No Arabic abstract
X-ray Flashes (XRFs), binary-driven hypernovae (BdHNe) are long GRB subclasses with progenitor a CO$_{rm core}$, undergoing a supernova (SN) explosion and hypercritically accreting in a tight binary system onto a companion neutron star (NS) or black hole (BH). In XRFs the NS does not reach by accretion the critical mass and no BH is formed. In BdHNe I, with shorter binary periods, the NS gravitationally collapses and leads to a new born BH. In BdHNe II the accretion on an already formed BH leads to a more massive BH. We assume that the GeV emission observed by textit{Fermi}-LAT originates from the rotational energy of the BH. Consequently, we verify that, as expected, in XRFs no GeV emission is observed. In $16$ BdHNe I and $5$ BdHNe II, within the boresight angle of LAT, the integrated GeV emission allows to estimate the initial mass and spin of the BH. In the remaining $27$ sources in the plane of the binary system no GeV emission occurs, hampered by the presence of the HN ejecta. From the ratio, $21/48$, we infer a new asymmetric morphology for the BdHNe reminiscent of the one observed in active galactic nuclei (AGN): the GeV emission occurs within a cone of half-opening angle $approx 60^{circ}$ from the normal to the orbital plane of the binary progenitor. The transparency condition requires a Lorentz factor $Gamma sim 1500$ on the source of GeV emission. The GeV luminosity in the rest-frame of the source follows a universal power-law with index of $-1.20 pm 0.04$, allowing to estimate the spin-down rate of the BH
We make a detailed time resolved spectroscopy of bright long gamma ray bursts (GRBs) which show significant GeV emissions (GRB 080916C, GRB 090902B, and GRB 090926A). In addition to the standard Band model, we also use a model consisting of a blackbody and a power-law to fit the spectra. We find that for the latter model there are indications for an additional soft component in the spectra. While previous studies have shown that such models are required for GRB 090902B, here we find that a composite spectral model consisting of two black bodies and a power law adequately fit the data of all the three bright GRBs. We investigate the evolution of the spectral parameters and find several generic interesting features for all three GRBs, like a) temperatures of the black bodies are strongly correlated to each other, b) flux in the black body components are strongly correlated to each other, c) the temperatures of the black body trace the profile of the individual pulses of the GRBs, and d) the characteristics of the power law component like the spectral index and the delayed onset bear a close similarity to the emission characteristics in the GeV regions. We discuss the implications of these results to the possibility of identifying the radiation mechanisms during the prompt emission of GRBs.
Long gamma-ray bursts are associated with the core-collapse of massive, rapidly spinning stars. However, the believed efficient angular momentum transport in stellar interiors leads to predominantly slowly-spinning stellar cores. Here, we report on binary stellar evolution and population synthesis calculations, showing that tidal interactions in close binaries not only can explain the observed sub-population of spinning, merging binary black holes, but also lead to long gamma-ray bursts at the time of black-hole formation, with rates matching the empirical ones. We find that $approx$10% of the GWTC-2 reported binary black holes had a long gamma-ray burst associated with their formation, with GW190517 and GW190719 having a probability of $approx$85% and $approx$60%, respectively, being among them.
We report on the third phase of our study of the neutrino-cooled hyperaccreting torus around a black hole that powers the jet in Gamma Ray Bursts. We focus on the influence of the black hole spin on the properties of the torus. The structure of a stationary torus around the Kerr black hole is solved numerically. We take into account the detailed treatment of the microphysics in the nuclear equation of state that includes the neutrino trapping effect. We find, that in the case of rapidly rotating black holes, the thermal instability discussed in our previous work is enhanced and develops for much lower accretion rates. We also find the important role of the energy transfer from the rotating black hole to the torus, via the magnetic coupling.
We study the structure and evolution of the hyperaccreting disks and outflows in the gamma ray bursts central engines. The torus around a stellar mass black hole is composed of free nucleons, Helium, electron-positron pairs, and is cooled by neutrino emission. Accretion of matter powers the relativistic jets, responsible for the gamma ray prompt emission. The significant number density of neutrons in the disk and outflowing material will cause subsequent formation of heavier nuclei. We study the process of nucleosynthesis and its possible observational consequences. We also apply our scenario to the recent observation of the gravitational wave signal, detected on September 14th, 2015 by the two Advanced LIGO detectors, and related to an inspiral and merger of a binary black hole system. A gamma ray burst that could possibly be related with the GW150914 event was observed by the Fermi satellite. It had a duration of about 1 second and appeared about 0.4 seconds after the gravitational-wave signal. We propose that a collapsing massive star and a black hole in a close binary could lead to the event. The gamma ray burst was powered by a weak neutrino flux produced in the star remnants matter. Low spin and kick velocity of the merged black hole are reproduced in our simulations. Coincident gravitational-wave emission originates from the merger of the collapsed core and the companion black hole.
We study the late-time (t>0.5 days) X-ray afterglows of nearby (z<0.5) long Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) with Swift and identify a population of explosions with slowly decaying, super-soft (photon index Gamma_x>3) X-ray emission that is inconsistent with forward shock synchrotron radiation associated with the afterglow. These explosions also show larger-than-average intrinsic absorption (NH_x,i >6d21 cm-2) and prompt gamma-ray emission with extremely long duration (T_90>1000 s). Chance association of these three rare properties (i.e. large NH_x,i, super-soft Gamma_x and extreme duration) in the same class of explosions is statistically unlikely. We associate these properties with the turbulent mass-loss history of the progenitor star that enriched and shaped the circum-burst medium. We identify a natural connection between NH_x,i Gamma_x and T_90 in these sources by suggesting that the late-time super-soft X-rays originate from radiation reprocessed by material lost to the environment by the stellar progenitor before exploding, (either in the form of a dust echo or as reprocessed radiation from a long-lived GRB remnant), and that the interaction of the explosions shock/jet with the complex medium is the source of the extremely long prompt emission. However, current observations do not allow us to exclude the possibility that super-soft X-ray emitters originate from peculiar stellar progenitors with large radii that only form in very dusty environments.