Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Interactions of very-high energy gamma-rays during their propagation through the intergalactic medium result in a delayed secondary ``pair echo'' signal. Detection of such pair echo can be used for measurements of intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMF) in the voids of the Large Scale Structure of the Universe. We notice that a combination of data of LHAASO and CTAO/LST-1 telescopes on the gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A is consistent with the pair echo model. The LST-1 measurement of the source signal 1.33 days after the burst can be interpreted as the pair echo produced by very-high-energy gamma-rays propagating through intergalactic medium with magnetic field of the strength log(B/G)=-16.2+/- 0.7, if its correlation length lambda_B is larger than 20 kpc. If the field correlation length is shorter than 20 kpc, the field strength estimate is modified upwards by a square root of (20 kpc / lambda_B). In the specific case of short correlation length IGMF that is relic from cosmological phase transitions, the pair echo model of the LST-1 signal implies the field strength in the 1e-14-1e-12 G range. Such magnetic field parameters are consistent with all known constraints on IGMF, including the lower bounds from gamma-ray observations of active galactic nuclei.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris Cité, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, The University of Tokyo, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Université Paris-Saclay, Astrophysique, Instrumentation et Modélisation
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7220740814