Agile Detection of Delayed Gamma-Ray Emission from the Short Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 090510
A. Giuliani, F. Fuschino, G. Vianello, M. Marisaldi, S. Mereghetti, M. Tavani, S. Cutini, G. Barbiellini, F. Longo, E. Moretti, M. Feroci, E. Del Monte, A. Arga… 展开作者
A. Giuliani, F. Fuschino, G. Vianello, M. Marisaldi, S. Mereghetti, M. Tavani, S. Cutini, G. Barbiellini, F. Longo, E. Moretti, M. Feroci, E. Del Monte, A. Argan, A. Bulgarelli, P. Caraveo, P. W. Cattaneo, A. W. Chen, T. Contessi, F. D'Ammando, E. Costa, G. De Paris, G. Di Cocco, I. Donnarumma, Y. Evangelista, A. Ferrari, M. Fiorini, M. Galli, F. Gianotti, C. Labanti, I. Lapshov, F. Lazzarotto, P. Lipari, A. Morselli, L. Pacciani, A. Pellizzoni, F. Perotti, G. Piano, P. Picozza, M. Pilia, G. Pucella, M. Prest, M. Rapisarda, A. Rappoldi, A. Rubini, S. Sabatini, E. Scalise, E. Striani, P. Soffitta, M. Trifoglio, A. Trois, E. Vallazza, S. Vercellone, V. Vittorini, A. Zambra, D. Zanello, C. Pittori, F. Verrecchia, P. Santolamazza, P. Giommi, S. Colafrancesco, L. A. Antonelli, L. Salotti
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Accepted by the Astrophysical Journal Letters on September 11, 2009
Short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), typically lasting less than 2 s, are a special class of GRBs of great interest. We report the detection by the AGILE satellite of the short GRB 090510 which shows two clearly distinct emission phases: a prompt phase lasting ~ 200 msec and a second phase lasting tens of seconds. The prompt phase is relatively intense in the 0.3-10 MeV range with a spectrum characterized by a large peak/cutoff energy near 3 MeV, in this phase, no significant high-energy gamma-ray emission is detected. At the end of the prompt phase, intense gamma-ray emission above 30 MeV is detected showing a power-law time decay of the flux of the type t^-1.3 and a broad-band spectrum remarkably different from that of the prompt phase. It extends from sub-MeV to hundreds of MeV energies with a photon index alpha ~ 1.5. GRB 090510 provides the first case of a short GRB with delayed gamma-ray emission. We present the timing and spectral data of GRB 090510 and briefly discuss its remarkable properties within the current models of gamma-ray emission of short GRBs.
Since its early phases of operation, the AGILE satellite is observing Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) over an energy range potentially spanning six orders of magnitude. In the hard X-ray band the SuperAGILE imager provides localization of about one GRB/month plus the detection of 1-2 GRBs per month out of its field of view. The Mini-Calorimeter detects about one GRB/week in the 350keV - 100MeV energy range, plus several other transients at very short time scales. In fact, the on-board MCAL trigger logic, implemented for the first time on time windows as short as 300 microseconds, is particularly suita…
The AGILE satellite, in orbit since 2007, localized up to October 2009 about 1 Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) per month with the hard X-ray imager SuperAGILE (18 - 60 keV) (with a rate reduced by a factor 2-3 in spinning mode) and is detecting around 1 GRB per week with the non-imaging Mini-Calorimeter (MCAL, 0.35 - 100 MeV). Up to October 2011 the AGILE Gamma Ray Imaging Detector firmly detected four GRBs in the energy band between 20 MeV and few GeV. In this paper we review the status of the GRBs observation with AGILE and discuss the upper limits in the gamma-ray band of the non-detected events.
The follow-up of external science alerts received from Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) and Gravitational Waves (GW) detectors is one of the AGILE Team's current major activities. The AGILE team developed an automated real-time analysis pipeline to analyse AGILE Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID) data to detect possible counterparts in the energy range 0.1-10 GeV. This work presents a new approach for detecting GRBs using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to classify the AGILE-GRID intensity maps improving the GRBs detection capability over the Li&Ma method, currently used by the AGILE team. The CNN i…
The observation of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in the gamma-ray band has been advanced by the AGILE and Fermi satellites after the era of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. AGILE and Fermi are showing that the GeV-bright GRBs share a set of common features, particularly the high fluence from the keV up to the GeV energy bands, the high value of the minimum Lorentz factor, the presence of an extended emission of gamma-rays, often delayed with respect to lower energies, and finally the possible presence of multiple spectral components. GRB 100724B, localised in a joint effort by Fermi and the InterP…
We report the AGILE observations of GRB 220101A, which took place at the beginning of 1st January 2022 and was recognized as one of the most energetic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) ever detected since their discovery. The AGILE satellite acquired interesting data concerning the prompt phase of this burst, providing an overall temporal and spectral description of the event in a wide energy range, from tens of keV to tens of MeV. Dividing the prompt emission into three main intervals, we notice an interesting spectral evolution, featuring a notable hardening of the spectrum in the central part of the …
Observations imply that long γ-ray bursts (GRBs) are originated from explosions of massive stars, therefore they may occur in the molecular clouds where their progenitors were born. We show here that the prompt optical-UV emission from GRBs may be delayed due to the dust extinction, which can well explain the observed optical delayed onset and fast rise in GRB 080319B. The density and the size of the molecular cloud around GRB 080319B are roughly constrained to be \sim10^3cm^{-3} and \sim 8pc, respectively. We also investigate the other GRBs with prompt optical-UV data, and find similar values…
We report on the detailed analysis of the high-energy extended emission from the short Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) 081024B, detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Historically, this represents the first clear detection of temporal extended emission from a short GRB. The light curve observed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor lasts approximately 0.8 seconds whereas the emission in the Fermi Large Area Telescope lasts for about 3 seconds. Evidence of longer lasting high-energy emission associated with long bursts has been already reported by previous experiments. Our observations, together…
The shallow decay phase and flares in the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is widely believed to be associated with the later activation of central engine. Some models of energy injection involve with a continuous energy flow since the GRB trigger time, such as the magnetic dipole radiation from a magnetar. However, in the scenario involving with a black hole accretion system, the energy flow from the fall-back accretion may be delayed for a fall-back time $\sim t_{\rm fb}$. Thus we propose a delayed energy injection model, the delayed energy would cause a notable rise to the Lorentz fact…
Since its early phases of operation, the AGILE mission is successfully observing Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in the hard X-ray band with the SuperAGILE imager and in the MeV range with the Mini-Calorimeter. Up to now, three firm GRB detections were obtained above 25 MeV and some bursts were detected with lower statistical confidence in the same energy band. When a GRB is localized, either by SuperAGILE or Swift/BAT or INTEGRAL/IBIS or Fermi/GBM or IPN, inside the field of view of the Gamma Ray Imager of AGILE, a detection is searched for in the gamma ray band or an upper limit is provided. A promi…
AGILE is an ASI space mission launched in 2007 to study X-ray and gamma-ray phenomena in the energy range from $\sim20$ keV to $\sim10$ GeV. The AGILE Team developed a real-time analysis pipeline for the fast detection of transient sources, and the follow-up of external science alerts received through networks such as the General Coordinates Network. We developed a new Deep Learning method for detecting and localizing Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) in the AGILE/GRID sky maps. We trained the model using sky maps with GRBs simulated in a radius of 20 degrees from the center of the map, which is larger t…
AGILE is a space mission launched in 2007 to study X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy. The AGILE team developed real-time analysis pipelines to detect transient phenomena such as Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and to react to external science alerts received by other facilities. The AGILE anti-coincidence system (ACS) comprises five panels (four lateral and one on the top) that surround the AGILE detectors to reject background charged particles. It can also detect hard X-ray photons in the energy range 50 - 200 KeV. The acquisition of the ACS data produces a time series for each panel. These time series c…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the most luminous sources in the universe and the nature of their emission up to very high energy is one of the most important open issue connected with the study of these peculiar events. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory, installed at an altitude of 4100 m a. s. l. in the state of Puebla (Mexico), has completed its second year of full operations. Thanks to its instantaneous field of view of ~2 sr and its high duty cycle ($\ge$ 95%), HAWC is an ideal instrument for the study of transient phenomena such as GRBs. We performed a sear…
The high-fluence GRB131108A at redshift z=2.4, was detected by the Mini-Calorimeter (MCAL, 0.35-100 MeV) and the Gamma- Ray Imaging Detector (GRID, 30 MeV - 30 GeV) onboard the AGILE satellite. The burst emission consisted of a very bright initial peak,lasting 0.1 s, followed by a fainter emission detected for ~25 s with the MCAL and ~80 s with the GRID. The AGILE spectra, when compared with those reported at lower energies, indicate the presence of a prominent high-energy component with peak energy in the 10-20 MeV region. Contrary to other GRBs, this high-energy component is present also dur…
We report our very early optical observations of GRB 110530A and investigate its jet properties together with its X-ray afterglow data. A peculiar broad onset bump followed by a plateau is observed in its early R band afterglow lightcurve. The optical data in the other bands and the X-ray data are well consistent with the temporal feature of the R band lightcurve. Our joint spectral fits of the optical and X-ray data show that they are in the same regime, with a photon index of $\sim 1.70$. The optical and X-ray afterglow lightcurves are well fitted with the standard external shock model by co…
We present results from extensive broadband follow-up of GRB 210204A over the period of thirty days. We detect optical flares in the afterglow at 7.6 x 10^5 s and 1.1 x 10^6 s after the burst: the most delayed flaring ever detected in a GRB afterglow. At the source redshift of 0.876, the rest-frame delay is 5.8 x 10^5 s (6.71 d). We investigate possible causes for this flaring and conclude that the most likely cause is a refreshed shock in the jet. The prompt emission of the GRB is within the range of typical long bursts: it shows three disjoint emission episodes, which all follow the typical …
Photons of energy larger than 100 MeV from long-GRBs arrive a few seconds after <10 MeV photons do. We show that this delay is a natural consequence of a magnetic dominated relativistic jet. The much slower acceleration of a magnetic jet with radius (compared with a hot baryonic outflow) results in high energy gamma-ray photons to be converted to electron-positron pairs out to a larger radius whereas lower energy gamma-rays of energy less than ~10 MeV can escape when the jet crosses the Thomson-photosphere. The resulting delay for the arrival of high energy photons is found to be similar to th…
This work extends a contemporaneous effort (Panaitescu & Vestrand 2022) to study the properties of the lower-energy counterpart synchrotron emission produced by the cooling of relativistic Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) electrons through radiation (synchrotron and self-Compton) emission and adiabatic losses. We derive the major characteristics (pulse duration, lag-time after burst, brightness relative to the burst) of the Prompt Optical Counterpart (POC) accompanying GRBs. Depending on the magnetic field life-time, duration of electron injection, and electron transit-time Dto from hard X-ray (GRB) to o…
We report on the observation of the bright, long gamma-ray burst, GRB 090902B, by the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) and Large Area Telescope (LAT) instruments on-board the Fermi observatory. This was one of the brightest GRBs to have been observed by the LAT, which detected several hundred photons during the prompt phase. With a redshift of z = 1.822, this burst is among the most luminous detected by Fermi. Time-resolved spectral analysis reveals a significant power-law component in the LAT data that is distinct from the usual Band model emission that is seen in the sub-MeV energy range. This …
The origin of GeV emission from the early epoch of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is a widely discussed issue. The long gamma-ray burst GRB 170405A, observed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope showed high-energy emission delayed by $\sim$20 s with respect to the X-ray emission, followed by temporally fading gamma-ray emission lasting for $\sim$1,000 s, as commonly observed in high-energy GRBs. In addition, a high-energy spectral cutoff at $\sim$50 MeV was detected in the prompt emission phase. If this feature is caused by pair-production opacity, the bulk Lorentz factor of the GRB ejecta can be e…
The brightness of the multi-wavelength afterglow of GRB 170817A is increasing unexpectedly even $\sim$ 160 days after the associated gravitational burst. Here we suggest that the brightening can be caused by a late-time energy injection process. We use an empirical expression to mimic the evolution of the injection luminosity, which is consisted of a power-law rising phase and a power-law decreasing phase. It is found that the power-law indices of the two phases are $0.92$ and $-2.8$, respectively, with the peak time of the injection being $\sim 110$ days. The energy injection could be due to …
The origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs, E $> 10^{18}$ eV) is one of the great mysteries of modern astrophysics. It has been suggested that UHECRs could be accelerated in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and engine-driven supernovae (SNe). Here we report the discovery of a 1.4 teraelectronvolt (TeV) photon offset 0.97$^{\circ}$ from the site of the nearby (36.9 megaparsecs) GRB 980425/SN 1998bw explosion. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected the TeV emission on 17 November 2018, more than 20 years after the original GRB 980425/SN 1998bw trigge…
The origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is one of the most mystifying issues in astroparticle physics. It has been suggested that gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are excellent acceleration sites for cosmic rays. The propagation of UHECRs from the GRB host galaxy to the Earth should generate delayed secondary photons and neutrinos. Here we present a dedicated search for delayed UHECR and neutrino emission centered around the position of nearby GRB 980425/SN 1998bw. Located at a distance of 36.9 Mpc, GRB 980425/SN 1998bw is well within the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) distance horizon. We …
The LIGO-Virgo Collaboration (LVC) detected, on 2017 August 17, an exceptional gravitational-wave (GW) event temporally consistent within $\sim\,1.7 \, \rm s$ with the GRB 1708117A observed by Fermi-GBM and INTEGRAL. The event turns out to be compatible with a neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS) coalescence that subsequently produced a radio/optical/X-ray transient detected at later times. We report the main results of the observations by the AGILE satellite of the GW170817 localization region (LR) and its electromagnetic (e.m.) counterpart. At the LVC detection time $T_0$, the GW170817 LR was o…
In 2018, the Fermi mission celebrated its first decade of operation. In this time, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) has been very successful in detecting the high-energy emission (>100 MeV) from Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). The analysis of particularly remarkable events - such as GRB 080916C, GRB 090510 and GRB 130427A - has been presented in dedicated publications. Here we present the results of a new systematic search for high-energy emission from the full sample of GRBs detected in 10 years by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor, as well as Swift, AGILE, Integral and IPN bursts, featuring a detecti…
Recent detections of GeV photons in a few GRBs by Fermi-LAT imply huge bulk Lorentz factors to avoid a large gamma gamma optical depth at high energy. Estimates can be as high as Gamma ~ 1000 in the most extreme cases. This puts severe constraints on models of the central engine and the jet acceleration in GRBs. These estimates are however obtained from a simplified single zone model. We present here a more realistic calculation which takes into account the time, space and direction dependent photon field existing in an outflow with several relativistically moving emitting zones. The formalism…
We study GRB 221009A, the brightest gamma-ray burst in the history of observations, using Fermi data. To calibrate them for large inclination angles, we use the Vela X gamma-ray source. Light curves in different spectral ranges demonstrate a 300 s overlap of afterglow and delayed episodes of soft prompt emission. We demonstrate that a relatively weak burst precursor that occurs 3 minutes before the main episode has its own afterglow, i.e., presumably, its own external shock. The main afterglow is the brightest one, includes a photon with an energy of 400 GeV 9 hours after the burst, and is vis…
In many theoretical models of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and their afterglows, the emission of photons above 100 GeV is predicted. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on-board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected delayed, high-energy emission (up to 90 GeV in the burst rest-frame) from several GRBs and no evidence of a high-energy spectral cutoff during the early afterglow phase of the burst has been found. Presented here are the results of follow-up observations with VERITAS, a ground-based telescope array sensitive to gamma-rays above 100 GeV, of GRBs detected by the Fermi and Swift sate…
The Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the $Fermi$ spacecraft routinely observes high-energy emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Here we present the second catalog of LAT-detected GRBs, covering the first 10 years of operations, from 2008 August 4 to 2018 August 4. A total of 186 GRBs are found; of these, 91 show emission in the range $30-100\,$MeV (17 of which are seen only in this band) and 169 are detected above 100 MeV. Most of these sources were discovered by other instruments ($Fermi$/GBM, $Swift$/BAT, AGILE, INTEGRAL) or reported by the Interplanetary Network (IPN); the LAT has indepe…
The Fermi observatory is advancing our knowledge of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) through pioneering observations at high energies, covering more than 7 decades in energy with the two on-board detectors, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). Here we report on the observation of the long GRB 090217A which triggered the GBM and has been detected by the LAT with a significance greater than 9 sigma. We present the GBM and LAT observations and on-ground analyses, including the time-resolved spectra and the study of the temporal profile from 8 keV up to 1 GeV. All spectra a…
We derive basic analytical results for the timing and decay of the GRB-counterpart and delayed-afterglow light-curves for a brief emission episode from a relativistic surface endowed with angular structure, consisting of a uniform Core of size theta_c (Lorentz factor Gamma_c and surface emissivity i_nu are angle-independent) and an axially-symmetric power-law Envelope (Gamma ~ theta^{-g}). In this Large-Angle Emission (LAE) model, radiation produced during the prompt emission phase (GRB) at angles theta > theta_c arrives at observer well after the burst (delayed emission). The dynamical time-r…
The synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) emission from Gamma-ray Burst (GRB) forward shock can extend to the very-high-energy (VHE; $E_γ> $100 GeV) range. Such high energy photons are rare and are attenuated by the cosmic infrared background before reaching us. In this work, we discuss the prospect to detect these VHE photons using the current ground-based Cherenkov detectors. Our calculated results are consistent with the upper limits obtained with several Cherenkov detectors for GRB 030329, GRB 050509B, and GRB 060505 during the afterglow phase. For 5 bursts in our nearby GRB sample (except for GR…
We report the results of an extensive search in the AGILE data for a gamma-ray counterpart of the LIGO gravitational wave event GW150914. Currently in spinning mode, AGILE has the potential of covering with its gamma-ray instrument 80 % of the sky more than 100 times a day. It turns out that AGILE came within a minute from the event time of observing the accessible GW150914 localization region. Interestingly, the gamma-ray detector exposed about 65 % of this region during the 100 s time intervals centered at -100 s and +300 s from the event time. We determine a 2-sigma flux upper limit in the …
GRB 090510, observed both by Fermi and AGILE satellites, is the first bright short-hard Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) with an emission from the keV up to the GeV energy range. Within the Fireshell model, we interpret the faint precursor in the light curve as the emission at the transparency of the expanding e+e- plasma: the Proper-GRB (P-GRB). From the observed isotropic energy we assume a total energy Ee+e-=(1.10+-0.06)*10^53 erg and derive a Baryon load B=(1.45+-0.28)*10^(-3) and a Lorentz factor at transparency Gamma=(6.7+-1.6)*10^2. The main emission 0.4 s after the initial spike is interpreted as…
Strong variability is a common characteristic of the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRB). This observed variability is widely attributed to an intermittency of the central engine, through formation of strong internal shocks in the GRB-emitting jet expelled by the engine. In this paper we study numerically the propagation of hydrodynamic jets, injected periodically by a variable engine, through the envelope of a collapsed star. By post-processing the output of 3D numerical simulations, we compute the net radiative efficiency of the outflow. We find that all intermittent jets are subject t…
Regardless of their different types of progenitors and central engines, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) were always assumed to be standalone systems after they formed. Little attention has been paid to the possibility that a stellar companion can still accompany a GRB itself. This paper investigates such a GRB-involved binary system and studies the effects of the stellar companion on the observed GRB emission when it is located inside the jet opening angle. Assuming a typical emission radius of $\sim10^{15}\,$cm, we show that the blockage by a companion star with a radius of $R_\mathrm{c}\sim67\,\math…
We present the second Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow catalog, greatly expanding on the first Swift UVOT GRB afterglow catalog. The second catalog is constructed from a database containing over 120,000 independent UVOT observations of 538 GRBs first detected by Swift, the High Energy Transient Explorer 2 (HETE2), the INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), the Interplanetary Network (IPN), Fermi, and Astro-rivelatore Gamma a Immagini Leggero (AGILE). The catalog covers GRBs discovered from 2005 Jan 17 to 2010 Dec 25. Using photome…
Recent observations by the Fermi-LAT showed that there are delayed arrivals of GeV photons relative to the onset of MeV photons in some GRBs. In order to avoid a large optical depth, the minimal value of the Lorentz factor has been estimated to be higher than 1000 in some brightest bursts. In this paper, we present a detailed calculation of the time delay between the MeV and GeV photons in the framework of the magnetic-dominated jet model. We find that the time delay strongly depends on the saturated bulk Lorentz factor of the jet. Inspired by this fact, we use this model to calculate the Lore…
A nearby super-luminous burst GRB 130427A was simultaneously detected by six $γ$-ray space telescopes ({\it Swift}, Fermi-GBM/LAT, Konus-Wind, SPI-ACS/INTEGRAL, AGILE and RHESSI) and by three RAPTOR full-sky persistent monitors. The isotropic $γ-$ray energy release is of $\sim 10^{54}$ erg, rendering it the most powerful explosion among the GRBs with a redshift $z\leq 0.5$. The emission above 100 MeV lasted about one day and four photons are at energies greater than 40 GeV. We show that the count rate of 100 MeV-100 GeV emission may be mainly accounted for by the forward shock synchrotron radi…
The Fermi satellite has been reporting the detailed temporal properties of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in an extremely broad spectral range, 8 keV - 300 GeV, in particular, the unexpected delays of the GeV emission onsets behind the MeV emission of some GRBs. We focus on GRB 080916C, one of the Fermi-LAT GRBs for which the data of the delayed high-energy emission are quite extensive, and we show that the behavior of the high-energy emission of this burst can be explained by a model in which the prompt emission consists of two components: one is the MeV component due to the synchrotron-self-Compton…
Short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) are thought to be produced by binary NS mergers. While a sGRB requires a relativistic jet to break out of ejecta, the jet may be choked and fails to produce a successful sGRB. We propose a "delayed breakout" scenario where a late-time jet launched by a long-term engine activity can penetrate ejecta even if a prompt jet is choked. Observationally, such a late-time jet is supported by the long-lasting high-energy emissions in sGRBs. Solving the jet propagation in ejecta, we show that a typical late-time activity easily achieves the delayed breakout. This event show…
GRB 190829A at z=0.0785 is the fourth closest long GRB ever detected by the Neil Gehrels Swift observatory, and the third confirmed case with a very high energy component. We present our multi-wavelength analysis of this rare event, focusing on its early stages of evolution, and including data from Swift, the MASTER global network of optical telescopes, ALMA, and ATCA. We report sensitive limits on the linear polarization of the optical emission, disfavouring models of off-axis jets to explain the delayed afterglow peak. The study of the multi-wavelength light curves and broadband spectra supp…
In three years of observations since the beginning of nominal science operations in August 2008, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope has observed high-energy (>20 MeV) γ-ray emission from 35 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Among these, 28 GRBs have been detected above 100 MeV and 7 GRBs above ~ 20 MeV. The first Fermi-LAT catalog of GRBs is a compilation of these detections and provides a systematic study of high-energy emission from GRBs for the first time. To generate the catalog, we examined 733 GRBs detected by the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on Fermi and…
The detection of gravitational waves together with their electromagnetic counterpart, in the gamma-ray burst GRB 170817A, marked a new era of multi-messenger astronomy. Several theoretical models have been proposed to explain the atypical behavior of this event. Recently, it was shown that the multi-wavelength afterglow of GRB 170817A was consistent with a synchrotron forward-shock model when the outflow was viewed off-axis, decelerated in a uniform medium and parametrized through a power-law velocity distribution. Motivated by the upper limits on the very-high-energy emission, and the stratif…
The study of short-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has undergone a revolution in recent years thanks to the discovery of the first afterglows and host galaxies in May 2005. In this review we summarize our current knowledge of the galactic and sub-galactic environments of short GRBs, and the implications for the progenitor population. The most crucial results are: (i) some short GRBs occur in elliptical galaxies; (ii) the majority of short GRBs occur in star forming galaxies; (iii) the star forming hosts of short GRBs are distinct from the host galaxies of long GRBs in terms of star formation …
We present the analysis results of three Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) detected by the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) and the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard Fermi: the two long GRB 080825C and GRB 090217, and the first short burst with GeV photons GRB 081024B. The emission from GRB 081024B observed by the LAT above 100 MeV is delayed with respect to the GBM trigger, and significantly extends after the low-energy episode. Some hints for spectral hardening was observed in this burst as well as in GRB 080825C, possibly related to a separate and harder component showing up at late times. Conversely, …
The high energy GeV emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), detected by \emph{Fermi}/LAT, has a significantly different morphology compared to the lower energy MeV emission, detected by \emph{Fermi}/GBM. Though the late time GeV emission is believed to be synchrotron radiation produced via an external shock, this emission as early as the prompt phase is puzzling. Meaningful connection between these two emissions can be drawn only by an accurate description of the prompt MeV spectrum. We perform a time-resolved spectroscopy of the GBM data of long GRBs having significant GeV emission, using a mode…
We make a detailed time resolved spectroscopy of bright long gamma ray bursts (GRBs) which show significant GeV emissions (GRB 080916C, GRB 090902B, and GRB 090926A). In addition to the standard Band model, we also use a model consisting of a blackbody and a power-law to fit the spectra. We find that for the latter model there are indications for an additional soft component in the spectra. While previous studies have shown that such models are required for GRB 090902B, here we find that a composite spectral model consisting of two black bodies and a power law adequately fit the data of all th…
The next generation interferometric radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which will be the most sensitive and largest radio telescope ever constructed, could greatly contribute to the detection, survey and characterization of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). By the SKA, it will be possible to perform the follow up of GRBs even for several months. This approach would be extremely useful to extend the Spectrum Energetic Distribution (SED) from the gamma to the to radio band and would increase the number of radio detectable GRBs. In principle, the SKA could help to understand the physics of…
We consider delayed, volumetric heating in a magnetized outflow that has broken out of a confining medium and expanded to a high Lorentz factor ($Γ\sim 10^2-10^3$) and low optical depth to scattering ($τ_{\rm T} \sim 10^{-3}-10^{-2}$). The energy flux at breakout is dominated by the magnetic field, with a modest contribution from quasi-thermal gamma rays whose spectrum was calculated in Paper I. We focus on the case of extreme baryon depletion in the magnetized material, but allow for a separate baryonic component that is entrained from a confining medium. Dissipation is driven by relativistic…
