Luminosity Correlations for Gamma-Ray Bursts and Implications for Their Prompt and Afterglow Emission Mechanisms
Abstract
We present the relation between the (z- and k-corrected) spectral lags, τ, for the standard Swift energy bands 50-100 keV and 100-200 keV and the peak isotropic luminosity, L iso (a relation reported first by Norris et al.), for a subset of 12 long Swift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) taken from a recent study of this relation by Ukwatta et al. The chosen GRBs are also a subset of the Dainotti et al. sample, a set of Swift GRBs of known redshift, employed in establishing a relation between the (GRB frame) luminosity, LX , of the shallow (or constant) flux portion of the typical X-Ray Telescope GRB-afterglow light curve and the (GRB frame) time of transition to the normal decay rate, T brk. We also present the LX -T brk relation using only the bursts common in the two samples. The two relations exhibit a significant degree of correlation (ρ = -0.65 for the L iso-τ and ρ = -0.88 for the LX -T brk relation) and have surprisingly similar best-fit power-law indices (-1.19 ± 0.17 for L iso-τ and -1.10 ± 0.03 for LX -T brk). Even more surprisingly, we noted that although τ and T brk represent different GRB time variables, it appears that the first relation (L iso-τ) extrapolates into the second one for timescales τ ~= T brk. This fact suggests that these two relations have a common origin, which we conjecture to be kinematic. This relation adds to the recently discovered relations between properties of the prompt and afterglow GRB phases, indicating a much more intimate relation between these two phases than hitherto considered.
- Publication:
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The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- October 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-637X/758/1/32
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1208.1680
- Bibcode:
- 2012ApJ...758...32S
- Keywords:
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- cosmological parameters;
- gamma-ray burst: general;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- doi:10.1088/0004-637X/758/1/32