Gamma-ray burst light curves show quite different patterns: from very simple
to extremely complex. We present a temporal and spectral study of the light
curves in three energy bands (2-5, 5-10, 10-26 keV) of ten GRBs detected by the
Wide Field Cameras on board BeppoSAX. For some events the time profiles are
characterized by peaks superposed on a slowly evolving pedestal, which in some
cases becomes less apparent at higher energies. We describe this behaviour with
the presence of two components (slow and fast) having different variability
time scales. We modelled the time evolution of slow components by means of an
analytical function able to describe asymmetric rising and decaying profiles.
The residual light curves, after the subtraction of the slow components,
generally show structures more similar to the original curves in the highest
energy band. Spectral study of these two components was performed evaluating
their hardness ratios, used also to derive photon indices. Slow components are
found generally softer than the fast ones suggesting that their origin is
likely different. Being typical photon indices lower than those of the
afterglows there is no evidence that the emission processes are similar.
Another interesting possibility is that slow components can be related to the
presence of a hot photosphere having a thermal spectrum with kT around a few
keV superposed to a rapid variable non-thermal emission of the fast component.Comment: 16 pages, 20 figures (18 color, 2 B&W), accepted for publication in
Astronomy and Astrophysic