paper

A Comprehensive Study of Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Emission: I. Flares and Early Shallow Decay Component

arXiv:1203.2332 · doi:10.1088/0004-637X/758/1/27

Abstract

Well-sampled optical lightcurves of 146 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are compiled from the literature. By empirical fitting we identify eight possible emission components and summarize the results in a "synthetic" lightcurve. Both optical flare and early shallow-decay components are likely related to long-term central engine activities. We focus on their statistical properties in this paper. Twenty-four optical flares are obtained from 19 GRBs. The isotropic R-band energy is smaller than 1% of . The relation between isotropic luminosities of the flares and gamma-rays follows . Later flares tend to be wider and dimmer, i.e., and . The detection probability of the optical flares is much smaller than that of X-ray flares. An optical shallow decay segment is observed in 39 GRBs. The relation between the break time and break luminosity is a power-law, with an index of , similar to that derived from X-ray flares. The X-ray and optical breaks are usually chromatic, but a tentative correlation is found. We suggest that similar to the prompt optical emission that tracks -rays, the optical flares are also related to the erratic behavior of the central engine. The shallow decay component is likely related to a long-lasting spinning-down central engine or piling up of flare materials onto the blastwave. Mixing of different emission components may be the reason of the diverse chromatic afterglow behaviors.

43 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

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