GRB 221009A: The BOAT

Burns, Eric; Svinkin, Dmitry; Fenimore, Edward; Kann, D. Alexander; Agüí Fernández, José Feliciano; Frederiks, Dmitry; Hamburg, Rachel; Lesage, Stephen; Temiraev, Yuri; Tsvetkova, Anastasia; Bissaldi, Elisabetta; Briggs, Michael S.; Dalessi, Sarah; Dunwoody, Rachel; Fletcher, Cori; Goldstein, Adam; Hui, C. Michelle; Hristov, Boyan A.; Kocevski, Daniel; Lysenko, Alexandra L.; Mailyan, Bagrat; Mangan, Joseph; McBreen, Sheila; Racusin, Judith; Ridnaia, Anna; Roberts, Oliver J.; Ulanov, Mikhail; Veres, Peter; Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A.; Wood, Joshua

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/acc39c

GRB 221009A: The BOAT

Journal Article · Tue Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · The Astrophysical Journal. Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acc39c· OSTI ID:2523971

^[1]; ^[2]; Fenimore, Edward ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[5]; ^[2]; ^[6]; ^[7]; ^[2]; ^[8]; ^[9]; ^[7]; ^[7]; ^[10]; ^[11]; ^[11]; ^[12]; ^[7]; ^[12]; ^[2] more »

Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States)
Ioffe Institute (Russian Federation)
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Goethe Univ., Frankfurt (Germany)
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Granada (Spain). Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia
Univ. Paris-Saclay, Orsay (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (France)
Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States)
Ioffe Institute (Russian Federation); Università degli Studi di Cagliari (Italy)
Polytechnic University of Bari (Italy); Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) (Italy)
University College Dublin (Ireland)
Universities Space Research Association, Huntsville, AL (United States)
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Huntsville, AL (United States)
Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL (United States)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)

GRB 221009A has been referred to as the brightest of all time (BOAT). We investigate the veracity of this statement by comparing it with a half century of prompt gamma-ray burst observations. This burst is the brightest ever detected by the measures of peak flux and fluence. Unexpectedly, GRB 221009A has the highest isotropic-equivalent total energy ever identified, while the peak luminosity is at the ~99th percentile of the known distribution. We explore how such a burst can be powered and discuss potential implications for ultralong and high-redshift gamma-ray bursts. By geometric extrapolation of the total fluence and peak flux distributions, GRB 221009A appears to be a once-in-10,000-year event. Thus, it is almost certainly not the BOAT over all of cosmic history; it may be the brightest gamma-ray burst since human civilization began.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001

OSTI ID:: 2523971

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--23-21871

Journal Information:: The Astrophysical Journal. Letters, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal. Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 946; ISSN 2041-8205

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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GRB 221009A: The BOAT

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