English

A Comprehensive Analysis of Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Data: II. $E_{\rm p}$-Evolution Patterns and Implications for the Observed Spectrum-Luminosity Relations

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2012-08-23 v2

Abstract

We present a time-resolved spectral analysis of 51 long and 11 short bright GRBs observed with the {\em Femri}/GBM, paying special attention to EpE_{\rm p} evolution within a same burst. Among 8 single-pulse long GRBs, 5 show hard-to-soft evolution, while 3 show intensity-tracking. The multi-pulse long GRBs have more complicated patterns. Among the GRBs whose time-resolved spectrum is available for the first pulse, almost half (15/32 GRBs) show clear hard-to-soft evolution, and the other half (17/32 GRBs) show clear intensity-tracking. Later pulses typically show the tracking behavior, although a hard-to-soft evolution pattern was identified in the 2nd pulse of 2 GRBs whose pulses are well separated. Statistically, the hard-to-soft evolution pulses tend to be more asymmetric than the intensity-tracking ones, with a steeper rising wing than the falling wing. Short GRBs have EpE_{\rm p} tracking intensity exclusively with the 16ms time resolution analysis. We performed a simulation analysis, and suggest that at least for some bursts, the late intensity-tracking pulses could be a consequence of overlapping hard-to-soft pulses. However, the fact that the intensity-tracking pattern exists in the first pulse of multi-pulse long GRBs and some single-pulse GRBs suggest that intensity tracking is an independent component, which may operate in some late pulses as well. For the GRBs with measured redshifts, we present a time-resolved EpLγ,isoE_{\rm p}-L_{\gamma, \rm iso} correlation analysis and show that the scatter of the correlation is comparable to that of the global Amati/Yonetoku relation. We discuss the predictions of various radiation models regarding EpE_{\rm p} evolution, as well as the possibility of a precession jet in GRBs. It seems that the data pose great challenge to all these models, and hold the key to unveil the physics of GRB prompt emission.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1204.0714,
  title  = {A Comprehensive Analysis of Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Data: II. $E_{\rm p}$-Evolution Patterns and Implications for the Observed Spectrum-Luminosity Relations},
  author = {Rui-Jing Lu and Jun-Jie Wei and En-Wei Liang and Bin-Bin Zhang and Hou-Jun Lü and Lian-Zhong and Lü and Wei-Hua Lei and Bing Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.0714},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

9 figures and 1 table. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal