No Arabic abstract
We selected a sample of 33 Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) detected by Swift, with known redshift and optical extinction at the host frame. For these, we constructed the de-absorbed and K-corrected X-ray and optical rest frame light curves. These are modelled as the sum of two components: emission from the forward shock due to the interaction of a fireball with the circum-burst medium and an additional component, treated in a completely phenomenological way. The latter can be identified, among other possibilities, as late prompt emission produced by a long lived central engine with mechanisms similar to those responsible for the production of the standard early prompt radiation. Apart from flares or re-brightenings, that we do not model, we find a good agreement with the data, despite of their complexity and diversity. Although based in part on a phenomenological model with a relatively large number of free parameters, we believe that our findings are a first step towards the construction of a more physical scenario. Our approach allows us to interpret the behaviour of the optical and X-ray afterglows in a coherent way, by a relatively simple scenario. Within this context it is possible to explain why sometimes no jet break is observed; why, even if a jet break is observed, it is often chromatic; why the steepening after the jet break time is often shallower than predicted. Finally, the decay slope of the late prompt emission after the shallow phase is found to be remarkably similar to the time profile expected by the accretion rate of fall-back material (i.e. proportional to t^{-5/3}), suggesting that this can be the reason why the central engine can be active for a long time.
We present a catalog of radio afterglow observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) over a 14 year period from 1997 to 2011. Our sample of 304 afterglows consists of 2995 flux density measurements (including upper limits) at frequencies between 0.6 GHz and 660 GHz, with the majority of data taken at 8.5 GHz frequency band (1539 measurements). We use this dataset to carry out a statistical analysis of the radio-selected sample. The detection rate of radio afterglows has stayed unchanged almost at 31% before and after the launch of the {em Swift} satellite. The canonical long-duration GRB radio light curve at 8.5 GHz peaks at 3-6 days in the source rest frame, with a median peak luminosity of $10^{31}$ erg s$^{-1}$ Hz$^{-1}$. The peak radio luminosities for short-hard bursts, X-ray flashes and the supernova-GRB classes are an order of magnitude or more fainter than this value. There are clear relationships between the detectability of a radio afterglow and the fluence or energy of a GRB, and the X-ray or optical brightness of the afterglow. However, we find few significant correlations between these same GRB and afterglow properties and the peak radio flux density. We also produce synthetic light curves at centimeter (cm) and millimeter (mm) bands using a range of blastwave and microphysics parameters derived from multiwavelength afterglow modeling, and we use them to compare to the radio sample. Finding agreement, we extrapolate this behavior to predict the cm and mm behavior of GRBs observed by the Expanded Very Large Array and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array.
The discovery of multiband afterglows definitely shows that most $gamma$-ray bursts are of cosmological origin. $gamma$-ray bursts are found to be one of the most violent explosive phenomena in the Universe, in which astonishing ultra-relativistic motions are involved. In this article, the multiband observational characteristics of $gamma$-ray bursts and their afterglows are briefly reviewed. The standard model of $gamma$-ray bursts, i.e. the fireball model, is described. Emphasis is then put on the importance of the nonrelativistic phase of afterglows. The concept of deep Newtonian phase is elaborated. A generic dynamical model that is applicable in both the relativistic and nonrelativistic phases is introduced. Based on these elaborations, the overall afterglow behaviors, from the very early stages to the very late stages, can be conveniently calculated.
We study thermal emission from circumstellar structures heated by gamma-ray burst (GRB) radiation and ejecta and calculate its contribution to GRB optical and X-ray afterglows using the modified radiation hydro-code small STELLA. It is shown that thermal emission originating in heated dense shells around the GRB progenitor star can reproduce X-ray plateaus (like observed in GRB 050904, 070110) as well as deviations from a power law fading observed in optical afterglows of some GRBs (e.g. 020124, 030328, 030429X, 050904). Thermal radiation pressure in the heated circumburst shell dominates the gas pressure, producing rapid expansion of matter similar to supenova-like explosions close to opacity or radiation flux density jumps in the circumburst medium. This phenomenon can be responsible for so-called supernova bumps in optical afterglows of several GRBs. Such a `quasi-supernova suggests interpretation of the GRB-SN connection which does not directly involve the explosion of the GRB progenitor star.
The afterglow emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is believed to originate from a relativistic blast wave driven into the circumburst medium. Although the afterglow emission from radio up to X-ray frequencies is thought to originate from synchrotron radiation emitted by relativistic, non-thermal electrons accelerated by the blast wave, the origin of the emission at high energies (HE; $gtrsim$~GeV) remains uncertain. The recent detection of sub-TeV emission from GRB~190114C by MAGIC raises further debate on what powers the very high-energy (VHE; $gtrsim 300$GeV) emission. Here, we explore the inverse Compton scenario as a candidate for the HE and VHE emissions, considering two sources of seed photons for scattering: synchrotron photons from the blast wave (synchrotron self-Compton or SSC) and isotropic photon fields external to the blast wave (external Compton). For each case, we compute the multi-wavelength afterglow spectra and light curves. We find that SSC will dominate particle cooling and the GeV emission, unless a dense ambient infrared photon field, typical of star-forming regions, is present. Additionally, considering the extragalactic background light attenuation, we discuss the detectability of VHE afterglows by existing and future gamma-ray instruments for a wide range of model parameters. Studying GRB~190114C, we find that its afterglow emission in the fermi-LAT band is synchrotron-dominated.The late-time fermi-LAT measurement (i.e., $tsim 10^4$~s), and the MAGIC observation also set an upper limit on the energy density of a putative external infrared photon field (i.e. $lesssim 3times 10^{-9},{rm erg,cm^{-3}}$), making the inverse Compton dominant in the sub-TeV energies.
Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows have provided important clues to the nature of these massive explosive events, providing direct information on the nearby environment and indirect information on the central engine that powers the burst. We report the discovery of two bright X-ray flares in GRB afterglows, including a giant flare comparable in total energy to the burst itself, each peaking minutes after the burst. These strong, rapid X-ray flares imply that the central engines of the bursts have long periods of activity, with strong internal shocks continuing for hundreds of seconds after the gamma-ray emission has ended.