We present ZTF18abvkwla (the "Koala"), a fast blue optical transient discovered in the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) One-Day Cadence (1DC) Survey. ZTF18abvkwla has a number of features in common ...with the groundbreaking transient AT 2018cow: blue colors at peak ( mag), a short rise time from half-max of under two days, a decay time to half-max of only three days, a high optical luminosity ( mag), a hot ( 40,000 K) featureless spectrum at peak light, and a luminous radio counterpart. At late times ( ), the radio luminosity of ZTF18abvkwla ( at 10 , observer-frame) is most similar to that of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The host galaxy is a dwarf starburst galaxy ( , ) that is moderately metal-enriched ( ), similar to the hosts of GRBs and superluminous supernovae. As in AT2018cow, the radio and optical emission in ZTF18abvkwla likely arise from two separate components: the radio from fast-moving ejecta ( ) and the optical from shock-interaction with confined dense material (<0.07 M in ). Compiling transients in the literature with and mag, we find that a significant number are engine-powered, and suggest that the high peak optical luminosity is directly related to the presence of this engine. From 18 months of the 1DC survey, we find that transients in this rise-luminosity phase space are at least two to three orders of magnitude less common than CC SNe. Finally, we discuss strategies for identifying such events with future facilities like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, as well as prospects for detecting accompanying X-ray and radio emission.
We report hard X-ray and gamma-ray observations of the impulsive phase of the SOL2017-09-06T11:55 X9.3 solar flare. We focus on a high-energy part of the spectrum, >100 keV, and perform time resolved ...spectral analysis for a portion of the impulsive phase, recorded by the Konus-Wind experiment, that displayed prominent gamma-ray emission. Given a variety of possible emission components contributing to the gamma-ray emission, we employ a Bayesian inference to build the most probable fitting model. The analysis confidently revealed contributions from nuclear deexcitation lines, electron-positron annihilation line at 511 keV, and a neutron capture line at 2.223 MeV along with two components of the bremsstrahlung continuum. The revealed time evolution of the spectral components is particularly interesting. The low-energy bremsstrahlung continuum shows a soft-hard-soft pattern typical for impulsive flares, while the high-energy one shows a persistent hardening at the course of the flare. The neutron capture line emission shows an unusually short time delay relative to the nuclear deexcitation line component, which implies that the production of neutrons was significantly reduced soon after the event onset. This in turn may imply a prominent softening of the accelerated proton spectrum at the course of the flare, similar to the observed softening of the low-energy component of the accelerated electrons responsible for the low-energy bremsstrahlung continuum. We discuss possible physical scenarios, which might result in the obtained relationships between these gamma-ray components.
GRB 221009A: The BOAT Burns, Eric; Svinkin, Dmitry; Fenimore, Edward ...
Astrophysical journal. Letters,
03/2023, Volume:
946, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Abstract GRB 221009A has been referred to as the brightest of all time (BOAT). We investigate the veracity of this statement by comparing it with a half century of prompt gamma-ray burst ...observations. This burst is the brightest ever detected by the measures of peak flux and fluence. Unexpectedly, GRB 221009A has the highest isotropic-equivalent total energy ever identified, while the peak luminosity is at the ∼99th percentile of the known distribution. We explore how such a burst can be powered and discuss potential implications for ultralong and high-redshift gamma-ray bursts. By geometric extrapolation of the total fluence and peak flux distributions, GRB 221009A appears to be a once-in-10,000-year event. Thus, it is almost certainly not the BOAT over all of cosmic history; it may be the brightest gamma-ray burst since human civilization began.
Abstract
We present optical, radio, and X-ray observations of SN 2020bvc (=ASASSN-20bs, ZTF 20aalxlis), a nearby (
z
=
0.0252
;
d
= 114 Mpc) broad-line (BL) Type Ic supernova (SN) and the first ...double-peaked Ic-BL discovered without a gamma-ray burst (GRB) trigger. Our observations show that SN 2020bvc shares several properties in common with the Ic-BL SN 2006aj, which was associated with the low-luminosity gamma-ray burst (LLGRB) 060218. First, the 10 GHz radio luminosity (
L
radio
≈
10
37
erg
s
−
1
) is brighter than ordinary core-collapse SNe but fainter than LLGRB SNe such as SN 1998bw (associated with LLGRB 980425). We model our VLA observations (spanning 13–43 days) as synchrotron emission from a mildly relativistic (
v
≳ 0.3
c
) forward shock. Second, with Swift and Chandra, we detect X-ray emission (
L
X
≈ 10
41
erg
s
−
1
) that is not naturally explained as inverse Compton emission or part of the same synchrotron spectrum as the radio emission. Third, high-cadence (6× night
–1
) data from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) show a double-peaked optical light curve, the first peak from shock cooling of extended low-mass material (mass
M
e
<
10
−
2
M
⊙
at radius
R
e
> 10
12
cm) and the second peak from the radioactive decay of
56
Ni
. SN 2020bvc is the first double-peaked Ic-BL SN discovered without a GRB trigger, so it is noteworthy that it shows X-ray and radio emission similar to LLGRB SNe. For four of the five other nearby (
z
≲ 0.05) Ic-BL SNe with ZTF high-cadence data, we rule out a first peak like that seen in SN 2006aj and SN 2020bvc, i.e., that lasts ≈1 day and reaches a peak luminosity
M
≈ −18. Follow-up X-ray and radio observations of Ic-BL SNe with well-sampled early optical light curves will establish whether double-peaked optical light curves are indeed predictive of LLGRB-like X-ray and radio emission.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are short and intense flashes of γ-rays coming from deep space. GRBs were discovered more than a half century ago and now are observed across the whole electromagnetic ...spectrum from radio to very-high-energy gamma rays. They carry information about the powerful energy release during the final stage of stellar evolution, as well as properties of matter on the way to the observer. At present, space-based observatories detect on average approximately one GRB per day. In this review, we summarize key space and ground facilities that contribute to the GRB studies.
We present ZTF18aaqjovh (SN 2018bvw), a high-velocity ("broad-lined") stripped-envelope (Type Ic) supernova (Ic-BL SN) discovered in the Zwicky Transient Facility one-day cadence survey. ZTF18aaqjovh ...shares a number of features in common with engine-driven explosions: the photospheric velocity and the shape of the optical light curve are very similar to those of the Type Ic-BL SN 1998bw, which was associated with a low-luminosity gamma-ray burst (LLGRB) and had relativistic ejecta. However, the radio luminosity of ZTF18aaqjovh is almost two orders of magnitude fainter than that of SN 1998bw at the same velocity phase, and the shock velocity is at most mildly relativistic (v = 0.06-0.4c). A search of high-energy catalogs reveals no compelling gamma-ray burst (GRB) counterpart to ZTF18aaqjovh, and the limit on the prompt GRB luminosity of excludes a classical GRB but not an LLGRB. Altogether, ZTF18aaqjovh represents another transition event between engine-driven SNe associated with GRBs and "ordinary" Ic-BL SNe.
We report the simultaneous observations of the prompt emission in the gamma-ray and hard X-ray bands by the Swift BAT and the Konus-Wind instruments of the short-hard burst, GRB 060313. The ...observations reveal multiple peaks in both the gamma-ray and hard X-ray bands suggesting a highly variable outflow from the central explosion. We also describe the early-time observations of the X-ray and UV/optical afterglows by the Swift XRT and UVOT instruments. The combination of the X-ray and UV/optical observations provides the most comprehensive light curves to date of a short-hard burst at such an early epoch. The afterglows exhibit complex structure with different decay indices and flaring. This behavior can be explained by the combination of a structured jet, radiative loss of energy, and decreasing microphysics parameters occurring in a circumburst medium with densities varying by a factor of approximately two on a length scale of 10 super(17) cm. These density variations are normally associated with the environment of a massive star and inhomogeneities in its windy medium. However, the mean density of the observed medium (n610 super(4) cm super(3)) is much less than that expected for a massive star. Although the collapse of a massive star as the origin of GRB 060313 is unlikely, the merger of a compact binary also poses problems for explaining the behavior of this burst. Two possible suggestions for explaining this scenario are that some short bursts may arise from a mechanism that does not invoke the conventional compact binary model, or that soft late-time central engine activity is producing UV/optical but no X-ray flaring.
In the second part of The Konus-Wind Catalog of Gamma-Ray Bursts with Known Redshifts (the first part: Tsvetkova et al. 2017; T17), we present the results of a systematic study of gamma-ray bursts ...(GRBs) with reliable redshift estimates detected simultaneously by the Konus-Wind (KW) experiment (in the waiting mode) and by the Swift/BAT (BAT) telescope during the period from 2005 January to the end of 2018. By taking advantage of the high sensitivity of BAT and the wide spectral band of KW, we were able to constrain the peak spectral energies, the broadband energy fluences, and the peak fluxes for the joint KW-BAT sample of 167 weak, relatively soft GRBs (including four short bursts). Based on the GRB redshifts, which span the range 0.04 ≤ z ≤ 9.4, we estimate the rest frame, isotropic-equivalent energy, and peak luminosity. For 14 GRBs with reasonably constrained jet breaks, we provide the collimation-corrected values of the energetics. This work extends the sample of KW GRBs with known redshifts to 338 GRBs, the largest set of cosmological GRBs studied to date over a broad energy band. With the full KW sample, accounting for the instrumental bias, we explore GRB rest-frame properties, including hardness-intensity correlations, GRB luminosity evolution, luminosity and isotropic-energy functions, and the evolution of the GRB formation rate, which we find to be in general agreement with those reported in T17 and other previous studies.
We report on the spectral cross-calibration results of the Konus-Wind, the Suzaku/WAM, and the Swift/BAT instruments using simultaneously observed gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). This is the first attempt ...to use simultaneously observed GRBs as a spectral calibration source to understand systematic problems among the instruments. Based on these joint spectral fits, we find that (1) although a constant factor (a normalization factor) agrees within 20% among the instruments, the BAT constant factor shows a systematically smaller value by 10%–20% compared to that of Konus-Wind, (2) there is a systematic trend that the low-energy photon index becomes steeper by 0.1–0.2 and
$E_{\rm peak}$
becomes systematically higher by 10%–20% when including the BAT data in the joint fits, and (3) the high-energy photon index agrees within 0.2 among the instruments. Our results show that cross-calibration based on joint spectral analysis is an important step to understanding the instrumental effects that could be affecting the scientific results from the GRB prompt emission data.
Abstract
The emission region of
γ
-ray bursts (GRBs) is poorly constrained. The uncertainty on the size of the dissipation site spans over 4 orders of magnitude (10
12
–10
17
cm) depending on the ...unknown energy composition of the GRB jets. The joint multiband analysis from soft X-rays to high energies (up to ∼1 GeV) of one of the most energetic and distant GRBs, GRB 220101A (
z
= 4.618), allows us to make an accurate distinction between prompt and early afterglow emissions. The enormous amount of energy released by GRB 220101A (
E
iso
≈ 3 × 10
54
erg) and the spectral cutoff at
E
cutoff
=
85
−
26
+
16
MeV observed in the prompt emission spectrum constrain the parameter space of the GRB dissipation site. We put stringent constraints on the prompt emission site, requiring 700 < Γ
0
< 1160 and
R
γ
∼ 4.5 × 10
13
cm. Our findings further highlight the difficulty of finding a simple self-consistent picture in the electron–synchrotron scenario, favoring instead a proton–synchrotron model, which is also consistent with the observed spectral shape. Deeper measurements of the time variability of GRBs, together with accurate high-energy observations (MeV–GeV), would unveil the nature of the prompt emission.
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