954 research outputs found
Diverse Temporal Properties of GRB Afterglow
The detection of delayed X-ray, optical and radio emission, "afterglow",
associated with -ray bursts (GRBs) is consistent with fireball models,
where the emission are produced by relativistic expanding blast wave, driven by
expanding fireball at cosmogical distances. The emission mechanisms of GRB
afterglow have been discussed by many authors and synchrotron radiation is
believed to be the main mechanism. The observations show that the optical light
curves of two observed gamma-ray bursts, GRB970228 and GRB GRB970508, can be
described by a simple power law, which seems to support the synchrotron
radiation explanation. However, here we shall show that under some
circumstances, the inverse Compton scattering (ICS) may play an important role
in emission spectrum and this may influence the temporal properties of GRB
afterglow. We expect that the light curves of GRB afterglow may consist of
multi-components, which depends on the fireball parameters.Comment: Latex, no figures, minor correctio
Efficiency and spectrum of internal gamma-ray burst shocks
We present an analysis of the Internal Shock Model of GRBs, where gamma-rays
are produced by internal shocks within a relativistic wind. We show that
observed GRB characteristics impose stringent constraints on wind and source
parameters. We find that a significant fraction, of order 20 %, of the wind
kinetic energy can be converted to radiation, provided the distribution of
Lorentz factors within the wind has a large variance and provided the minimum
Lorentz factor is higher than 10^(2.5)L_(52)^(2/9), where L=10^(52)L_(52)erg/s
is the wind luminosity. For a high, >10 %, efficiency wind, spectral energy
breaks in the 0.1 to 1 MeV range are obtained for sources with dynamical time
R/c < 1 ms, suggesting a possible explanation for the observed clustering of
spectral break energies in this range. The lower limit to wind Lorenz factor
and the upper limit, around (R/10^7 cm)^(-5/6) MeV to observed break energies
are set by Thomson optical depth due to electron positron pairs produced by
synchrotron photons. Natural consequences of the model are absence of bursts
with peak emission energy significantly exceeding 1 MeV, and existence of low
luminosity bursts with low, 1 keV to 10 keV, break energies.Comment: 10 pages, 5 ps-figures. Expanded discussion of magnetic field and
electron energy fraction. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa
No Radio Afterglow from the Gamma-Ray Burst of February 28, 1997
We present radio observations of the gamma-ray burster GRB 970228 made with
the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO)
spanning a range of postburst timescales from one to 300 days. A search for a
time-variable radio source was conducted covering an area which included a
fading X-ray source and an optical transient, both of which are thought to be
the long wavelength counterparts to the gamma-ray burst. At the position of the
optical transient sensitive limits between 10 uJy and 1 mJy can be placed on
the absence of a radio counterpart to GRB 970228 between 1.4 and 240 GHz. We
apply a simple formulation of a fireball model which has been used with some
success to reproduce the behavior of the optical and X-ray light curves. Using
this model we conclude that the radio non-detections are consistent with the
peak flux density of the afterglow lying between 20-40 uJy and it requires that
the optical flux peaked between 4 and 16 hours after the burst.Comment: ApJ Let (submitted
A Late-Time Flattening of Afterglow Light Curves
We present a sample of radio afterglow light curves with measured decay
slopes which show evidence for a flattening at late times compared to optical
and X-ray decay indices. The simplest origin for this behavior is that the
change in slope is due to a jet-like outflow making a transition to
sub-relativistic expansion. This can explain the late-time radio light curves
for many but not all of the bursts in the sample. We investigate several
possible modifications to the standard fireball model which can flatten
late-time light curves. Changes to the shock microphysics which govern particle
acceleration, or energy injection to the shock (either radially or azimuthally)
can reproduce the observed behavior. Distinguishing between these different
possibilities will require simultaneous optical/radio monitoring of afterglows
at late times.Comment: ApJ, submitte
The warm-hot circumgalactic medium around EAGLE-simulation galaxies and its detection prospects with X-ray and UV line absorption
We use the EAGLE (Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments)
cosmological simulation to study the distribution of baryons, and
far-ultraviolet (O VI), extreme-ultraviolet (Ne VIII) and X-ray (O VII, O VIII,
Ne IX, and Fe XVII) line absorbers, around galaxies and haloes of mass
- at redshift 0.1.
EAGLE predicts that the circumgalactic medium (CGM) contains more metals than
the interstellar medium across halo masses. The ions we study here trace the
warm-hot, volume-filling phase of the CGM, but are biased towards temperatures
corresponding to the collisional ionization peak for each ion, and towards high
metallicities. Gas well within the virial radius is mostly collisionally
ionized, but around and beyond this radius, and for O VI, photoionization
becomes significant. When presenting observables we work with column densities,
but quantify their relation with equivalent widths by analysing virtual
spectra. Virial-temperature collisional ionization equilibrium ion fractions
are good predictors of column density trends with halo mass, but underestimate
the diversity of ions in haloes. Halo gas dominates the highest column density
absorption for X-ray lines, but lower density gas contributes to strong UV
absorption lines from O VI and Ne VIII. Of the O VII (O VIII) absorbers
detectable in an Athena X-IFU blind survey, we find that 41 (56) per cent arise
from haloes with -.
We predict that the X-IFU will detect O VII (O VIII) in 77 (46) per cent of the
sightlines passing
- galaxies within
100 pkpc (59 (82) per cent for
). Hence, the X-IFU will
probe covering fractions comparable to those detected with the Cosmic Origins
Spectrograph for O VI.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures + 6 pages references and appendices. Accepted
for publication in MNRA
Spectrum and Duration of Delayed MeV-GeV Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts in Cosmic Background Radiation Fields
We generally analyze prompt high-energy emission above a few hundreds of GeV
due to synchrotron self-Compton scattering in internal shocks. However, such
photons cannot be detected because they may collide with cosmic infrared
background photons, leading to electron/positron pair production.
Inverse-Compton scattering of the resulting electron/positron pairs off cosmic
microwave background photons will produce delayed MeV-GeV emission, which may
be much stronger than a typical high-energy afterglow in the external shock
model. We expand on the Cheng & Cheng model by deriving the emission spectrum
and duration in the standard fireball shock model. A typical duration of the
emission is ~ 10^3 seconds, and the time-integrated scattered photon spectrum
is nu^{-(p+6)/4}, where p is the index of the electron energy distribution
behind internal shocks. This is slightly harder than the synchrotron photon
spectrum, nu^{-(p+2)/2}. The lower energy property of the scattered photon
spectrum is dependent on the spectral energy distribution of the cosmic
infrared background radiation. Therefore, future observations on such delayed
MeV-GeV emission and the higher-energy spectral cutoff by the Gamma-Ray Large
Area Space Telescope (GLAST) would provide a probe of the cosmic infrared
background radiation.Comment: 5 pages, accepted for publication in Ap
Issues in the Blandford-Znajek Process for GRB Inner Engine
Several issues regarding the Blandford-Znajek process are discussed to
demonstrate that it can be an effective mechanism for powering the gamma ray
bursts. Using a simple circuit analysis it is argued that the disk power
increases the effective power of the black hole-accretion disk system, although
a part of disk power can be dissipated into black hole entropy. Within the
framework of the force-free magnetosphere with the strong magnetic field, the
magnetically dominated MHD flow is found to support the Blandford-Znajek
process and it is demonstrated that the possible magnetic repulsion by the
rotating black hole will not affect the efficiency substantially.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, 3 references added, more discussions on the
magnetic field on the black hole, accepted for publication in Ap
A Photometric Investigation of the GRB970228 Afterglow and the Associated Nebulosity
We carefully analyze the WFPC2 and STIS images of GRB970228. We measure
magnitudes for the GRB970228 point source component in the WFPC2 images of
, and
, on March 26 and April 7,
respectively; and on September 4 in the STIS image.
For the extended component, we measure magnitudes of
in the combined WFPC2 images and
in the STIS image, which are consistent with no
variation. This value is fainter than previously reported (Galama et al. 98)
and modifies the previously assumed magnitudes for the optical transient when
it faded to a level where the extended source component contribution was not
negligible, alleviating the discrepancy to a power-law temporal behavior. We
also measure a color of for the
extended source component. Taking into account the extinction measured in this
field (Castander & Lamb 1998), this color implies that the extended source is
most likely a galaxy with ongoing star formation.Comment: 21 pages, including 8 figures. Submitted to Ap
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