A re-identification of six Candidate Gravitationally Lensed Gamma-Ray Bursts

Abstract

The gravitational lensing effect of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) holds significant and diverse applications in the field of astronomy. Nevertheless, the identification of millilensing events in GRBs presents substantial challenges. We re-evaluate the gravitational lensing candidacy of six previously proposed GRBs (GRB 081122A, GRB 081126A, GRB 090717A, GRB 110517B, GRB 200716C, and GRB 210812A) using a comprehensive set of temporal and spectral diagnostics. These include ${\chi }^2$ light-curve similarity tests, photon-count-based hardness ratio ($H{R}_{count}$) comparisons, $T_{90}$ duration measurements, spectral lag, Norris pulse-shape fitting, and both time-resolved and time-integrated spectral analyses. We propose an evaluation framework, any single test that reveals a statistically significant inconsistency between the two pulses is sufficient to reject the lensing hypothesis for that burst.Although certain diagnostics, such as $T_{90}$ and parametric model fits, have known limitations, they are applied and interpreted in conjunction with the more robust, model-independent ${\chi }^2$ and $H{R}_{count}$ tests. For all six GRBs, at least one diagnostic shows a significant discrepancy, leading us to conclude that none are consistent with a gravitational lensing interpretation.

16 pages, 8 figures,4 tables.Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal