English

Mapping Gamma-Ray Bursts: Distinguishing Progenitor Systems Through Machine Learning

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2025-08-29 v1

Abstract

We present an analysis of gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor classification, through their positions on a Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) plot, constructed by Negro et al. 2024, from Fermi-GBM waterfall plots. The embedding plot has a head-tail morphology, in which GRBs with confirmed progenitors (e.g. collapsars vs. binary neutron star mergers) fall in distinct regions. We investigate the positions of various proposed sub-populations of GRBs, including those with and without radio afterglow emission, those with the lowest intrinsic luminosity, and those with the longest lasting prompt gamma-ray duration. The radio-bright and radio-dark GRBs fall in the head region of the embedding plot with no distinctive clustering, although the sample size is small. Our low luminosity GRBs fall in the head/collapsar region. A continuous duration gradient reveals an interesting cluster of the longest GRBs (T90>100sT_{90} > 100s) in a distinct region of the plot, possibly warranting further investigation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.20214,
  title  = {Mapping Gamma-Ray Bursts: Distinguishing Progenitor Systems Through Machine Learning},
  author = {Sharleen N. Espinoza and Nicole M. Lloyd-Ronning and Michela Negro and Roseanne M. Cheng and Nicoló Cibrario},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.20214},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:09:10.275Z