Are the missing X-ray breaks in gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves merely hidden?
Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow observations in the Swift era have a perceived lack ofachromatic jet breaks compared to the BeppoSAX or pre-Swift era. Specifically, relativelyfew breaks, consistent with jet breaks, are observed in the X-ray light curves of these bursts.If these breaks are truly miss...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Oxford University Press
2008
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| Online Access: | http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?2008MNRAS.386..859C&data_type=PDF_HIGH&whole_paper=YES&type=PRINTER&filetype=.pdf http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29285 |
| _version_ | 1848752762302496768 |
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| author | Curran, Peter van der Horst, A. Wijers, R. |
| author_facet | Curran, Peter van der Horst, A. Wijers, R. |
| author_sort | Curran, Peter |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow observations in the Swift era have a perceived lack ofachromatic jet breaks compared to the BeppoSAX or pre-Swift era. Specifically, relativelyfew breaks, consistent with jet breaks, are observed in the X-ray light curves of these bursts.If these breaks are truly missing, it has serious consequences on the interpretation of GRBjet collimation and energy requirements, and the use of GRBs as cosmological tools. Here,we address the issue of X-ray breaks that are possibly ‘hidden’ and hence the light curvesare misinterpreted as being single power laws. We do so by synthesizing X-ray telescope(XRT) light curves and fitting both single and broken power laws, and comparing the relativegoodness of each fit via Monte Carlo analysis. Even with the well-sampled light curves ofthe Swift era, these breaks may be left misidentified, hence caution is required when makingdefinite statements on the absence of achromatic breaks. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:13:46Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-29285 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:13:46Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-292852017-02-28T01:49:51Z Are the missing X-ray breaks in gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves merely hidden? Curran, Peter van der Horst, A. Wijers, R. radiation mechanisms: non-thermal X-rays: bursts gamma rays: bursts methods: analytical methods: statistical Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow observations in the Swift era have a perceived lack ofachromatic jet breaks compared to the BeppoSAX or pre-Swift era. Specifically, relativelyfew breaks, consistent with jet breaks, are observed in the X-ray light curves of these bursts.If these breaks are truly missing, it has serious consequences on the interpretation of GRBjet collimation and energy requirements, and the use of GRBs as cosmological tools. Here,we address the issue of X-ray breaks that are possibly ‘hidden’ and hence the light curvesare misinterpreted as being single power laws. We do so by synthesizing X-ray telescope(XRT) light curves and fitting both single and broken power laws, and comparing the relativegoodness of each fit via Monte Carlo analysis. Even with the well-sampled light curves ofthe Swift era, these breaks may be left misidentified, hence caution is required when makingdefinite statements on the absence of achromatic breaks. 2008 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29285 http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?2008MNRAS.386..859C&data_type=PDF_HIGH&whole_paper=YES&type=PRINTER&filetype=.pdf Oxford University Press restricted |
| spellingShingle | radiation mechanisms: non-thermal X-rays: bursts gamma rays: bursts methods: analytical methods: statistical Curran, Peter van der Horst, A. Wijers, R. Are the missing X-ray breaks in gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves merely hidden? |
| title | Are the missing X-ray breaks in gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves merely hidden? |
| title_full | Are the missing X-ray breaks in gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves merely hidden? |
| title_fullStr | Are the missing X-ray breaks in gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves merely hidden? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Are the missing X-ray breaks in gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves merely hidden? |
| title_short | Are the missing X-ray breaks in gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves merely hidden? |
| title_sort | are the missing x-ray breaks in gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves merely hidden? |
| topic | radiation mechanisms: non-thermal X-rays: bursts gamma rays: bursts methods: analytical methods: statistical |
| url | http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?2008MNRAS.386..859C&data_type=PDF_HIGH&whole_paper=YES&type=PRINTER&filetype=.pdf http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/29285 |