Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-16-2019

Publication Title

Astrophysical Journal

Publisher

American Astronomical Society

Volume

884

Issue

2

First page number:

1

Last page number:

9

Abstract

The characteristics of the spectral evolution of the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which are closely related to the radiation mechanism (synchrotron or photosphere), are still an unsolved subject. Here, by performing the detailed time-resolved spectral fitting of GRB 131231A, which has a very bright and well-defined single pulse, some interesting spectral evolution features have been found. (i) Both the low-energy spectral index α and the peak energy E p exhibit the "flux-tracking" pattern ("double-tracking" characteristics). (ii) The parameter relations, i.e., F (the energy flux)-α, F–E p, and E p–α, along with the analogous Yonetoku E p–L γ,iso relation for the different time-resolved spectra, show strong monotonous (positive) correlations, both in the rising and the decaying phases. (iii) The values of α do not exceed the synchrotron limit (α = −2/3) in all slices across the pulse, favoring the synchrotron origin. We argue that the one-zone synchrotron emission model with the emitter streaming away at a large distance from the central engine can explain all of these special spectral evolution characteristics.

Keywords

Gamma-ray burst: general; Radiation mechanisms: non-thermal

Disciplines

Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy

File Format

pdf

File Size

837 KB

Language

English

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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