Prompt TeV Emission from Cosmic Rays Accelerated by Gamma Ray Bursts Interacting with Surrounding Stellar Wind

Abstract

Protons accelerated in the internal shocks of a long duration gamma ray burst can escape the fireball as cosmic rays by converting to neutrons. Hadronic interactions of these neutrons inside a stellar wind bubble created by the progenitor star will produce TeV gamma rays via neutral meson decay and synchrotron radiation by charged pion-decay electrons in the wind magnetic field. Such gamma rays should be observable from nearby gamma ray bursts by currently running and upcoming ground-based detectors.

11 pages, 1 figure, slightly modified title, figure and other text, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters