The width of gamma-ray burst spectra

• The emission processes active in the highly relativistic jets of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) remain unknown. In this paper, we propose a new measure to describe spectra: the width of the EFE spectrum, a quantity dependent only on finding a good fit to the data. We apply this to the full sample of GRBs observed by Fermi/Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) and Compton Gamma-ray Observatory/Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE). The results from the two instruments are fully consistent. We find that the median widths of spectra from long and short GRBs are significantly different (chance probability < 10(-6)). The width does not correlate with either duration or hardness, and this is thus a new, independent distinction between the two classes. Comparing the measured spectra with widths of spectra from fundamental emission processes - synchrotron and blackbody radiation - the results indicate that a large fraction of GRB spectra are too narrow to be explained by synchrotron radiation from a distribution of electron energies: for example, 78 per cent of long GRBs and 85 per cent of short GRBs are incompatible with the minimum width of standard slow cooling synchrotron emission from a Maxwellian distribution of electrons, with fast cooling spectra predicting even wider spectra. Photospheric emission can explain the spectra if mechanisms are invoked to give a spectrum much broader than a blackbody.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

radiation mechanisms: general

methods: data analysis

gamma-ray burst: general

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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