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Microquasars are laboratories for the study of jets of relativistic particles produced by accretion onto a spinning black hole. Microquasars are near enough to allow detailed imaging of spatial features across the multiwavelength spectrum. The recent extension measurement of the spatial morphology of a microquasar, SS 433, to TeV gamma rays 1 localizes the acceleration of electrons at shocks in the jet far from the black hole 2 . V4641 Sagittarii (V4641 Sgr) is a similar binary system with a black hole and B-type main-sequence companion star and has an orbit period of 2.8 days (refs.  3 , 4 ). It stands out for its super-Eddington accretion 5 and for its radio jet, which is one of the fastest superluminal jets in the Milky Way. Previous observations of V4641 Sgr did not report gamma-ray emission 6 . Here we report TeV gamma-ray emission from V4641 Sgr that reveals particle acceleration at similar distances from the black hole as SS 433. Furthermore, the gamma-ray spectrum of V4641 Sgr is among the hardest TeV spectra observed from any known gamma-ray source and is detected above 200 TeV. Gamma rays are produced by particles, either electrons or protons, of higher energies. Because energetic electrons lose energy more quickly the higher their energy, such a spectrum either very strongly constrains the electron-production mechanism or points to the acceleration of high-energy protons. This suggests that large-scale jets from microquasars could be more common than previously expected and that they could be a notable source of galactic cosmic rays 7 – 9 . Ultra-high-energy gamma-ray emission from the microquasar V4641 Sagittarii is reported, suggesting that large-scale jets from microquasars could be more common than previously thought and also could be a notable source of galactic cosmic rays.

How many stars have formed in the Universe, and when did they do so? These fundamental questions are difficult to answer because there are systematic uncertainties in converting the light we observe into the total mass of stars in galaxies. The Fermi-LAT Collaboration addressed these questions by exploiting the way that gamma rays from distant blazars propagate through intergalactic space, which depends on the total amount of light emitted by all galaxies. The collaboration found that star formation peaked about 3 billion years after the Big Bang (see the Perspective by Prandini). Although this is similar to previous estimates from optical and infrared observations, the results provide valuable confirmation because they should be affected by different systematic effects. Science , this issue p. 1031 ; see also p. 995 Intergalactic gamma rays are used to determine the star formation history of the Universe. The light emitted by all galaxies over the history of the Universe produces the extragalactic background light (EBL) at ultraviolet, optical, and infrared wavelengths. The EBL is a source of opacity for gamma rays via photon-photon interactions, leaving an imprint in the spectra of distant gamma-ray sources. We measured this attenuation using 739 active galaxies and one gamma-ray burst detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. This allowed us to reconstruct the evolution of the EBL and determine the star formation history of the Universe over 90% of cosmic time. Our star formation history is consistent with independent measurements from galaxy surveys, peaking at redshift z ~ 2. Upper limits of the EBL at the epoch of reionization suggest a turnover in the abundance of faint galaxies at z ~ 6.

While SNRs have been considered the most relevant Galactic CR accelerators for decades, CCSNe could accelerate particles during the earliest stages of their evolution and hence contribute to the CR energy budget in the Galaxy. Some SNRs have indeed been associated with TeV gamma-rays, yet proton acceleration efficiency during the early stages of an SN expansion remains mostly unconstrained. The multi-wavelength observation of SN 2023ixf, a Type II SN in the nearby galaxy M101, opens the possibility to constrain CR acceleration within a few days after the collapse of the RSG stellar progenitor. With this work, we intend to provide a phenomenological, quasi-model-independent constraint on the CR acceleration efficiency during this event at photon energies above 100 MeV. We performed a maximum-likelihood analysis of gamma-ray data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope up to one month after the SN explosion. We searched for high-energy emission from its expanding shock, and estimated the underlying hadronic CR energy reservoir assuming a power-law proton distribution consistent with standard diffusive shock acceleration. We do not find significant gamma-ray emission from SN 2023ixf. Nonetheless, our non-detection provides the first limit on the energy transferred to the population of hadronic CRs during the very early expansion of a CCSN. Under reasonable assumptions, our limits would imply a maximum efficiency on the CR acceleration of as low as 1%, which is inconsistent with the common estimate of 10% in generic SNe. However, this result is highly dependent on the assumed geometry of the circumstellar medium, and could be relaxed back to 10% by challenging spherical symmetry. A more sophisticated, inhomogeneous characterisation of the shock and the progenitor's environment is required before establishing whether or not Type II SNe are indeed efficient CR accelerators at early times.

Pulsar Wind nebulae (PWNe), are among the most efficient particle accelerators in the Universe, however understanding the physical conditions and the magnetic geometry in their inner region has always proved elusive. X-ray polarization provides now a unique opportunity to investigate the magnetic field structure and turbulence properties close to where high energy particles are accelerated. Here we report on the recent X-ray polarization measurement of the PWN 3C 58 by the International X-ray Polarimeter Explorer (IXPE). 3C 58 is a young system displaying a characteristic jet-torus structure which, unlike other PWNe, is seen almost edge on. This nebula shows a high level of integrated polarization ~ 22% at an angle ~ 97deg, with an implied magnetic field oriented parallel to the major axis of the inner torus, suggesting a toroidal magnetic geometry with little turbulence in the interior, and an intrinsic level of polarization possibly approaching the theoretical limit for synchrotron emission. No significant detection of a polarized signal from the associated pulsar was found. These results confirm that the internal structure of young PWNe is far less turbulent than previously predicted, and at odds with multidimensional numerical simulations.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are a recently discovered class of GHz-band, ms-duration, Jy-level-flux astrophysical transients, which origin is still a mystery. Exploring their gamma-ray counterpart is crucial for constraining their origin and emission mechanism. Thanks to more than 13 years of gamma-ray data collected by the Fermi-Large Area Telescope, and to more than 1000 FRB events, one of the largest sample created as of today, we perform the largest and deepest search for gamma-ray emission from FRB sources to date. In addition to the study of individual FRB events on different time-scales (from few seconds up to several years), we performed, for the first time, a stacking analysis on the full sample of FRB events as well as a search for triplet photons in coincidence with the radio event. We do not detect significant emission, reporting the most stringent constraints, on short time scales, for the FRB-like emission from SGR 1935+2154 with \\(E<10^{41}\\) erg, corresponding to a factor \\(<10^7\\) with respect to the emitted radio energy. For the stacked signal of steady emission from all repeaters, the obtained upper limit (UL) on the FRBs luminosity (\\(L<1.6\\times10^{43}\\) erg s\\(^{-1}\\)) is more than two orders of magnitudes lower than those derived from the individual sources. Finally, no individual or triplet photons have been significantly associated with FRB events. We derived the LAT ms energy sensitivity to be \\(E<10^{47}\\) (D\\(_L\\)/150 Mpc)\\(^2\\) erg, ruling out a gamma-ray-to-radio energy ratio greater than \\(10^9\\) on ms timescales. The results reported here represent the most stringent UL reported so far on the high-energy emission from FRBs on short and long time scales, as well as on cumulative emission and individual photon searches. While the origin of FRBs is still unclear, our work provides important constraints for FRB modeling, which might shed light on their emission mechanism.

The GammaTPC is an MeV-scale single-phase liquid argon time-projection-chamber gamma-ray telescope concept with a novel dual-scale pixel-based charge-readout system. It promises to enable a significant improvement in sensitivity to MeV-scale gamma-rays over previous telescopes. The novel pixel-based charge readout allows for imaging of the tracks of electrons scattered by Compton interactions of incident gamma-rays. The two primary contributors to the accuracy of a Compton telescope in reconstructing an incident gamma-ray's original direction are its energy and position resolution. In this work, we focus on using deep learning to optimize the reconstruction of the initial position and direction of electrons scattered in Compton interactions, including using probabilistic models to estimate predictive uncertainty. We show that the deep learning models are able to predict locations of Compton scatters of MeV-scale gamma-rays from simulated pixel-based data to better than 0.6 mm RMS error, and are sensitive to the initial direction of the scattered electron. We compare and contrast different deep learning uncertainty estimation algorithms for reconstruction applications. Additionally, we show that event-by-event estimates of the uncertainty of the locations of the Compton scatters can be used to select those events that were reconstructed most accurately, leading to improvement in locating the origin of gamma-ray sources on the sky.

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are observed to emit multi-wavelength radiation, from radio to GeV. Spider MSPs, which interact with their low-mass companion in close orbit (orbital periods \\(< 1\\) day), may lead to strong intrabinary shocks that can further accelerate electron and positron pairs produced in the magnetosphere, possibly emitting very-high-energy (0.1--100 TeV; VHE) photons through inverse Compton scattering. Using 2565 days of HAWC Pass 5 data, we search for VHE emission from spider MSPs and present upper limits on individual sources. We also perform a stacking analysis to examine whether the two sets of spider systems, classified as redbacks and black widows depending on the companion mass, exhibit different spectral properties. Our study places constraints on TeV emission from MSPs and suggests that they are unlikely to contribute significantly to the Galactic diffuse emission at TeV and higher energies.

X-ray polarimetry, based on Gas Pixel Detectors (GPDs), have reached a high level of maturity with the Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer (IXPE) leading to the first ever spatially resolved polarimetric measures. However, being this a new technique, a few unexpected effect have emerged during in flight operations. In particular it was almost immediately found that on-board unpolarized calibration sources were showing radially polarized halos. The origin of this features was recognized in a correlation between the error in reconstructing the absorption point of the X-ray photon and the direction of its electric field vector. Here we present and discuss in detail this effect, showing that it is possible to provide a simple and robust mathematical formalism to handle it. We further show its role and relevance for the recent IXPE measures, and for the use of GPD-based techniques in general, and illustrate how to model it in the study of extended sources.

Magnetars are the most highly magnetized neutron stars in the cosmos (with magnetic field 10 13 –10 15 G). Giant flares from magnetars are rare, short-duration (about 0.1 s) bursts of hard X-rays and soft γ rays 1 , 2 . Owing to the limited sensitivity and energy coverage of previous telescopes, no magnetar giant flare has been detected at gigaelectronvolt (GeV) energies. Here, we report the discovery of GeV emission from a magnetar giant flare on 15 April 2020 (refs. 3 , 4 and A. J. Castro-Tirado et al., manuscript in preparation). The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected GeV γ rays from 19 s until 284 s after the initial detection of a signal in the megaelectronvolt (MeV) band. Our analysis shows that these γ rays are spatially associated with the nearby (3.5 megaparsecs) Sculptor galaxy and are unlikely to originate from a cosmological γ-ray burst. Thus, we infer that the γ rays originated with the magnetar giant flare in Sculptor. We suggest that the GeV signal is generated by an ultra-relativistic outflow that first radiates the prompt MeV-band photons, and then deposits its energy far from the stellar magnetosphere. After a propagation delay, the outflow interacts with environmental gas and produces shock waves that accelerate electrons to very high energies; these electrons then emit GeV γ rays as optically thin synchrotron radiation. This observation implies that a relativistic outflow is associated with the magnetar giant flare, and suggests the possibility that magnetars can power some short γ-ray bursts. Gigaelectronvolt emission from a magnetar giant flare is discovered by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, between 19 s and 284 s after the initial detection of a signal in the megaelectronvolt energy band, potentially generated by an ultra-relativistic outflow far from the stellar magnetosphere.

A 2.1-year periodic oscillation of the gamma-ray flux from the blazar PG 1553+113 has previously been tentatively identified in almost 7 year of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope. After 15 years of Fermi sky-survey observations, doubling the total time range, we report >7 cycle gamma-ray modulation with an estimated significance of 4 sigma against stochastic red noise. Independent determinations of oscillation period and phase in the earlier and the new data are in close agreement (chance probability <0.01). Pulse timing over the full light curve is also consistent with a coherent periodicity. Multiwavelength new data from Swift X-Ray Telescope, Burst Alert Telescope, and UVOT, and from KAIT, Catalina Sky Survey, All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, and Owens Valley Radio Observatory ground-based observatories as well as archival Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer satellite-All Sky Monitor data, published optical data of Tuorla, and optical historical Harvard plates data are included in our work. Optical and radio light curves show clear correlations with the gamma-ray modulation, possibly with a nonconstant time lag for the radio flux. We interpret the gamma-ray periodicity as possibly arising from a pulsational accretion flow in a sub-parsec binary supermassive black hole system of elevated mass ratio, with orbital modulation of the supplied material and energy in the jet. Other astrophysical scenarios introduced include instabilities, disk and jet precession, rotation or nutation, and perturbations by massive stars or intermediate-mass black holes in polar orbit.