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Title: LUMINOSITY CORRELATIONS FOR GAMMA-RAY BURSTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THEIR PROMPT AND AFTERGLOW EMISSION MECHANISMS

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
 [1];
  1. Mathematics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Malta, Msida MSD2080 (Malta)

We present the relation between the (z- and k-corrected) spectral lags, {tau}, for the standard Swift energy bands 50-100 keV and 100-200 keV and the peak isotropic luminosity, L{sub iso} (a relation reported first by Norris et al.), for a subset of 12 long Swift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) taken from a recent study of this relation by Ukwatta et al. The chosen GRBs are also a subset of the Dainotti et al. sample, a set of Swift GRBs of known redshift, employed in establishing a relation between the (GRB frame) luminosity, L{sub X} , of the shallow (or constant) flux portion of the typical X-Ray Telescope GRB-afterglow light curve and the (GRB frame) time of transition to the normal decay rate, T{sub brk}. We also present the L{sub X} -T{sub brk} relation using only the bursts common in the two samples. The two relations exhibit a significant degree of correlation ({rho} = -0.65 for the L{sub iso}-{tau} and {rho} = -0.88 for the L{sub X} -T{sub brk} relation) and have surprisingly similar best-fit power-law indices (-1.19 {+-} 0.17 for L{sub iso}-{tau} and -1.10 {+-} 0.03 for L{sub X} -T{sub brk}). Even more surprisingly, we noted that although {tau} and T{sub brk} represent different GRB time variables, it appears that the first relation (L{sub iso}-{tau}) extrapolates into the second one for timescales {tau} {approx_equal} T{sub brk}. This fact suggests that these two relations have a common origin, which we conjecture to be kinematic. This relation adds to the recently discovered relations between properties of the prompt and afterglow GRB phases, indicating a much more intimate relation between these two phases than hitherto considered.

OSTI ID:
22092091
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 758, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English