We use a wavelet technique to investigate the time variations in the light curves from a sample of GRBs detected by Fermi and Swift. We focus primarily on the behavior of the flaring region of Swift-XRT light curves in order to explore connections be
tween variability time scales and pulse parameters (such as rise and decay times, widths, strengths, and separation distributions) and spectral lags. Tight correlations between some of these temporal features suggest a common origin for the production of X-ray flares and the prompt emission.
Curvature effects in Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have long been a source of considerable interest. In a collimated relativistic GRB jet, photons that are off-axis relative to the observer arrive at later times than on-axis photons and are also expected t
o be spectrally softer. In this work, we invoke a relatively simple kinematic two-shell collision model for a uniform jet profile and compare its predictions to GRB prompt-emission data for observations that have been attributed to curvature effects such as the peak-flux--peak-frequency relation, i.e., the relation between the $ u$F$_ u$ flux and the spectral peak, E$_{pk}$ in the decay phase of a GRB pulse, and spectral lags. In addition, we explore the behavior of pulse widths with energy. We present the case of the single-pulse Fermi GRB 110920, as a test for the predictions of the model against observations.
From a sample of GRBs detected by the $Fermi$ and $Swift$ missions, we have extracted the minimum variability time scales for temporal structures in the light curves associated with the prompt emission and X-ray flares. A comparison of this variabili
ty time scale with pulse parameters such as rise times,determined via pulse-fitting procedures, and spectral lags, extracted via the cross-correlation function (CCF), indicate a tight correlation between these temporal features for both the X-ray flares and the prompt emission. These correlations suggests a common origin for the production of X-ray flares and the prompt emission in GRBs.
We present a direct link between the minimum variability time scales extracted through a wavelet decomposition and the rise times of the shortest pulses extracted via fits of 34 Fermi GBM GRB light curves comprised of 379 pulses. Pulses used in this
study were fitted with log-normal functions whereas the wavelet technique used employs a multiresolution analysis that does not rely on identifying distinct pulses. By applying a corrective filter to published data fitted with pulses we demonstrate agreement between these two independent techniques and offer a method for distinguishing signal from noise.
We have investigated the time variations in the light curves from a sample of long and short Fermi/GBM Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) using an impartial wavelet analysis. The results indicate that in the source frame, the variability time scales for long bu
rsts differ from that for short bursts, that variabilities on the order of a few milliseconds are not uncommon, and that an intriguing relationship exists between the minimum variability time and the burst duration.
