On the Mechanism of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

Abstract

The standard model of afterglow production by the forward shock wave is not supported by recent observations. We propose a model in which the forward shock is invisible and afterglow is emitted by a long-lived reverse shock in the burst ejecta. It explains observed optical and X-ray light curves, including the plateau at 10^3-10^4 s with a peculiar chromatic break, and the second break that was previously associated with a beaming angle of the explosion. The plateau forms following a temporary drop of the reverse-shock pressure much below the forward-shock pressure. A simplest formalism that can describe such blast waves is the ``mechanical'' model (Beloborodov, Uhm 2006); we use it in our calculations.

arXiv comment11 pages, 3 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters

References in corpus (15)

• Spectra and Light Curves of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows
• The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Optical and Long Wavelength Afterglow from Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Evidence for a Canonical GRB Afterglow Light Curve in the Swift/XRT Data
• The Dynamics and Light Curves of Beamed Gamma Ray Burst Afterglows
• The early X-ray emission from GRBs
• Refreshed Shocks and Afterglow Longevity in GRB
• GRB990123, The Optical Flash and The Fireball Model
• GRB 990123: Reverse and Internal Shock Flashes and Late Afterglow
• Evidence for chromatic X-ray light-curve breaks in Swift GRB afterglows and their theoretical implications
• Very Early Optical Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts: Evidence for Relative Paucity of Detection
• Optical and GeV-TeV flashes from gamma-ray bursts
• Mechanical Model for Relativistic Blast Waves
• The Slow Decay of Some Radio Afterglows, a Puzzle for the Simplest GRB Fireball Model
• Afterglow emission from pair-loaded blast waves in gamma-ray bursts

Cited by in corpus (113)

• Methods and results of an automatic analysis of a complete sample of Swift-XRT observations of GRBs
• The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Relativistic Jets
• Magnetic acceleration of ultra-relativistic jets in gamma-ray burst sources
• Jet breaks and Energetics of Swift GRB X-ray Afterglows
• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• A Comprehensive Analysis of the Swift/XRT Data: II. Diverse Physical Origins of the Shallow Decay Segment
• A Complete Reference of the Analytical Synchrotron External Shock Models of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• High-energy cosmic-ray nuclei from high- and low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts and implications for multi-messenger astronomy
• How Bad/Good Are the External Forward Shock Afterglow Models of Gamma-Ray Bursts?
• Open Questions in GRB Physics
• High energy neutrino early afterglows from gamma-ray bursts revisited
• Correlations of Prompt and Afterglow Emission in Swift Long and Short Gamma Ray Bursts
• The Troublesome Broadband Evolution of GRB 061126: Does a Grey Burst Imply Grey Dust?
• A unifying view of Gamma Ray Burst Afterglows
• Afterglow Model for the Radio Emission from the Jetted Tidal Disruption Candidate Swift J1644+57
• Global Properties of X-Ray Flashes and X-Ray-Rich Gamma-Ray Bursts Observed by Swift
• X-ray Plateaus in Gamma Ray Bursts' light-curves from jets viewed slightly off-axis
• Electrons' energy in GRB afterglows implied by radio peaks
• The Radio to GeV Afterglow of GRB 221009A
• GRB 130925A: an ultra-long Gamma Ray Burst with a dust-echo afterglow, and implications for the origin of the ultra-long GRBs
• On the electron energy distribution index of Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows
• Modeling Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Flares within the Internal Shock Model
• The Prompt Gamma-Ray and Afterglow Energies of Short-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Phenomenology of Reverse-Shock Emission in the Optical Afterglows of Gamma Ray Bursts
• Structured Jets and X-ray Plateaus in Gamma-Ray Burst Phenomena
• On the existence of a reverse shock in magnetized GRB ejecta
• On Fermi acceleration and MHD-instabilities at ultra-relativistic magnetized shock waves
• Production of magnetic energy by macroscopic turbulence in GRB afterglows
• Dynamics and Afterglow Light Curves of GRB Blast Waves with a Long-lived Reverse Shock
• Rise and fall of the X-ray flash 080330: an off-axis jet?
• Multicolor observations of the afterglow of the short/hard GRB 050724
• A Comprehensive Analysis of Swift/XRT Data: IV. Single Power-Law Decaying Lightcurves vs. Canonical Lightcurves and Implications for a Unified Origin of X-rays
• The influence of circumnuclear environment on the radio emission from TDE jets
• Constraints on millisecond magnetars as the engines of prompt emission in gamma-ray bursts
• On the Implications of Late Internal Dissipation for Shallow-Decay Afterglow Emission and Associated High-Energy Gamma-Ray Signals
• Gravitational waves or deconfined quarks: what causes the premature collapse of neutron stars born in short gamma-ray bursts?
• GRB 090417B and its Host Galaxy: A Step Towards an Understanding of Optically-Dark Gamma-Ray Bursts
• A wind environment and Lorentz factors of tens explain gamma-ray bursts X-ray plateau
• Modeling the early multiwavelength emission in GRB130427A
• On the Existence of the Plateau Emission in High-Energy Gamma-Ray Burst LightCurves observed byFermi-LAT
• X-ray flares, plateaus, and chromatic breaks of GRB afterglows from up-scattered forward-shock emission
• Electromagnetic Emission from newly-born Magnetar Spin-Down by Gravitational-Wave and Magnetic Dipole Radiations
• Jet breaks at the end of the slow decline phase of Swift GRB lightcurves
• GRB 120711A: an intense INTEGRAL burst with long-lasting soft gamma-ray emission and a powerful optical flash
• Gamma-Ray Bursts as Sources of Strong Magnetic Fields
• Prospects for Detecting Gamma-Ray Bursts at Very High Energies with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Estimates for Lorentz factors of gamma-ray bursts from early optical afterglow observations
• X-ray Hardness Variations as an Internal/External Shock Diagnostic
• Determining the efficiency of converting magnetar spin-down energy into gamma-ray burst X-ray afterglow emission and its possible implications
• Ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray nuclei and neutrinos from engine-driven supernovae
• A Semi-analytic Formulation for Relativistic Blast Waves with a Long-lived Reverse Shock
• What can we learn from "internal plateaus"? The peculiar afterglow of GRB 070110
• GRB 110731A: Early afterglow in stellar wind powered by a magnetized outflow
• X-ray flares, neutrino cooled disks, and the dynamics of late accretion in GRB engines
• Coasting external shock in wind medium: an origin for the X-ray plateau decay component in Swift GRB afterglows
• Evidence for New Relations between Gamma Ray Burst Prompt and X-ray Afterglow Emission from 9 Years of Swift
• Time-resolved spectral correlations of long-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Possible Effects of Pair Echoes on Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow Emission
• Are Swift gamma-ray bursts consistent with the Ghirlanda relation?
• Is GRB afterglow emission intrinsically anisotropic ?
• Statistical analyses on the energies of X-ray plateaus and flares in gamma-ray bursts
• High-energy emission as a test of the prior emission model for gamma-ray burst afterglows
• Gamma-ray burst afterglow blast waves
• Observational Signatures of High-Energy Emission during the Shallow Decay Phase of GRB X-Ray Afterglows
• Temporal Evolution of the Gamma-ray Burst Afterglow Spectrum for an Observer: GeV--TeV Synchrotron Self-Compton Light Curve
• Revisiting the Emission from Relativistic Blast Waves in a Density-Jump Medium
• The prompt-early afterglow connection in gamma-ray bursts: implications for the early afterglow physics
• The late-time radio behavior of GRB afterglows: testing the standard model
• Evolving Morphology of the Large-Scale Relativistic Jets from XTE J1550-564
• GRB 091029: At the limit of the fireball scenario
• Dynamics and Afterglow Light Curves of GRB Blast Waves Encountering a Density Bump or Void
• SSC Emission as the Origin of the Gamma Ray Afterglow Observed in GRB 980923
• VLBI and Archival VLA and WSRT Observations of the GRB 030329 Radio Afterglow
• GRB Observational Properties
• Pair-dominated GeV-optical flash in GRB 130427A
• The origin of the optical flashes: The case study of GRB 080319B and GRB 130427A
• The Dust Scattering Model Can Not Explain The Shallow X-ray Decay in GRB Afterglows
• X-ray flares from dense shells formed in gamma-ray burst explosions
• A multiwavelength study of Swift GRB 060111B constraining the origin of its prompt optical emission
• GRB 090510: a short burst from a massive star ?
• The optical rebrightening of GRB100814A: an interplay of forward and reverse shocks?
• Energy injection driven by precessing jets in gamma-ray burst afterglows
• Measuring Ambient Densities and Lorentz Factors of Gamma-Ray Bursts from GeV and Optical Observations
• Reverse Shock Emission in Gamma-ray Bursts Revisited
• The long-active afterglow of GRB 210204A: Detection of the most delayed flares in a Gamma-Ray Burst
• Giant X-ray and optical Bump in GRBs: evidence for fall-back accretion model
• Simulations of gamma-ray burst afterglows with a relativistic kinetic code
• Coherence scale of magnetic fields generated in early-time forward shocks of GRBs
• Combined X-ray and optical analysis to probe the origin of the plateau emission in $\gamma$-ray bursts afterglows
• Relativistic simulations of long-lived reverse shocks in stratified ejecta: the origin of flares in GRB afterglows
• Modeling the Multi-Band Afterglow of GRB 130831A: Evidence for a Spinning-Down Magnetar Dominated by Gravitational Wave Losses?
• The origin of the late rebrightening in GRB 080503
• Relativistic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability of a Decelerating Shell and its Implications for Gamma Ray Bursts
• Infrared dust echoes from neutron star mergers
• Late X-ray flares from the interaction of a reverse shock with a stratified ejecta in GRB afterglows: simulations on a moving mesh
• To power the X-ray plateaus of gamma-ray bursts through larger amplitude electromagnetic waves
• Early GRB afterglows from reverse shocks in ultra-relativistic long-lasting winds
• The possible ubiquity of energy injection in Gamma-Ray Burst afterglows
• Very High Energy Afterglow of Structured Jets: GW 170817 and Prospects for Future Detections
• Dynamics and emission of wind-powered afterglows of gamma-ray bursts: flares, plateaus and steep decays
• The late jet in gamma-ray bursts and its interactions with a supernova ejecta and a cocoon
• Jitter radiation images, spectra, and light curves from a relativistic spherical blastwave
• Was the "naked burst" GRB 050421 really naked ?
• Towards the Properties of Long Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitors with Swift Data
• Optical Behavior of GRB 061121 around its X-Ray Shallow Decay Phase
• Afterglows after Swift
• Relativistic Jets: Open Problems and Challenges
• Gamma-ray bursts afterglows in magnetized stellar winds
• GRB X-ray plateaus as evidence that the afterglow begins before the prompt gamma-ray emission
• Low-frequency gravitational wave memory from gamma-ray burst afterglows with energy injection
• Early afterglows from radially structured outflows and the application to X-ray shallow decays
• EP241217a: a likely Type II GRB with an achromatic bump at z = 4.59
• Study of shock wave dynamics produced by interaction of a fireball with the surrounding medium to it, to explain the x-ray afterglow of Gamma Ray Burst-GRBs