Fast-Cooling Synchrotron Prompt Emission from Internal Shocks in GRB 241030A
Abstract
We present a time-resolved, joint Swift-Fermi spectral study of GRB 241030A (z=1.411) that cleanly isolates the synchrotron origin of its prompt emission and favors a matter-dominated, internal-shock scenario. The light curve shows two episodes separated by a quiescent gap. Episode I (0-45 s) is well described by a single power law with photon index , consistent with the fast-cooling synchrotron slope below the peak. Episode II (100-200 s), exhibits two robust spectral breaks: a low-energy break at keV that remains nearly constant in time, and a spectral peak that tracks the flux within pulses but steps down between them. The photon indices below and above cluster around -2/3 and -3/2, respectively, as expected for fast-cooling synchrotron emission. The burst displays an unusually small (consistent with zero) spectral lag across GBM bands. At later times ( s), the spectrum softens toward , as expected when the observing band lies above both and . These behaviors are difficult to reconcile with a globally magnetized outflow with a decaying field, which naturally produces hard-to-soft Ep evolution, growing , and appreciable lags. By contrast, internal shocks with a roughly steady effective magnetic field and a time-variable minimum electron Lorentz factor (equivalently, e.g., a varying fraction of accelerated electrons simultaneously account for (i) the stable , (ii) the intensity-tracking yet step-down , (iii) the canonical -2/3 and -3/2 slopes, and (iv) the near-zero lag.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.24864,
title = {Fast-Cooling Synchrotron Prompt Emission from Internal Shocks in GRB 241030A},
author = {Varun and Bin-Bin Zhang and Xiao-Hong Zhao and Jun Yang and Run-Chao Chen and Vikas Chand},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.24864},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
16 pages, 8 Figures, 3 Tables. Submitted to APJ