The Closure Relations in High-Energy Gamma-ray Bursts Detected by Fermi-LAT
Open Access
Abstract
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are brief, intense pulses of high-energy emission associated with extreme astrophysical phenomena, e.g. the death of massive stars or the coalescence of compact objects. They have been observed at high energies by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), which detects GRBs in the 20 MeV–300 GeV energy range. The Fermi-LAT Second GRB Catalog (2FLGC) presents information on 186 GRBs observed from 2008 to 2018. We consider the GRBs that have been fitted in the 2FLGC with a broken (21 GRBs) or simple power law (65 GRBs), compiling a total sample of 86 GRBs. We analyze the relationship between the spectral and temporal indices using closure relations according to the synchrotron forward-shock model evolving in stratified environments (). We find that the model without energy injection is preferred over the one with energy injection. There is a clear preference for the cooling conditions max{} and (where and are the cooling and characteristic frequencies, namely the frequency at the spectral break). Within these cooling conditions, density profiles with values of and 2 generally have a higher rate of occurrence when considering relations with and without energy injection.
Keywords
This publication has 76 references indexed in Scilit:
- SIMULATIONS OF GAMMA-RAY BURST JETS IN A STRATIFIED EXTERNAL MEDIUM: DYNAMICS, AFTERGLOW LIGHT CURVES, JET BREAKS, AND RADIO CALORIMETRYThe Astrophysical Journal, 2012
- The circumburst density profile around GRB progenitors: a statistical studyAstronomy & Astrophysics, 2010
- A Comprehensive Analysis ofSwiftXRT Data. I. Apparent Spectral Evolution of Gamma‐Ray Burst X‐Ray TailsThe Astrophysical Journal, 2007
- An unexpectedly rapid decline in the X-ray afterglow emission of long γ-ray burstsNature, 2005
- Afterglow Emission from Highly Collimated Jets with Flat Electron Spectra: Application to the GRB 010222 Case?The Astrophysical Journal, 2001
- Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow with Continuous Energy Injection: Signature of a Highly Magnetized Millisecond PulsarThe Astrophysical Journal, 2001
- The early afterglowAstronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 1999
- Gamma-ray burst afterglows: effects of radiative corrections and non-uniformity of the surrounding mediumMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1998
- Spectra and Light Curves of Gamma-Ray Burst AfterglowsThe Astrophysical Journal, 1998
- Cooling Timescales and Temporal Structure of Gamma‐Ray BurstsThe Astrophysical Journal, 1996