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GRB afterglow light curves from uniform and non-uniform jets

Dec, 2002
5 pages
Published in:
  • Astron.Astrophys. 400 (2003) 415-420
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Abstract: (arXiv)
Here we calculate the GRB afterglow light curves from a relativistic jet as seen by observers at a wide range of viewing angles from the jet axis, and the jet is uniform or non-uniform. We find that, for uniform jet the afterglow light curves for different viewing angles are somewhat different: in general, there are two breaks in the light curve, corresponding to the time γ∼(θj−θv)−1\gamma\sim (\theta_j-\theta_v)^{-1} and γ∼(θj+θv)−1\gamma\sim (\theta_j+\theta_v)^{-1} respectively. However, for non-uniform jet, the things become more complicated. For the case θv=0\theta_v=0, we can obtain the analytical results, for k<8/(p+4)k<8/(p+4) there should be two breaks in the light curve correspond to γ∼θc−1\gamma\sim\theta_c^{-1} and γ∼θj−1\gamma\sim\theta_j^{-1} respectively, while for k>8/(p+4)k>8/(p+4) there should be only one break corresponds to γ∼θc−1\gamma\sim\theta_c^{-1}, and this provides a possible explanation for some rapidly fading afterglows whose light curves have no breaks since the time at which γ∼θc−1\gamma\sim\theta_c^{-1} is much earlier than our first observation time. For the case θv≠0\theta_v\neq 0, our numerical results show that, the afterglow light curves are strongly affected by the values of θv\theta_v, θc\theta_c and kk. If the values of θv/θc\theta_v/\theta_c and kk are larger, there will be a prominent flattening in the afterglow light curve, which is quite different from the uniform jet, and after the flattening a very sharp break will be occurred at the time $\gamma\sim (\theta_v + \theta_c)^{-1}.