The delay in the arrival times between high and low energy photons from cosmic sources can be used to test the violation of the Lorentz invariance (LIV), predicted by some quantum gravity theories, and to constrain its characteristic energy scale ${r
m E_{QG}}$ that is of the order of the Planck energy. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and blazars are ideal for this purpose thanks to their broad spectral energy distribution and cosmological distances: at first order approximation, the constraints on ${rm E_{QG}}$ are proportional to the photon energy separation and the distance of the source. However, the LIV tiny contribution to the total time delay can be dominated by intrinsic delays related to the physics of the sources: long GRBs typically show a delay between high and low energy photons related to their spectral evolution (spectral lag). Short GRBs have null intrinsic spectral lags and are therefore an ideal tool to measure any LIV effect. We considered a sample of $15$ short GRBs with known redshift observed by Swift and we estimate a limit on ${rm E_{QG}}gtrsim 1.5times 10^{16}$ GeV. Our estimate represents an improvement with respect to the limit obtained with a larger (double) sample of long GRBs and is more robust than the estimates on single events because it accounts for the intrinsic delay in a statistical sense.
We investigated the rest frame spectral lags of two complete samples of bright long (50) and short (6) gamma-ray bursts (GRB) detected by Swift. We analysed the Swift/BAT data through a discrete cross-correlation function (CCF) fitted with an asymmet
ric Gaussian function to estimate the lag and the associated uncertainty. We find that half of the long GRBs have a positive lag and half a lag consistent with zero. All short GRBs have lags consistent with zero. The distributions of the spectral lags for short and long GRBs have different average values. Limited by the small number of short GRBs, we cannot exclude at more than 2 sigma significance level that the two distributions of lags are drawn from the same parent population. If we consider the entire sample of long GRBs, we do not find evidence for a lag-luminosity correlation, rather the lag-luminosity plane appears filled on the left hand side, thus suggesting that the lag-luminosity correlation could be a boundary. Short GRBs are consistent with the long ones in the lag-luminosity plane.
We present the analysis of the extraordinarily bright Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) 130427A under the hypothesis that the GRB central engine is an accretion-powered magnetar. In this framework, initially proposed to explain GRBs with precursor activity, the
prompt emission is produced by accretion of matter onto a newly-born magnetar, and the observed power is related to the accretion rate. The emission is eventually halted if the centrifugal forces are able to pause accretion. We show that the X-ray and optical afterglow is well explained as the forward shock emission with a jet break plus a contribution from the spin-down of the magnetar. Our modelling does not require any contribution from the reverse shock, that may still influence the afterglow light curve at radio and mm frequencies, or in the optical at early times. We derive the magnetic field ($Bsim 10^{16}$ G) and the spin period ($Psim 20$ ms) of the magnetar and obtain an independent estimate of the minimum luminosity for accretion. This minimum luminosity results well below the prompt emission luminosity of GRB 130427A, providing a strong consistency check for the scenario where the entire prompt emission is the result of continuous accretion onto the magnetar. This is in agreement with the relatively long spin period of the magnetar. GRB 130427A was a well monitored GRB showing a very standard behavior and, thus, is a well-suited benchmark to show that an accretion-powered magnetar gives a unique view of the properties of long GRBs.
We present a comprehensive statistical analysis of Swift X-ray light-curves of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), with more than 650 GRBs. Two questions drive this effort: (1) Does the X-ray emission retain any kind of memory of the prompt phase? (2) Where is
the dividing line between long and short GRBs? We show that short GRBs decay faster, are less luminous and less energetic than long GRBs, but are interestingly characterized by very similar intrinsic absorption. Our analysis reveal the existence of a number of relations that link the X-ray to prompt parameters in long GRBs; short GRBs are outliers of the majority of these 2-parameter relations. Here we concentrate on a 3-parameter (E_pk-Egamma,iso-E_X,iso) scaling that is shared by the GRB class as a whole (short GRBs, long GRBs and X-ray Flashes -XRFs): interpreted in terms of emission efficiency, this scaling may imply that GRBs with high $E_{rm{pk}}$ are more efficient during their prompt emission.
The comprehensive statistical analysis of Swift X-ray light-curves, collecting data from six years of operation, revealed the existence of a universal scaling among the isotropic energy emitted in the rest frame 10-10^4 keV energy band during the pro
mpt emission (E_{gamma,iso}), the peak of the prompt emission energy spectrum (E_{pk}), and the X-ray energy emitted in the 0.3-10 keV observed energy band (E_{X,iso}). In this paper we show that this three-parameter correlation is robust and does not depend on our definition of E_{X,iso}. It is shared by long, short, and low-energetic GRBs, differently from the well-known E_{gamma,iso}-E_{pk} correlation. We speculate that the ultimate physical property that regulates the GRB properties is the outflow Lorentz factor.
We present a comprehensive statistical analysis of Swift X-ray light-curves of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) collecting data from more than 650 GRBs discovered by Swift and other facilities. The unprecedented sample size allows us to constrain the REST FRA
ME X-ray properties of GRBs from a statistical perspective, with particular reference to intrinsic time scales and the energetics of the different light-curve phases in a common rest-frame 0.3-30 keV energy band. Temporal variability episodes are also studied and their properties constrained. Two fundamental questions drive this effort: i) Does the X-ray emission retain any kind of memoryof the prompt gamma-ray phase? ii) Where is the dividing line between long and short GRB X-ray properties? We show that short GRBs decay faster, are less luminous and less energetic than long GRBs in the X-rays, but are interestingly characterized by similar intrinsic absorption. We furthermore reveal the existence of a number of statistically significant relations that link the X-ray to prompt gamma-ray parameters in long GRBs; short GRBs are outliers of the majority of these 2-parameter relations. However and more importantly, we report on the existence of a universal 3-parameter scaling that links the X-ray and the gamma-ray energy to the prompt spectral peak energy of BOTH long and short GRBs: E_{X,iso}propto E_{gamma,iso}^{1.00pm 0.06}/E_{pk}^{0.60pm 0.10}.
We present the analysis of a large sample of gamma-ray burst (GRB) X-ray light curves in the rest frame to characterise their intrinsic properties in the context of different theoretical scenarios. We determine the morphology, time scales, and energe
tics of 64 long GRBs observed by emph{Swift}/XRT emph{without} flaring activity. We furthermore provide a one-to-one comparison to the properties of GRBs emph{with} X-ray flares. We find that the steep decay morphology and its connection with X-ray flares favour a scenario in which a central engine origin. We show that this scenario can also account for the shallow decay phase, provided that the GRB progenitor star has a self-similar structure with a constant envelope-to-core mass ratio $sim 0.02-0.03$. However, difficulties arise for very long duration ($t_pgtrsim10^4$ s) shallow phases. Alternatively, a spinning-down magnetar whose emitted power refreshes the forward shock can quantitatively account for the shallow decay properties. In particular we demonstrate that this model can account for the plateau luminosity vs. end time anticorrelation.
