1,664 research outputs found
A common stochastic process rules gamma-ray burst prompt emission and X-ray flares
Prompt gamma-ray and early X-ray afterglow emission in gamma-ray bursts
(GRBs) are characterized by a bursty behavior and are often interspersed with
long quiescent times. There is compelling evidence that X-ray flares are linked
to prompt gamma-rays. However, the physical mechanism that leads to the complex
temporal distribution of gamma-ray pulses and X-ray flares is not understood.
Here we show that the waiting time distribution (WTD) of pulses and flares
exhibits a power-law tail extending over 4 decades with index ~2 and can be the
manifestation of a common time-dependent Poisson process. This result is robust
and is obtained on different catalogs. Surprisingly, GRBs with many (>=8)
gamma-ray pulses are very unlikely to be accompanied by X-ray flares after the
end of the prompt emission (3.1 sigma Gaussian confidence). These results are
consistent with a simple interpretation: an hyperaccreting disk breaks up into
one or a few groups of fragments, each of which is independently accreted with
the same probability per unit time. Prompt gamma-rays and late X-ray flares are
nothing but different fragments being accreted at the beginning and at the end,
respectively, following the very same stochastic process and likely the same
mechanism.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Ap
Ciencias sociais como metodologia do ensino de currículos CTS
O diálogo entre Ciências Sociais e Ciências da Natureza na abordagem de currículos CTS ainda é muito tímido em publicações sobre Educação em Ciências. Neste trabalho são apresentados referenciais de contexto, no âmbito da história social da Ciência e da Tecnologia, que podem contribuir para uma metodologia de ensino mais ampla e crítica sobre os determinantes e as contradições do processo de evolução da C&T. Dentre os referenciais dos resultados identificamos: controle social, político, econômico, ético e de gestão e mercado da C&T. Esses são alguns dos elementos essenciais das Ciências Sociais para uma educação CTS de pensar complexo para orientar as necessidades sociais relacionadas à C&T em uma sociedade em transformação
Constraints on the environment and energetics of the Broad-Line Ic SN2014ad from deep radio and X-ray observations
Broad-line type Ic Supernovae (BL-Ic SNe) are characterized by high ejecta
velocity ( km s) and are sometimes associated with the
relativistic jets typical of long duration ( s) Gamma-Ray Bursts
(L-GRBs). The reason why a small fraction of BL-Ic SNe harbor relativistic jets
is not known. Here we present deep X-ray and radio observations of the BL-Ic
SN2014ad extending from to days post explosion. SN2014ad was not
detected at either frequency and has no observational evidence of a GRB
counterpart. The proximity of SN2014ad ( Mpc) enables very deep
constraints on the progenitor mass-loss rate and on the total energy
of the fast ejecta . We consider two synchrotron emission scenarios for a
wind-like circumstellar medium (CSM): (i) uncollimated non-relativistic ejecta,
and (ii) off-axis relativistic jet. Within the first scenario our observations
are consistent with GRB-less BL-Ic SNe characterized by a modest energy budget
of their fast ejecta ( erg), like SNe 2002ap and 2010ay.
For jetted explosions, we cannot rule out a GRB with erg
(beam-corrected) with a narrow opening angle ()
observed moderately off-axis () and
expanding in a very low CSM density ( M
yr). Our study shows that off-axis low-energy jets expanding in a
low-density medium cannot be ruled out even in the most nearby BL-Ic SNe with
extensive deep observations, and might be a common feature of BL-Ic SNe.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted in Ap
On the average Gamma-Ray Burst X-ray flaring activity
Gamma-ray burst X-ray flares are believed to mark the late time activity of
the central engine. We compute the temporal evolution of the average flare
luminosity in the common rest frame energy band of 44 GRBs taken from
the large \emph{Swift} 5-years data base. Our work highlights the importance of
a proper consideration of the threshold of detection of flares against the
contemporaneous continuous X-ray emission. In the time interval ; this implies
that the flare isotropic energy scaling is . The decay of the continuum underlying the flare emission closely
tracks the average flare luminosity evolution, with a typical flare to
steep-decay luminosity ratio which is : this
suggests that flares and continuum emission are deeply related to one another.
We infer on the progenitor properties considering different models. According
to the hyper-accreting black hole scenario, the average flare luminosity
scaling can be obtained in the case of rapid accretion () or
when the last \sim 0.5 M_{\sun} of the original 14 M_{\sun} progenitor star
are accreted. Alternatively, the steep behaviour could be
triggered by a rapid outward expansion of an accretion shock in the material
feeding a convective disk. If instead we assume the engine to be a rapidly
spinning magnetar, then its rotational energy can be extracted to power a jet
whose luminosity is likely to be between the monopole () and
dipole () cases. In both scenarios we suggest the variability,
which is the main signature of the flaring activity, to be established as a
consequence of different kinds of instabilities.Comment: MNRAS accepte
Gamma-Ray Burst long lasting X-ray flaring activity
In this paper we shed light on late time (i.e. with peak time t_{pk} \gtrsim
1000 s) flaring activity. We address the morphology and energetic of flares in
the window \sim 10^3-10^6 s to put constraints on the temporal evolution of the
flare properties and to identify possible differences in the mechanism
producing the early and late time flaring emission, if any. This requires the
complete understanding of the observational biases affecting the detection of
X-ray flares superimposed on a fading continuum at t > 1000 s. We consider all
the Swift GRBs that exhibit late time flares. Our sample consists of 36 flares,
14 with redshift measurements. We inherit the strategy of data analysis from
Chincarini et al. (2010) in order to make a direct comparison with the early
time flare properties. The morphology of the flare light curve is the same for
both early time and late time flares, while they differ energetically. The
width of late time flares increases with time similarly to the early time
flares. Simulations confirmed that the increase of the width with time is not
due to the decaying statistics, at least up to 10^4 s. The energy output of
late time flares is one order of magnitude lower than the early time flare one,
being \sim 1% E_{prompt}. The evolution of the peak luminosity as well as the
distribution of the peak flux-to-continuum ratio for late time flares indicate
that the flaring emission is decoupled from the underlying continuum,
differently from early time flares/steep decay. A sizable fraction of late time
flares are compatible with afterglow variability. The internal shock origin
seems the most promising explanation for flares. However, some differences that
emerge between late and early time flares suggest that there could be no unique
explanation about the nature of late time flares.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Dust in the wind: the role of recent mass loss in long gamma-ray bursts
We study the late-time (t>0.5 days) X-ray afterglows of nearby (z<0.5) long
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) with Swift and identify a population of explosions with
slowly decaying, super-soft (photon index Gamma_x>3) X-ray emission that is
inconsistent with forward shock synchrotron radiation associated with the
afterglow. These explosions also show larger-than-average intrinsic absorption
(NH_x,i >6d21 cm-2) and prompt gamma-ray emission with extremely long duration
(T_90>1000 s). Chance association of these three rare properties (i.e. large
NH_x,i, super-soft Gamma_x and extreme duration) in the same class of
explosions is statistically unlikely. We associate these properties with the
turbulent mass-loss history of the progenitor star that enriched and shaped the
circum-burst medium. We identify a natural connection between NH_x,i Gamma_x
and T_90 in these sources by suggesting that the late-time super-soft X-rays
originate from radiation reprocessed by material lost to the environment by the
stellar progenitor before exploding, (either in the form of a dust echo or as
reprocessed radiation from a long-lived GRB remnant), and that the interaction
of the explosion's shock/jet with the complex medium is the source of the
extremely long prompt emission. However, current observations do not allow us
to exclude the possibility that super-soft X-ray emitters originate from
peculiar stellar progenitors with large radii that only form in very dusty
environments.Comment: 6 pages, Submitted to Ap
X-ray flares from propagation instabilities in long Gamma-Ray Burst jets
We present a numerical simulation of a gamma-ray burst jet from a
long-lasting engine in the core of a 16 solar mass Wolf-Rayet star. The engine
is kept active for 6000 s with a luminosity that decays in time as a power-law
with index -5/3. Even though there is no short time-scale variability in the
injected engine luminosity, we find that the jet's kinetic luminosity outside
the progenitor star is characterized by fluctuations with relatively short time
scale. We analyze the temporal characteristics of those fluctuations and we
find that they are consistent with the properties of observed flares in X-ray
afterglows. The peak to continuum flux ratio of the flares in the simulation is
consistent with some, but not all, the observed flares. We propose that
propagation instabilities, rather than variability in the engine luminosity,
are responsible for the X-ray flares with moderate contrast. Strong flares such
as the one detected in GRB 050502B, instead, cannot be reproduced by this model
and require strong variability in the engine activity.Comment: 6 pages, MNRAS in pres
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