing multimessenger sources. The instantaneous field of view for the germanium detectors is >25% of the sky, and they are surrounded on the sides and bottom by active shields, providing background rejection as well as allowing for detection of gamma-ray bursts and other gamma-ray flares over most of the sky. In the following, we provide an overview of the COSI mission, including the science, the technical design, and the project status.

astro-ph.HE

The cosipy library: COSI's high-level analysis software

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a selected Small Explorer (SMEX) mission launching in 2027. It consists of a large field-of-view Compton telescope that will probe with increased sensitivity the under-explored MeV gamma-ray sky (0.2-5 MeV). We will present the current status of cosipy, a Python library that will perform spectral and polarization fits, image deconvolution, and all high-level analysis tasks required by COSI's broad science goals: uncovering the origin of the Galactic positrons, mapping the sites of Galactic nucleosynthesis, improving our models of the jet and emission mechanism of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and detecting and localizing gravitational wave and neutrino sources. The cosipy library builds on the experience gained during the COSI balloon campaigns and will bring the analysis of data in the Compton regime to a modern open-source likelihood-based code, capable of performing coherent joint fits with other instruments using the Multi-Mission Maximum Likelihood framework (3ML). In this contribution, we will also discuss our plans to receive feedback from the community by having yearly software releases accompanied by publicly-available data challenges.

astro-ph.HE

Multiwavelength Spectral Analysis and Neural Network Classification of Counterparts to 4FGL Unassociated Sources

The Fermi-LAT unassociated sources represent some of the most enigmatic gamma-ray sources in the sky. Observations with the Swift-XRT and -UVOT telescopes have identified hundreds of likely X-ray and UV/optical counterparts in the uncertainty ellipses of the unassociated sources. In this work we present spectral fitting results for 205 possible X-ray/UV/optical counterparts to 4FGL unassociated targets. Assuming that the unassociated sources contain mostly pulsars and blazars, we develop a neural network classifier approach that applies gamma-ray, X-ray, and UV/optical spectral parameters to yield descriptive classification of unassociated spectra into pulsars and blazars. From our primary sample of 174 Fermi sources with a single X-ray/UV/optical counterpart, we present 132 P_bzr > 0.99 likely blazars and 14 P_bzr < 0.01 likely pulsars, with 28 remaining ambiguous. These subsets of the unassociated sources suggest a systematic expansion to catalogs of gamma-ray pulsars and blazars. Compared to previous classification approaches our neural network classifier achieves significantly higher validation accuracy and returns more bifurcated P_bzr values, suggesting that multiwavelength analysis is a valuable tool for confident classification of Fermi unassociated sources.

astro-ph.HE

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager

In this Astro2020 APC White Paper, we describe a Small Explorer (SMEX) mission concept called the Compton Spectrometer and Imager. COSI is a Compton telescope that covers the bandpass often referred to as the "MeV Gap" because it is the least explored region of the whole electromagnetic spectrum. COSI provides a significant improvement in sensitivity along with high-resolution spectroscopy, enabling studies of 511 keV electron-positron annihilation emission and measurements of several radioactive elements that trace the Galactic history of supernovae. COSI also measures polarization of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), accreting black holes, and pulsars as well as detecting and localizing multimessenger sources. In the following, we describe the COSI science, the instrument, and its capabilities. We highlight many Astro2020 science WPs that describe the COSI science in depth.

astro-ph.IM

All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory: Exploring the Extreme Multimessenger Universe

The All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory (AMEGO) is a probe class mission concept that will provide essential contributions to multimessenger astrophysics in the late 2020s and beyond. AMEGO combines high sensitivity in the 200 keV to 10 GeV energy range with a wide field of view, good spectral resolution, and polarization sensitivity. Therefore, AMEGO is key in the study of multimessenger astrophysical objects that have unique signatures in the gamma-ray regime, such as neutron star mergers, supernovae, and flaring active galactic nuclei. The order-of-magnitude improvement compared to previous MeV missions also enables discoveries of a wide range of phenomena whose energy output peaks in the relatively unexplored medium-energy gamma-ray band.

astro-ph.IM