THE VERY BRIGHT AND NEARBY GRB130427A: THE EXTRA HARD SPECTRAL COMPONENT AND IMPLICATIONS FOR VERY HIGH-ENERGY GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATIONS OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTS

The extended high-energy gamma-ray (>100 MeV) emission occurring after the prompt gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is usually characterized by a single power-law spectrum, which has been explained as the afterglow synchrotron radiation. We report on the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) observations of the >100 MeV emission from the very bright and nearby GRB 130427A, up to ~100 GeV. By performing time-resolved spectral fits of GRB 130427A, we found a strong evidence of an extra hard spectral component above a few GeV that exists in the extended high-energy emission of this GRB. This extra spectral component may represent the first clear evidence of the long sought-after afterglow inverse Compton emission. Prospects for observations at the very high-energy gamma-rays, i.e., above 100 GeV, are described.