GRB 200415A: A Short Gamma-Ray Burst from a Magnetar Giant Flare?
Abstract
The giant flares of soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) have long been proposed to contribute to at least a subsample of the observed short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). In this paper, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the high-energy data of the recent bright short GRB 200415A, which was located close to the Sculptor galaxy. Our results suggest that a magnetar giant flare provides the most natural explanation for most observational properties of GRB 200415A, including its location, temporal and spectral features, energy, statistical correlations, and high-energy emissions. On the other hand, the compact star merger GRB model is found to have difficulty reproducing such an event in a nearby distance. Future detections and follow-up observations of similar events are essential to firmly establish the connection between SGR giant flares and a subsample of nearby short GRBs.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2010.05128,
title = {GRB 200415A: A Short Gamma-Ray Burst from a Magnetar Giant Flare?},
author = {Jun Yang and Vikas Chand and Bin-Bin Zhang and Yu-Han Yang and Jin-Hang Zou and Yi-Si Yang and Xiao-Hong Zhao and Lang Shao and Shao-Lin Xiong and Qi Luo and Xiao-Bo Li and Shuo Xiao and Cheng-Kui Li and Cong-Zhan Liu and Jagdish C. Joshi and Vidushi Sharma and Manoneeta Chakraborty and Ye Li and Bing Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.05128},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
ApJ published in August 2020 (Yang et al. 2020, ApJ, 899, 106)