The origin of the plateau and late rebrightening in the afterglow of GRB 120326A
- Department of Astronomy and Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361005 (China)
- School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China)
GRB 120326A is an unusual gamma-ray burst (GRB) that has a long plateau and a very late rebrightening in both X-ray and optical bands. The similar behavior of the optical and X-ray light curves suggests that they may share a common origin. The long plateau starts at several hundred seconds and ends at tens of thousands of seconds, and the peak time of the late rebrightening is about 30,000 s. We analyze the energy injection model by means of numerical and analytical solutions, considering both the wind environment and the interstellar medium environment for GRB afterglows. We particularly study the influence of the injection starting time, ending time, stellar wind density (or density of the circumburst environment), and injection luminosity on the shape of the afterglow light curves, respectively. In the wind model, we find that the light curve is largely affected by the parameters and that there is a 'bump' in the late stage. In the wind environment, we found that the longer the energy is injected, the more obvious the rebrightening will be. We also find that the peak time of the bump is determined by the stellar wind density. We use the late continuous injection model to interpret the unusual afterglow of GRB 120326A. The model fits the observational data well; however, we find that the timescale of the injection must be higher than 10,000 s, which implies that the timescale of the central engine activity must also be more than 10,000 s. This information can give useful constraints on the central engines of GRBs—we consider a newborn millisecond pulsar with a strong magnetic field to be the central engine. On the other hand, our results suggest that the circumburst environment of GRB 120326A is very likely a stellar wind.
- OSTI ID:
- 22357100
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 785, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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