GRB 130427A was the brightest gamma-ray burst detected in the last 30 yr. With an equivalent isotropic energy output of 8.5 × 1053 erg and redshift z = 0.34, it uniquely combined very high energetics ...with a relative proximity to Earth. As a consequence, its X-ray afterglow has been detected by sensitive X-ray observatories such as XMM–Newton and Chandra for a record-breaking baseline longer than 80 million seconds. We present the X-ray light curve of this event over such an interval. The light curve shows a simple power-law decay with a slope α = 1.309 ± 0.007 over more than three decades in time (47 ks–83 Ms). We discuss the consequences of this result for a few models proposed so far to interpret GRB 130427A, and more in general the significance of this outcome in the context of the standard forward shock model. We find that this model has difficulty in explaining our data, in both cases of constant density and stellar-wind circumburst media, and requires far-fetched values for the physical parameters involved.
Abstract
Ultra-long gamma-ray bursts are a class of high-energy transients lasting several hours. Their exact nature is still elusive, and several models have been proposed to explain them. Because ...of the limited coverage of wide-field gamma-ray detectors, the study of their prompt phase with sensitive narrow-field X-ray instruments could help in understanding the origin of ultra-long GRBs. However, the observers face a true problem in rapidly activating follow-up observations, due to the challenging identification of an ultra-long GRB before the end of the prompt phase. We present here a comparison of the prompt properties available after a few tens of minutes of a sample of ultra-long GRBs and normal long GRBs, looking for prior indicators of the long duration. We find that there is no such clear prior indicator of the duration of the burst. We also found that statistically, a burst lasting at least 10 and 20 minutes has respectively $28{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ and $50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ probability to be an ultralong event. These findings point towards a common central engine for normal long and ultra-long GRBs, with the collapsar model privileged.
The discovery of a number of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with duration exceeding 1000 s has opened the debate on whether these bursts form a new class of sources, the so-called ultra-long GRBs, or if ...they are rather the tail of the distribution of the standard long GRB duration. Using the long GRB sample detected by Swift, we investigate the statistical properties of long GRBs and compare them with the ultra-long burst properties. We compute the burst duration of long GRBs using the start epoch of the so-called "steep decay" phase detected with Swift/XRT. We discuss also the differences observed in their spectral properties. We find that ultra-long GRBs are statistically different from the standard long GRBs with typical burst duration less than 100-500 s, for which a Wolf-Rayet star progenitor is usually invoked. Together with the presence of a thermal emission component we interpret this result as indication that the usual long GRB progenitor scenario cannot explain the extreme duration of ultra-long GRBs, their energetics, as well as the mass reservoir and size that can feed the central engine for such a long time.
ABSTRACT
We present the Global Rapid Advanced Network Devoted to the Multi-messenger Addicts (GRANDMA). The network consists of 21 telescopes with both photometric and spectroscopic facilities. They ...are connected together thanks to a dedicated infrastructure. The network aims at coordinating the observations of large sky position estimates of transient events to enhance their follow-up and reduce the delay between the initial detection and optical confirmation. The GRANDMA programme mainly focuses on follow-up of gravitational-wave alerts to find and characterize the electromagnetic counterpart during the third observational campaign of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. But it allows for follow-up of any transient alerts involving neutrinos or gamma-ray bursts, even those with poor spatial localization. We present the different facilities, tools, and methods we developed for this network and show its efficiency using observations of LIGO/Virgo S190425z, a binary neutron star merger candidate. We furthermore report on all GRANDMA follow-up observations performed during the first six months of the LIGO–Virgo observational campaign, and we derive constraints on the kilonova properties assuming that the events’ locations were imaged by our telescopes.
We use realistic Monte Carlo simulations including both gravitational-wave (GW) and short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) selection effects to revisit the coincident rate of binary systems composed of two ...neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole. We show that the fraction of GW triggers that can be observed in coincidence with sGRBs is proportional to the beaming factor at z = 0, but increases with the distance until it reaches 100% at the GW detector horizon distance. When this is taken into account the rate is improved by a factor of three compared to the simple beaming factor correction. We provide an estimate of the performance future GRB detectors should achieve in order to fully exploit the potentiality of the planned third-generation GW antenna Einstein Telescope, and we propose a simple method to constrain the beaming angle of sGRBs.
The Telescopes a Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires telescopes are two robotic observatories designed to observe the prompt optical emission counterpart and the early afterglow of gamma-ray ...bursts (GRBs). We present data acquired between 2001 and 2008 and discuss the properties of the optical emission of GRBs, noting various interesting results. The optical emission observed during the prompt GRB phase is rarely very bright: we estimate that 5%-20% of GRBs exhibit a bright optical flash (R < 14) during the prompt gamma-ray emission, and that more than 50% of the GRBs have an optical emission fainter than R = 15.5 when the gamma-ray emission is active. We study the apparent optical brightness distribution of GRBs at 1000 s showing that our observations confirm the distribution derived by other groups. The combination of these results with those obtained by other rapid slewing telescopes allows us to better characterize the early optical emission of GRBs and to emphasize the importance of very early multiwavelength GRB studies for the understanding of the physics of the ejecta.
We study the exclusive photoproduction of a lepton pair off the proton with the aim of studying the proton quark structure via the Generalized Parton Distributions (GPD) formalism. After deriving the ...amplitudes of the processes contributing to the
γP
→ P′
e
+
e
−
, the timelike Compton scattering and the Bethe-Heitler process, we calculate all unpolarized, single- and double- spin beam-target observables in the valence region in terms of GPDs.
We present a sample composed of the 41 faintest X-ray afterglows of the population of long gamma-ray bursts (lGRBs) with known redshift. We study their intrinsic properties (spectral index, decay ...index, distance, luminosity, isotropic radiated energy, and peak energy) and their luminosity distribution functions to assess whether they belong to the same population as the brighter afterglow events. We find that these events belong to a population of nearby ones, different from the general population of lGRBs. In addition, these events are faint during their prompt phase, and include the few possible outliers of the Amati relation.
The Swift burst GRB 110205A was a very bright burst visible in the Northern Hemisphere. GRB 110205A was intrinsically long and very energetic and it occurred in a low-density interstellar medium ...environment, leading to delayed afterglow emission and a clear temporal separation of the main emitting components: prompt emission, reverse shock, and forward shock. Our observations show several remarkable features of GRB 110205A: the detection of prompt optical emission strongly correlated with the Burst Alert Telescope light curve, with no temporal lag between the two; the absence of correlation of the X-ray emission compared to the optical and high-energy gamma-ray ones during the prompt phase; and a large optical re-brightening after the end of the prompt phase, that we interpret as a signature of the reverse shock. Beyond the pedagogical value offered by the excellent multi-wavelength coverage of a gamma-ray burst with temporally separated radiating components, we discuss several questions raised by our observations: the nature of the prompt optical emission and the spectral evolution of the prompt emission at high energies (from 0.5 keV to 150 keV); the origin of an X-ray flare at the beginning of the forward shock; and the modeling of the afterglow, including the reverse shock, in the framework of the classical fireball model.
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