paper

The rapid decline of the prompt emission in Gamma-Ray Bursts

arXiv:0709.4307 · doi:10.1086/587952

Abstract

Many gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have been observed with the Burst-Alert and X-Ray telescopes of the Swift satellite. The successive `pulses' of these GRBs end with a fast decline and a fast spectral softening, until they are overtaken by another pulse, or the last pulse's decline is overtaken by a less rapidly-varying `afterglow'. The fast decline-phase has been attributed, in the currently-explored standard fireball model of GRBs, to `high-latitude' synchrotron emission from a collision of two conical shells. This high latitude emission does not explain the observed spectral softening. In contrast, the temporal behaviour and the spectral evolution during the fast-decline phase agree with the predictions of the cannonball model of GRBs.

Four added figures comparing the evolution of the inferred effective photon spectral index during the fast decline phase of the prompt emission in 14 selected Swift GRBS and the cannonball (CB) model prediction

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