The power of the rings: the GRB 221009A soft X-ray emission from its dust-scattering halo

Abstract

GRB 221009A is the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever detected and occurred at low Galactic latitude. Owing to this exceptional combination, its prompt X-ray emission could be detected for weeks in the form of expanding X-ray rings produced by scattering in Galactic dust clouds. We report on the analysis of 20 rings, generated by dust at distances ranging from 0.3 to 18.6 kpc, detected during two XMM-Newton observations performed about 2 and 5 days after the GRB. By fitting the spectra of the rings with different models for the dust composition and grain size distribution, we reconstructed the spectrum of the GRB prompt emission in the 0.7-4 keV energy range as an absorbed power law with photon index 1-1.4 and absorption in the host galaxy nHz=(4.1-5.3)E21 cm-2. Taking into account the systematic uncertainties on the column density of dust contained in the clouds producing the rings, the 0.5-5 keV fluence of GRB 221009A can be constrained between 1E-3 and 7E-3 erg cm-2.

arXiv comment14 pages, 7 figures, submitted to ApJL

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• A Sensitive Search for Supernova Emission Associated with the Extremely Energetic and Nearby GRB 221009A
• The peak-flux of GRB 221009A measured with GRBAlpha
• Camelidae on BOAT: observation of a second spectral component in GRB 221009A
• Probing the interstellar medium toward GRB 221009A through X-ray dust scattering
• Expansion and Spectral Softening of the Dust Scattering Rings of GRB 221009A
• The optical constants and grain sizes of interstellar dust measured directly using the dust scattered x-ray halo of GRB 221009A