489 research outputs found
Cumulative light curves of gamma-ray bursts and relaxation systems
The cumulative light curves of a large sample of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) were
obtained by summing the BATSE counts. The smoothed profiles are much simpler
than the complex and erratic running light curves that are normally used. For
most GRBs the slope of the cumulative light curve (S) is approximately constant
over a large fraction of the burst. The bursts are modelled as relaxation
systems that continuously accumulate energy in the reservoir and
discontinuously release it. The slope is a measure of the cumulative power
output of the central engine. A plot of S versus peak flux in 64ms (P64ms)
shows a very good correlation over a wide range for both short and long GRBs.
No relationship was found between S and GRBs with known redshift. The standard
slope (S'), which is representative of the power output per unit time, is
correlated separately with P64ms for both sub-classes indicating more powerful
outbursts for the short GRBs. S' is also anticorrelated with GRB duration.
These results imply that GRBs are powered by accretion into a black hole.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics Letter
GeV gamma-ray astronomy telescopes with high angular resolution
Gamma-ray telescopes flown on satellites have poor angular resolution with typical point source error circles of a few square degrees. It is shown that a major improvement in angular resolution for the detection of gamma-rays in the GeV region can be obtained with a single crystal as converter. The electron produced by a gamma ray incident at a small angle to a major crystal axis or plane is captured into channeling and radiates gamma rays. The channeling radiation and the electron-positron pair can be detected and yield point source locations with a precision of 5 arcseconds at 10 GeV. This is an improvement of three orders of magnitude on the angular precision of telescopes sensitive to gamma-rays above 50 MeV flown on Satellites
Temporal properties of short and long gamma-ray bursts
A temporal analysis was performed on a sample of 100 bright short GRBs with
T90 < 2s from the BATSE Current Catalog along with a similar analysis on 319
long bright GRBs with T90 > 2s from the same catalog. The short GRBs were
denoised using a median filter and the long GRBs were denoised using a wavelet
method. Both samples were subjected to an automated pulse selection algorithm
to objectively determine the effects of neighbouring pulses. The rise times,
fall times, FWHM, pulse amplitudes and areas were measured and their frequency
distributions are presented. The time intervals between pulses were also
measured. The frequency distributions of the pulse properties were found to be
similar and consistent with lognormal distributions for both the short and long
GRBs. The time intervals between the pulses and the pulse amplitudes of
neighbouring pulses were found to be correlated with each other. The same
emission mechanism can account for the two sub-classes of GRBs.Comment: 3 pages, 8 figures; Proceedings of "Gamma-Ray Burst and Afterglow
Astronomy 2001", Woods Hol
Temporal properties of the short gamma-ray bursts
A temporal analysis has been performed on a sample of 100 bright gamma-ray
bursts (GRBs) with T90<2s from the BATSE current catalog. The GRBs were
denoised using a median filter and subjected to an automated pulse selection
algorithm as an objective way of idenitifing the effects of neighbouring
pulses. The rise times, fall times, FWHM, pulse amplitudes and areas were
measured and the frequency distributions are presented here. All are consistent
with lognormal distributions. The distribution of the time intervals between
pulses is not random but consistent with a lognormal distribution. The time
intervals between pulses and pulse amplitudes are highly correlated with each
other. These results are in excellent agreement with a similar analysis that
revealed lognormal distributions for pulse properties and correlated time
intervals between pulses in bright GRBs with T90>2s. The two sub-classes of
GRBs appear to have the same emission mechanism which is probably caused by
internal shocks. They may not have the same progenitors because of the generic
nature of the fireball model.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure
A search for rapid optical variability in radio-quiet quasars
The detection of rapid variability on a time-scale of hours in radio-quiet
quasars (RQQSOs) could be a powerful discriminator between starburst, accretion
disc and relativistic jet models of these sources. This paper contains an
account of a dedicated search for rapid optical variability in RQQSOs. The
technique used differential photometry between the RQQSO and stars in the same
field of view of the CCD. The 23 RQQSOs that were observed all have high
luminosities (-27 1.
The total amount of observation time was about 60 hours and these observations
are part of an ongoing programme, started in September 1990, to search for
rapid variability in RQQSOs. No evidence for short-term variability greater
than about 0.1 magnitudes was detected in any of the 23 sources, however
long-term variability was recorded for the radio-quiet quasar PG 2112+059. The
finding charts are included here because they identify the RQQSO and the
reference stars used in the photometry, and hence are available for use by
other observers.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&AS. 10 pages, 3 figures. Figure 1
(finding charts) available by anonymous ftp from:
bermuda.ucd.ie:/pub/outgoing/charts.eps.g
Gamma-ray bursts and X-ray melting of material as a potential source of chondrules and planets
The intense radiation from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) is shown to be capable of
melting stony material at distances up to 300 light years which subsequently
cool to form chondrules. These conditions were created in the laboratory for
the first time when millimeter sized pellets were placed in a vacuum chamber in
the white synchrotron beam at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
(ESRF). The pellets were rapidly heated in the X-ray and gamma-ray furnace to
above 1400 C melted and cooled. This process heats from the inside unlike
normal furnaces. The melted spherical samples were examined with a range of
techniques and found to have microstructural properties similar to the
chondrules that come from meteorites. This experiment demonstrates that GRBs
can melt precursor material to form chondrules that may subsequently influence
the formation of planets. This work extends the field of laboratory
astrophysics to include high power synchrotron sources.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures. Proceedings of the 5th INTEGRAL Workshop, Munich
16-20 February 2004. High resolution figures available at
http://bermuda.ucd.ie/%7Esmcbreen/papers/duggan_01.pd
Timing diagrams and correlations in gamma-ray bursts signal jets from accretion into black holes
The temporal properties of a sample of 498 bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)
with durations between 0.05 s and 674 s were analysed. The large range in
duration (T90) is accompanied by a similarly large range in the median values
of the pulse timing properties including rise time, fall time, FWHM and
separation between the pulses. Four timing diagrams relating these pulse
properties to T90 are presented and show the power law relationships between
the median values of the 4 pulse timing properties and T90, but also that the
power laws depend in a consistent manner on the number of pulses per GRB. The
timing diagrams are caused by the correlated properties of the pulses in the
burst and can be explained by a combination of factors including the Doppler
boost factor Gamma, a viewing effect caused by a jet and different progenitors.
GRBs with similar values of T90 have a wide range in the number of pulses. GRBs
with the large number of short and spectrally hard pulses may occur either from
a homogeneous jet with a higher average value of Gamma or close to the axis of
an inhomogeneous jet with higher values of Gamma near the rotation axis. The
less luminous GRBs with fewer pulses may originate further from the axis of the
inhomogeneous jet. The pulses in GRBs have six distinctive statistical
properties including correlations between time intervals, correlations between
pulse amplitudes, an anticorrelation between pulse amplitudes and time
intervals, and a link to intermittency in GRS 1915+105. The timing diagrams and
correlated pulses suggest that GRBs are powered by accretion processes
signalling jets from the formation of black holes.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
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