High Energy Spectral Components in Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

We investigate two high energy radiation mechanisms, the proton synchrotron and the electron inverse Compton emission, and explore their possible signatures in the broad-band spectra and in the keV to GeV light curves of gamma-ray burst afterglows. We develop a simple analytical approach, allowing also for the effects of photon-photon pair production, and explore the conditions under which one or the other of these components dominates. We identify three parameter space regions where different spectral components dominate: (I) a region where the proton synchrotron and other hadron-related emission components dominate, which is small; (II) a region where the electron inverse Compton component dominates, which is substantial; (III) a third substantial region where electron synchrotron dominates. We discuss the prospects and astrophysical implications of directly detecting the inverse Compton and the proton high energy components in various bands, in particular in the GeV band with future missions such as GLAST, and in the X-ray band with Chandra. We find that regime II parameter space is the most favorable regime for high energy emission. The inverse Compton component is detectable by GLAST within hours for bursts at typical cosmological distances, and by Chandra in days if the ambient density is high.