The Supercritical Pile GRB Model: The Prompt to Afterglow Evolution

Abstract

The "Supercritical Pile" is a very economical GRB model that provides for the efficient conversion of the energy stored in the protons of a Relativistic Blast Wave (RBW) into radiation and at the same time produces - in the prompt GRB phase, even in the absence of any particle acceleration - a spectral peak at energy $\sim 1$ MeV. We extend this model to include the evolution of the RBW Lorentz factor $\Gamma$ and thus follow its spectral and temporal features into the early GRB afterglow stage. One of the novel features of the present treatment is the inclusion of the feedback of the GRB produced radiation on the evolution of $\Gamma$ with radius. This feedback and the presence of kinematic and dynamic thresholds in the model are sources of potentially very rich time evolution which we have began to explore. In particular, one can this way obtain afterglow light curves with steep decays followed by the more conventional flatter afterglow slopes, while at the same time preserving the desirable features of the model, i.e. the well defined relativistic electron source and radiative processes that produce the proper peak in the $\nu F_{\nu }$ spectra. In this note we present the results of a specific set of parameters of this model with emphasis on the multiwavelength prompt emission and transition to the early afterglow.

11 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

References in corpus (17)

• Spectra and Light Curves of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows
• The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Jets in GRBs
• Discovery of the X-Ray Afterglow of the Gamma-Ray Burst of February 28 1997
• Gamma-Ray Bursts: Progress, Problems & Prospects
• GRB Formation Rates inferred from the Spectral Peak Energy - Luminosity Relation
• The BATSE Gamma-Ray Burst Spectral Catalog. I. High Time Resolution Spectroscopy of Bright Bursts using High Energy Resolution Data
• An analysis of gamma-ray burst spectral break models
• Synchrotron and SSC Emission and the Blast-Wave Model of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• X-ray Flashes from Off-axis Gamma-Ray Bursts
• The Host Galaxies of Short-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts: Luminosities, Metallicities, and Star Formation Rates
• Fireballs Loading and the Blast Wave Model of Gamma Ray Bursts
• Quiescent times in gamma-ray bursts: I. An observed correlation between the durations of subsequent emission episodes
• Magnetohydrodynamics of Gamma-Ray Burst Outflows
• Early multi-wavelength emission from Gamma-ray Bursts: from Gamma-ray to X-ray
• The Optical Variability of the Quasar 3C~279: The Signature of a Decelerating Jet?
• The "Supercritical Pile" GRB Model: Afterglows and GRB, XRR, XRF Unification

Cited by in corpus (10)

• The time-dependent one-zone hadronic model - First principles
• Mrk 421 as a case study for TeV and X-ray variability in leptohadronic models
• Gamma-ray burst spectra and spectral correlations from sub-photospheric Comptonization
• Temporal signatures of leptohadronic feedback mechanisms in compact sources
• On the multiwavelength emission from Gamma Ray Burst afterglows
• Hadronic supercriticality as a trigger for GRB emission
• The supercritical pile gamma-ray burst model: The GRB afterglow steep-decline-and-plateau phase
• Effects of a low electron distribution cutoff on multiwavelength spectra and light curves of GRB afterglows
• The statistics of BAT-to-XRT flux ratio in GRB: Evidence for a characteristic value and its implications
• Hadronic supercriticality in spherically expanding sources: application to GRB prompt emission