scholarly journals Late Afterglow Bump/Plateau around the Jet Break: Signature of a Free-to-shocked Wind Environment in Gamma-Ray Burst

2021 ◽  
Vol 922 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Xiao-Yan Li ◽  
Da-Bin Lin ◽  
Jia Ren ◽  
Shu-Jin Hou ◽  
Yu-Fei Li ◽  
...  

Abstract A number of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) exhibit the simultaneous bumps in their optical and X-ray afterglows around the jet break. These bumps are similar to the afterglows of GRB 170817A, except preceded by a long shallow decay. Its origin is unclear. We suggest that these late simultaneous bumps may sound a transition of circumburst environment from a free-wind medium to a constant density medium, e.g., the shocked-wind medium. In this paper, we study the emission of an external-forward shock propagating in a free-to-shocked wind environment at different viewing angles. The late simultaneous bumps/plateaux followed by a steep decay are found in the optical and X-ray afterglows for high-viewing-angle observers. In addition, these theoretical bumps are preceded by a long plateau or shallow decay, which is formed during the external-forward shock propagating in the free-wind environment. For low-viewing-angle observers, the above bumps also appear but only in the situation where the structured jet has a low characteristic angle and the deceleration radius of the in-core jet flow is at around or beyond the free-wind boundary. We search GRBs for afterglows with the late simultaneous optical and X-ray bumps followed by a steep decay. GRBs 120326A, 100901A, 100814A, and 120404A are obtained. We find that an off-core (in-core) observed external-forward shock in a free-to-shocked wind environment can well explain the optical and X-ray afterglows in GRBs 120326A, 100901A, and 100814A (GRB 120404A).

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Geng ◽  
Y. F. Huang

The detection of optical rebrightenings and X-ray plateaus in the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) challenges the generic external shock model. Recently, we have developed a numerical method to calculate the dynamics of the system consisting of a forward shock and a reverse shock. Here, we briefly review the applications of this method in the afterglow theory. By relating these diverse features to the central engines of GRBs, we find that the steep optical rebrightenings would be caused by the fall-back accretion of black holes, while the shallow optical rebrightenings are the consequence of the injection of the electron-positron-pair wind from the central magnetar. These studies provide useful ways to probe the characteristics of GRB central engines.


2006 ◽  
Vol 641 (2) ◽  
pp. 972-977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Lazzati ◽  
Mitchell C. Begelman
Keyword(s):  
X Ray ◽  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gor Oganesyan ◽  
Sergey Karpov ◽  
Martin Jelinek ◽  
Gregory Beskin ◽  
Samuele Ronchini ◽  
...  

Abstract Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are produced by the dissipation of ultra-relativistic jets launched by newly-born black holes after the collapse of massive stars. Right after the luminous and highly variable gamma-ray emission, the multi-wavelength afterglow is released by the external dissipation of the jet in circumburst medium. We report the discovery of a very bright (10 mag) optical emission 28 s after the explosion of the extremely luminous and energetic GRB 210619B located at redshift 1.937. Early multi-filter observations allowed us to witness the end of the shock wave propagation into the GRB ejecta. We observed the spectral transition from a bright reverse to the forward shock emission, demonstrating that the early and late GRB multi-wavelength emission is originated from a very narrow jet propagating into an unusually rarefied interstellar medium. We also find evidence of an additional component of radiation, coming from the jet wings which is able explain the uncorrelated optical/X-ray emission.


Author(s):  
Richard Willingale ◽  
Paul T O'Brien

We have developed a functional fit which can be used to represent the entire temporal decay of the X-ray afterglow of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The fit delineates and parameterizes well-defined phases for the decay: the prompt emission; an initial steep decay; a shallow plateau phase; and finally, a powerlaw afterglow. For 20% of GRBs, the plateau phase is weak, or not seen, and the initial powerlaw decay becomes the final afterglow. We compare the temporal decay parameters and X-ray spectral indices for 107 GRBs discovered by Swift with the expectations of the standard fireball model including a search for possible jet breaks. For approximately 50% of GRBs, the observed afterglow is in accord with the model, but for the rest the temporal and spectral properties are not as expected. We identify a few possible jet breaks, but there are many examples where such breaks are predicted but are absent. We also find that the start time of the final afterglow decay, T a , is associated with the peak of the prompt γ -ray emission spectrum, E peak , just as optical jet-break times, t j , are associated with E peak in the Ghirlanda relation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 366 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi-Ying Liu ◽  
Fu-Wen Zhang ◽  
Si-Yuan Zhu

2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (4) ◽  
pp. 5986-5992
Author(s):  
Nikhil Sarin ◽  
Paul D Lasky ◽  
Gregory Ashton

ABSTRACT The spin-down energy of millisecond magnetars has been invoked to explain X-ray afterglow observations of a significant fraction of short and long gamma-ray bursts. Here, we extend models previously introduced in the literature, incorporating radiative losses with the spin-down of a magnetar central engine through an arbitrary braking index. Combining this with a model for the tail of the prompt emission, we show that our model can better explain the data than millisecond-magnetar models without radiative losses or those that invoke spin-down solely through vacuum dipole radiation. We find that our model predicts a subset of X-ray flares seen in some gamma-ray bursts. We can further explain the diversity of X-ray plateaus by altering the radiative efficiency and measure the braking index of newly born millisecond magnetars. We measure the braking index of GRB061121 as $n=4.85^{+0.11}_{-0.15}$ suggesting the millisecond-magnetar born in this gamma-ray burst spins down predominantly through gravitational-wave emission.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document