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The case for a minute-long merger-driven gamma-ray burst from fast-cooling synchrotron emission

Abstract

For decades, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been broadly divided into long- and short-duration bursts, lasting more or less than 2 s, respectively. However, this dichotomy does not perfectly map to the two progenitor channels that are known to produce GRBs: mergers of compact objects (merger GRBs) or the collapse of massive stars (collapsar GRBs). In particular, the merger GRB population may also include bursts with a short, hard <2 s spike and subsequent longer, softer extended emission. The recent discovery of a kilonova—the radioactive glow of heavy elements made in neutron star mergers—in the 50-s-duration GRB 211211A further demonstrates that mergers can drive long, complex GRBs that mimic the collapsar population. Here we present a detailed temporal and spectral analysis of the high-energy emission of GRB 211211A. We demonstrate that the emission has a purely synchrotron origin, with both the peak and cooling frequencies moving through the γ-ray band down to X-rays, and that the rapidly evolving spectrum drives the extended emission signature at late times. The identification of such spectral evolution in a merger GRB opens avenues to diagnostics of the progenitor type.

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Fig. 1: Spectral fits with the 2SBPL model from six representative epochs in the GBM and BAT light curves.
Fig. 2: Relative support for the fitted models from the AIC.
Fig. 3: The evolution of the synchrotron spectrum from our time-resolved spectral fits.
Fig. 4: Evolution of the spectral breaks and their influence on the light curve.
Fig. 5: The X-ray light curves of EE GRBs.
Fig. 6: A joint fit of XRT and UVOT data centred around 163 s.

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Data availability

The majority of data generated or analysed during this study are included in this Article and its Supplementary Information. Swift and Fermi data can be downloaded from the UK Swift Science Data Centre (https://www.swift.ac.uk/) and the online HEARSAC archive (https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/fermi/fermigbrst.html). Additional data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The codes used in this publication are all publicly available. Fitting was performed in XSPEC17, which is available from https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/xanadu/xspec/. Swift tools are available from https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/lheasoft/, and Fermi tools from https://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/data/analysis/scitools/gtburst.html. The 2SBPL model is published in ref. 19. Plots were created using MATPLOTLIB108 in Python v3.9.7.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Goldstein for his insights into fitting GBM data, S. Barthelmy, D. Palmer, A. Lien and D. Tak for discussions on the performance of BAT and G. Ghisellini for fruitful discussions on emission physics. The work makes use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Centre at the University of Leicester and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. This research has made use of data obtained through the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Online Service provided by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and specifically this work has made use of public Fermi-GBM data. B.P.G. and M.N. are supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 948381, to M.N.). M.N. acknowledges a Turing Fellowship. A.J.L. and D.B.M. are supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 725246, to A.J.L.). The Cosmic Dawn Center is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under grant no. 140. B.D.M. is supported in part by the National Science Foundation (grant nos AST-2009255 and AST-2002577). The Flatiron Institute is supported by the Simons Foundation. G.P.L. is supported by the UK Science Technology and Facilities Council under grant no. ST/S000453/1. The Fong Group at Northwestern acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation under grant nos AST-1814782, AST-1909358 and CAREER grant no. AST-2047919. W.F. gratefully acknowledges support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. P.A.E. and K.L.P. acknowledge funding from the UK Space Agency.

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Contributions

B.P.G. extracted the Swift data, performed the spectral analysis, provided the interpretation of the spectral evolution and the EE context and wrote the text. M.E.R. extracted the Fermi data, performed the spectral analysis, provided the interpretation on the emission physics and co-wrote the text. M.N. and A.J.L. contributed vital insights into the direction of the study and co-wrote the text. B.D.M. provided theoretical interpretation, insights into the progenitor and contributed to the text. S.R.O. performed the afterglow SED fits, reduced the UVOT data and contributed to the text. G.P.L. provided theoretical interpretation, self-consistency checks of the physics and made contributions to the text. D.B.M. helped with the interpretation of the emission physics and writing of the text. W.F., J.C.R., N.R.T., P.G.J. and A.P. helped in the discussion and writing of the text. P.A.E. and K.L.P. provided insights into Swift data reduction and handling, and commented on the text.

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Correspondence to Benjamin P. Gompertz.

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Gompertz, B.P., Ravasio, M.E., Nicholl, M. et al. The case for a minute-long merger-driven gamma-ray burst from fast-cooling synchrotron emission. Nat Astron 7, 67–79 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01819-4

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