Prevalence of Extra Power-Law Spectral Components in Short Gamma-Ray Bursts

Abstract

Prompt extra power-law (PL) spectral component is discovered in some bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which usually dominates the spectral energy distribution below tens of keV or above about 10 MeV. However, its origin is still unclear. In this paper, we present a systematic analysis 13 Fermi short GRBs as of August 2020, with the contemporaneous keV-MeV and GeV detections at the prompt emission phase. We find that the extra PL component is a ubiquitous spectral feature for short GRBs, showing up in all 13 analyzed GRBs. The PL indices are mostly harder than -2.0, which may be well reproduced by considering the electromagnetic cascade induced by ultra-relativistic protons or electrons accelerated in the prompt emission phase. The average flux of these extra PL components positively correlates with that of the main spectral components, which implies they may share the same physical origin.

Accepted for publication in ApJ. 22 pages, 9 figures, 7 tables

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