Extremely soft X-ray flash as the indicator of off-axis orphan GRB afterglow
- Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Chung-Li 32054, Taiwan (China)
- Department of Mathematics and Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Lin-kou District, New Taipei City 24449, Taiwan (China)
- Department of Physics and Mathematics, College of Science and Engineering, Aoyama Gakuin University, 5-10-1 Fuchinobe, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara-shi, Kanagawa 252-5258 (Japan)
We verified the off-axis jet model of X-ray flashes (XRFs) and examined a discovery of off-axis orphan gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. The XRF sample was selected on the basis of the following three factors: (1) a constraint on the lower peak energy of the prompt spectrum E{sub obs}{sup src}, (2) redshift measurements, and (3) multicolor observations of an earlier (or brightening) phase. XRF 020903 was the only sample selected on the basis of these criteria. A complete optical multicolor afterglow light curve of XRF 020903 obtained from archived data and photometric results in the literature showed an achromatic brightening around 0.7 days. An off-axis jet model with a large observing angle (0.21 rad, which is twice the jet opening half-angle, θ{sub jet}) can naturally describe the achromatic brightening and the prompt X-ray spectral properties. This result indicates the existence of off-axis orphan GRB afterglow light curves. Events with a larger viewing angle (>∼2θ{sub jet}) could be discovered using an 8 m class telescope with wide-field imagers such as the Subaru Hyper-Suprime-Cam and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.
- OSTI ID:
- 22883010
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 806, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Since 2009, the country of publication for this journal is the UK.; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
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