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Title: GRB110721A: An extreme peak energy and signatures of the photosphere

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal. Letters
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GRB110721A was observed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope using its two instruments, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). This burst consisted of one major emission episode which lasted for ~24.5 s (in the GBM) and had a peak flux of (5.7 ± 0.2) × 10–5 erg s–1 cm–2. The time-resolved emission spectrum is best modeled with a combination of a Band function and a blackbody spectrum. The peak energy of the Band component was initially 15 ± 2 MeV, which is the highest value ever detected in a GRB. We made this measurement by combining GBM/BGO data with LAT Low Energy events to achieve continuous 10-100 MeV coverage. The peak energy later decreased as a power law in time with an index of –1.89 ± 0.10. The temperature of the blackbody component also decreased, starting from ~80 keV, and the decay showed a significant break after ~2 s. The spectrum provides strong constraints on the standard synchrotron model, indicating that alternative mechanisms may give rise to the emission at these energies.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Contributing Organization:
Fermi LAT Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1356670
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal. Letters, Vol. 757, Issue 2; ISSN 2041-8205
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 142 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Spectral evolution in gamma-ray bursts: Predictions of the internal shock model and comparison to observations journal August 2014
Synchrotron cooling in energetic gamma-ray bursts observed by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor journal December 2014
The Fermi GBM gamma-ray burst time-resolved spectral catalog: brightest bursts in the first four years journal March 2016
What can we learn from “internal plateaus”? The peculiar afterglow of GRB 070110 journal September 2017
The X-shooter GRB afterglow legacy sample (XS-GRB) journal March 2019
Prompt optical emission as a signature of synchrotron radiation in gamma-ray bursts journal August 2019
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TIME-RESOLVED ANALYSIS OF FERMI GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH FAST- AND SLOW-COOLED SYNCHROTRON PHOTON MODELS journal February 2014
PHOTOSPHERE EMISSION FROM A HYBRID RELATIVISTIC OUTFLOW WITH ARBITRARY DIMENSIONLESS ENTROPY AND MAGNETIZATION IN GRBs journal March 2015
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Non-dissipative photospheres in GRBs: spectral appearance in the Fermi/GBM catalogue journal May 2019
The First Pulse of the Extremely Bright GRB 130427A: A Test Lab for Synchrotron Shocks journal November 2013
Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts Prompt Emission journal January 2015
Synchrotron Origin of the Typical grb band Function—A case Study of grb 130606b journal January 2016
Modeling the High-energy Emission in GRB 110721A and Implications on the Early Multiwavelength and Polarimetric Observations journal October 2017
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The Bright and the Slow—GRBs 100724B and 160509A with High-energy Cutoffs at ≲100 MeV journal September 2018
Multicolor Blackbody Emission in GRB 081221 journal October 2018
Multiple Components in the Broadband γ -Ray Emission of the Short GRB 160709A journal May 2019
Inverse Compton Scattering Spectra of Gamma-Ray Burst Prompt Emission journal May 2019
The Time-resolved Spectra of Photospheric Emission from a Structured Jet for Gamma-Ray Bursts journal August 2019
Lorentz Factor Evolution of an Expanding Jet Shell Observed in a Gamma-Ray Burst: Case Study of GRB 160625B journal October 2019
Bayesian Time-resolved Spectroscopy of GRB Pulses journal November 2019
Spectral Analysis of Fermi -LAT Gamma-Ray Bursts with Known Redshift and their Potential Use as Cosmological Standard Candles journal December 2019
Fermi and Swift Observations of GRB 190114C: Tracing the Evolution of High-energy Emission from Prompt to Afterglow journal February 2020
Multipulse Fermi Gamma-Ray Bursts. I. Evidence of the Transition from Fireball to Poynting-flux-dominated Outflow journal May 2019
Thermal Components in Gamma-Ray Bursts. I. How Do They Affect Nonthermal Spectral Parameters? journal November 2019
Time-varying Polarized Gamma-Rays from GRB 160821A: Evidence for Ordered Magnetic Fields journal September 2019
Energetic and Broad Band Spectral Distribution of Emission from Astronomical Jets book January 2013
The First Pulse of the Extremely Bright GRB 130427A: A Test Lab for Synchrotron Shocks text January 2014
Fermi and Swift Observations of GRB 190114C: Tracing the Evolution of High-Energy Emission from Prompt to Afterglow text January 2020
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Evidence for a Photospheric Component in the Prompt Emission of the Short GRB120323A and its Effects on the GRB Hardness-Luminosity Relation text January 2012
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Synchrotron Cooling in Energetic Gamma-Ray Bursts Observed by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor text January 2014
Measuring the bulk Lorentz factors of gamma-ray bursts with Fermi preprint January 2014
Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts Prompt Emission text January 2015
Synchrotron Origin of the Typical GRB Band Function - A Case Study of GRB 130606B text January 2015
The Fermi GBM gamma-ray burst time-resolved spectral catalog: brightest bursts in the first four years text January 2016
Polarization of gamma-ray bursts in the dissipative photosphere model preprint January 2016
Modeling the high-energy emission in GRB 110721A and implications on the early multiwavelength and polarimetric observations text January 2017
The X-shooter GRB afterglow legacy sample (XS-GRB) text January 2018
Multi-color blackbody emission in GRB 081221 text January 2018
MultiPulse {\it Fermi} Gamma-Ray Bursts. I. Evidence of the Transition from Fireball to Poynting-flux-dominated Outflow text January 2018
Inverse Compton Scattering Spectra of Gamma-Ray Burst Prompt Emission text January 2019
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Fermi and Swift Observations of GRB 190114C: Tracing the Evolution of High-Energy Emission from Prompt to Afterglow text January 2019
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