A Comprehensive Analysis of Swift XRT Data. III. Jet Break Candidates in X-Ray and Optical Afterglow Light Curves
E. W. Liang,E. W. Liang,Judith Racusin,Bing Zhang,Bin-Bin Zhang,Bin-Bin Zhang,David N. Burrows +6 more
TLDR
In this article, the optical afterglow data for 57 pre- and post-Swift GRBs were analyzed to explore whether the observed breaks in the afterglog light curves can be interpreted as jet breaks, as well as their implications for jet energetics.Abstract:
The Swift XRT data for 179 GRBs (050124 to 070129) and the optical afterglow data for 57 pre- and post-Swift GRBs are analyzed to explore whether the observed breaks in the afterglow light curves can be interpreted as jet breaks, as well as their implications for jet energetics. We find that no burst is included in our "Platinum" sample, in which the data fully satisfy the jet break criteria. By relaxing one or more of the requirements for a jet break, candidates to various degrees are identified. In the X-ray band, 42 of 103 well-sampled X-ray light curves have a decay slope greater than or similar to 1.5 in the postbreak segment (the "Bronze" sample), and 27 of these also satisfy the closure relations of the forward-shock models ("Silver" sample). The numbers of "Bronze" and "Silver" candidates in the optical light curves are 27 and 23, respectively. The X-ray break time is earlier than that in the optical bands. Among 13 bursts having both optical and X-ray light curves, only seven have an achromatic break, and even in these cases, only in one band do the data satisfy the closure relations ("Gold" sample). These results raise concerns about interpreting the breaks as jet breaks and further inferring GRB energetics. Assuming that the "Silver" and "Gold" breaks are jet breaks, we derive jet opening angles (theta(j)) and kinetic energies (E(K)) or lower limits on them and find that the EK distribution is much more scattered than the pre-Swift sample, but a tentative anticorrelation between theta(j) and E(K,iso) is found, indicating that the E(K) could still be quasi-universal.read more
Citations
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The physics of gamma-ray bursts & relativistic jets
Pawan Kumar,Bing Zhang +1 more
TL;DR: A comprehensive review of major developments in our understanding of gamma-ray bursts, with particular focus on the discoveries made within the last fifteen years when their true nature was uncovered, can be found in this paper.
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The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Relativistic Jets
Pawan Kumar,Bing Zhang +1 more
TL;DR: A comprehensive review of major developments in the understanding of gamma-ray bursts can be found in this article, with particular focus on the discoveries made within the last fifteen years when their true nature was uncovered.
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DISCERNING THE PHYSICAL ORIGINS OF COSMOLOGICAL GAMMA-RAY BURSTS BASED ON MULTIPLE OBSERVATIONAL CRITERIA: THE CASES OF z = 6.7 GRB 080913, z = 8.2 GRB 090423, AND SOME SHORT/HARD GRBs
Bing Zhang,Bin-Bin Zhang,Francisco J. Virgili,En-Wei Liang,D. Alexander Kann,Xue-Feng Wu,Xue-Feng Wu,Daniel Proga,Hou-Jun Lv,Kenji Toma,Peter Mészáros,David N. Burrows,Peter W. A. Roming,Neil Gehrels +13 more
TL;DR: In this article, two high-redshift gamma-ray bursts, GRB 080913 at 6.7 and GRB 090423 at 8.2, recently detected by Swift appear as intrinsically short, hard GRBs.
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Magnetic acceleration of ultrarelativistic jets in gamma-ray burst sources
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present numerical simulations of axi symmetric, magnetically driven outflows that reproduce the inferred properties of ultrarelativistic gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets.
Journal ArticleDOI
Jet Breaks and Energetics of Swift Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Afterglows
Judith Racusin,E. W. Liang,E. W. Liang,David N. Burrows,A. D. Falcone,T. Sakamoto,Bin-Bin Zhang,Bing Zhang,Phil Evans,J. P. Osborne +9 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a systematic temporal and spectral study of all Swift-X-ray Telescope observations of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows discovered between 2005 January and 2007 December.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission
Neil Gehrels,G. Chincarini,G. Chincarini,Paolo Giommi,Keith O. Mason,John A. Nousek,Alan A. Wells,Nicholas E. White,S. D. Barthelmy,David N. Burrows,L. R. Cominsky,Kevin Hurley,F. E. Marshall,Peter Mészáros,Peter W. A. Roming,Lorella Angelini,Lorella Angelini,L. M. Barbier,Tomaso Belloni,Sergio Campana,P. A. Caraveo,M. M. Chester,O. Citterio,T. L. Cline,Mark Cropper,Jay Cummings,Jay Cummings,A. J. Dean,Eric D. Feigelson,E. E. Fenimore,Dale A. Frail,A. S. Fruchter,Gordon P. Garmire,Keith C. Gendreau,Gabriele Ghisellini,Jochen Greiner,Joanne E. Hill,S. D. Hunsberger,Hans A. Krimm,Hans A. Krimm,Shrinivas R. Kulkarni,Pawan Kumar,F. Lebrun,Nicole M. Lloyd-Ronning,Craig B. Markwardt,Craig B. Markwardt,Barbara J. Mattson,Barbara J. Mattson,Richard Mushotzky,Jay P. Norris,J. P. Osborne,Bohdan Paczynski,David Palmer,H.-S. Park,A. M. Parsons,J. A. Paul,Martin J. Rees,Christopher S. Reynolds,James E. Rhoads,T. P. Sasseen,Bradley E. Schaefer,A. Short,Alan P. Smale,Alan P. Smale,Ian Smith,Luigi Stella,Gianpiero Tagliaferri,Tadayuki Takahashi,Makoto Tashiro,Leisa K. Townsley,Jack Tueller,Martin J. L. Turner,M. Vietri,Wolfgang Voges,Martin Ward,Richard Willingale,F. M. Zerbi,W. W. Zhang +77 more
TL;DR: The Swift mission as discussed by the authors is a multi-wavelength observatory for gamma-ray burst (GRB) astronomy, which is a first-of-its-kind autonomous rapid-slewing satellite for transient astronomy and pioneers the way for future rapid-reaction and multiwavelength missions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Spectra and light curves of gamma-ray burst afterglows
TL;DR: In this paper, the broadband spectrum and corresponding light curve of synchrotron radiation from a power-law distribution of electrons in an expanding relativistic shock were calculated for the gamma-ray burst afterglow.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Swift X-ray telescope
David N. Burrows,Joanne E. Hill,John A. Nousek,J. A. Kennea,Alan A. Wells,J. P. Osborne,A. F. Abbey,A. P. Beardmore,K. Mukerjee,A. Short,Guido Chincarini,Sergio Campana,Oberto Citterio,Alberto Moretti,C. Pagani,Gianpiero Tagliaferri,Paolo Giommi,M. Capalbi,F. Tamburelli,Lorella Angelini,Giancarlo Cusumano,Heinrich Bräuninger,Wolfgang Burkert,Gisela Hartner +23 more
TL;DR: The Swift Gamma-Ray Explorer (XRT) as mentioned in this paper uses a mirror set built for JET-X and an XMM-Newton/EPIC MOS CCD detector to provide a sensitive broad-band (0.2-10 keV) X-ray imager with effective area of > 120 cm2 at 1.5 keV, field of view of 23.6 × 23. 6 arcminutes, and angular resolution of 18 arcseconds.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Swift X-ray Telescope
David N. Burrows,Joanne E. Hill,John A. Nousek,J. A. Kennea,Alan A. Wells,J. P. Osborne,A. F. Abbey,A. P. Beardmore,K. Mukerjee,A. Short,Guido Chincarini,Sergio Campana,Oberto Citterio,A. Moretti,C. Pagani,Gianpiero Tagliaferri,Paolo Giommi,M. Capalbi,F. Tamburelli,Lorella Angelini,G. Cusumano,Heinrich W. Braeuninger,Wolfgang Burkert,Gisela Hartner +23 more
TL;DR: The Swift Gamma-Ray Explorer (XRT) as mentioned in this paper uses a mirror set built for JET-X and an XMM/EPIC MOS CCD detector to provide a sensitive broad-band (0.2-10 keV) X-ray imager with effective area of > 120 cm^2 at 1.5 keV, field of view of 23.6 x23.6 arcminutes, and angular resolution of 18 arcseconds (HPD).
Journal ArticleDOI
Identification of two classes of gamma-ray bursts
Chryssa Kouveliotou,Charles A. Meegan,Gerald J. Fishman,Narayana P. Bhat,Michael S. Briggs,Thomas M. Koshut,William S. Paciesas,G. N. Pendleton +7 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the duration distribution of the gamma-ray bursts of the first BATSE catalog is studied and a bimodality in the distribution is found, which separates GRBs into two classes: short events (less than 2 s) and longer ones (more than 2 S).
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