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Title: Confronting GRB prompt emission with a model for subphotospheric dissipation

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. KTH Royal Inst. of Technology, Stockholm (Sweden). Dept. of Physics
  2. Univ. College, Cork (Ireland). Physics Dept.

The origin of the prompt emission in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is still an unsolved problem and several different mechanisms have been suggested. We fit Fermi GRB data with a photospheric emission model which includes dissipation of the jet kinetic energy below the photosphere. The resulting spectra are dominated by Comptonization and contain no significant contribution from synchrotron radiation. In order to fit to the data, we span a physically motivated part of the model's parameter space and create DREAM (Dissipation with Radiative Emission as A table Model), a table model for XSPEC. Here, we show that this model can describe different kinds of GRB spectra, including GRB 090618, representing a typical Band function spectrum, and GRB 100724B, illustrating a double peaked spectrum, previously fitted with a Band+blackbody model, suggesting they originate from a similar scenario. We also suggest that the main difference between these two types of bursts is the optical depth at the dissipation site.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1354921
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Vol. 454, Issue 1; ISSN 1745-3925
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 33 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (14)

Time-resolved GRB polarization with POLAR and GBM: Simultaneous spectral and polarization analysis with synchrotron emission journal July 2019
Is spectral width a reliable measure of GRB emission physics? journal September 2019
On the α–intensity correlation in gamma-ray bursts: subphotospheric heating with varying entropy journal January 2019
Testing a model for subphotospheric dissipation in GRBs: fits to Fermi data constrain the dissipation scenario journal January 2019
Non-dissipative photospheres in GRBs: spectral appearance in the Fermi/GBM catalogue journal May 2019
Toward an Understanding of grb Prompt Emission Mechanism. i. the Origin of Spectral lags journal July 2016
Modeling the High-energy Emission in GRB 110721A and Implications on the Early Multiwavelength and Polarimetric Observations journal October 2017
The Bright and the Slow—GRBs 100724B and 160509A with High-energy Cutoffs at ≲100 MeV journal September 2018
Toward an Understanding of GRB Prompt Emission Mechanism. II. Patterns of Peak Energy Evolution and Their Connection to Spectral Lags journal December 2018
Investigating Subphotospheric Dissipation in Gamma-Ray Bursts Using Joint FermiSwift Observations journal July 2019
Is Spectral Width a Reliable Measure of GRB Emission Physics? conference December 2017
Towards an understanding of GRB prompt emission mechanism: I. The origin of spectral lags text January 2015
Modeling the high-energy emission in GRB 110721A and implications on the early multiwavelength and polarimetric observations text January 2017
Toward an understanding of GRB prompt emission mechanism: II. Patterns of peak energy evolution and their connection to spectral lags text January 2018