Precursor activity in bright, long BATSE gamma-ray bursts
Abstract
We study a sample of bright, long Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) gamma-ray burst (GRB) light curves in the 200 s before the detection of the GRB prompt emission. We find that in a sizable fraction of cases (~20 per cent) there is evidence of emission above the background coming from the same direction as the GRB. This emission is characterized by a softer spectrum with respect to the main spectrum and contains a small fraction (0.1-1 per cent) of the total event counts. The precursors have typical delays of several tens of seconds extending (in few cases) up to 200 s (the limit of the investigated period). Their spectra are typically non-thermal power-law spectra, aside from a few cases. Such long delays and the non-thermal origin of their spectra are hard to reconcile with any model for the progenitor.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- February 2005
- DOI:
- 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08687.x
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0411753
- Bibcode:
- 2005MNRAS.357..722L
- Keywords:
-
- radiation mechanisms: non-thermal;
- gamma-rays: bursts;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 9 pages, 11 postscript figures, MNRAS in press