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Probing the Nature of High-Redshift Long GRB 250114A and Its Magnetar Central Engine

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2025-11-27 v1

Abstract

GRB 250114A is a long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) which triggered the Swift/BAT with a spectroscopic high-redshift at z=4.732z = 4.732. The light curve of the prompt emission is composed of three distinct emission episodes, which are separated by quiescent gaps ranging from tens to hundreds of seconds. While the X-ray light curve exhibits the canonical X-ray emission which is composed of several power-law segments superposition of a giant X-ray flare. More interestingly, there is still significant X-ray emission during the quiescent time in the prompt emission, suggesting a continuously active central engine whose power fluctuates across the γ\gamma-ray detectability threshold. In this paper, we propose a magnetar as the central engine of GRB 250114A by fitting the X-ray light curve, and infer a magnetic field strength Bp=13.245.84+1.73×1015 GB_{\rm p}=13.24^{+1.73}_{-5.84} \, \times10^{15}\ \mathrm{G} and an initial spin period P0=14.313.16+0.93msP_{0}=14.31^{+0.93}_{-3.16} \, \mathrm{ms} of magnetar, with a jet correction, fall within a reasonable range. Furthermore, we also compare the prompt emission, X-ray afterglow, EpE_{\mathrm p}-Eγ,isoE_{\gamma,\mathrm{iso}}, and ε\varepsilon-distribution of GBR 250114A with those of other high-zz sample-GRBs, and find no significant statistical differences between them.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.21419,
  title  = {Probing the Nature of High-Redshift Long GRB 250114A and Its Magnetar Central Engine},
  author = {Wen-Yuan Yu and Hou-Jun Lü and Xiao Tian and Liang-Jun Chen and En-Wei Liang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.21419},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

16 pages, 7 figures, and 3 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ