GRB afterglow: Supporting the cosmological fireball model, constraining parameters, and making predictions
Apr, 199710 pages
Published in:
- Astrophys.J.Lett. 485 (1997) L5
e-Print:
- astro-ph/9704116 [astro-ph]
DOI:
Report number:
- IASSNS-AST-97-24
View in:
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Abstract: (arXiv)
Cosmological fireball models of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) predict delayed emission, ``after-glow,'' at longer wavelengths. We present several new results regarding the model predictions, and show that X-ray to optical observations of GRB970228 and GRB970402 are naturally explained by the model: The scaling of flux with time and frequency agrees with model predictions and requires a power law distribution of shock accelerated electrons, dlog N/dlog E=2.3+-0.1 (implying, and consistent with the observed, 1/t decline of flux observed at a given frequency); The absolute flux value agrees with that inferred through the model from observed gamma-ray fluence. The future after-glow emission of these bursts is predicted. The observations indicate that the ratio of magnetic field to equipartition value and the fraction F of dissipated kinetic energy carried by electrons are not much smaller than 1. More frequent observations at a fixed wavelength, or a wide spectrum at a fixed time, would put strong constraints on these parameters. We show that inverse-Compton scattering suppresses X-ray/ optical emission at delays tReferences(12)
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