The Search for High Energy Extended Emission by Fermi-LAT from Swift-Localized Gamma-Ray Bursts
The brighter Fermi-LAT bursts have exhibited emission at energies >0.1 GeV that persists as late as {approx}2 ks after the prompt phase has nominally ended. This so-called 'extended emission' could arise from continued activity of the prompt burst mechanism or it could be the start of a high energy afterglow component. The high energy extended emission seen by the LAT has typically followed a t{sup -}{gamma} power-law temporal decay where {gamma} {approx} 1.2-1.7 and has shown no strong indication of spectral evolution. In contrast, the prompt burst emission generally displays strong spectral variability and more complex temporal changes in the LAT band. This differing behavior suggests that the extended emission likely corresponds to an early afterglow phase produced by an external shock. In this study, we look for evidence of high energy extended emission from 145 Swift-localized GRBs that have occurred since the launch of Fermi. A majority of these bursts were either outside of the LAT field-of-view or were otherwise not detected by the LAT during the prompt phase. However, because of the scanning operation of the Fermi satellite, the long-lived extended emission of these bursts may be detectable in the LAT data on the {approx}few ks time scale. We will look for emission from individual bursts and will perform a stacking analysis in order to set bounds on this emission for the sample as a whole. The detection of such emission would have implications for afterglow models and for the overall energy budget of GRBs.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 1039541
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-REPRINT-2012-071; TRN: US1202166
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conf.Proc.1358:205-208,2011, Conference: Contributed toGamma Ray Bursts 2010, Annapolis, MD, USA, 11/1/2010-11/4/2010
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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