- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/589/A98
- Title:
- Swift GRBs individual power density spectra
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/589/A98
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Timing analysis can be a powerful tool for shading light on the still obscure emission physics and geometry of the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Fourier power density spectra (PDS) characterise time series as stochastic processes and can be used to search for coherent pulsations and, more in general, to investigate the dominant variability timescales in astrophysical sources. Because of the limited duration and of the statistical properties involved, modelling the PDS of individual GRBs is challenging, and only average PDS of large samples have been discussed in the literature thus far. We aim at characterising the individual PDS of GRBs to describe their variability in terms of a stochastic process, to explore their variety, and to carry out for the first time a systematic search for periodic signals and for a link between PDS properties and other GRB observables. We present a Bayesian procedure which uses a Markov chain Monte Carlo technique and apply it to study the individual power density spectra of 215 bright long GRBs detected with the Swift Burst Alert Telescope in the 15-150keV band from January 2005 to May 2015. The PDS are modelled with a power-law either with or without a break. Two classes of GRBs emerge: with or without a unique dominant time scale. A comparison with active galactic nuclei (AGNs) reveals similar distributions of PDS slopes. Unexpectedly, GRBs with subsecond dominant timescales and duration longer than a few ten seconds in the source frame appear to be either very rare or altogether absent. Three GRBs are found with possible evidence for periodic signal at 3.0-3.2{sigma} (Gaussian) significance, corresponding to a multi-trial chance probability of ~1%. Thus, we found no compelling evidence for periodic signal in GRBs. The analogy between the PDS of GRBs and of AGNs could tentatively hint at similar stochastic processes that rule BH accretion across different BH mass scales and objects. In addition, we find evidence that short dominant timescales and duration are not completely independent of each other, in contrast with commonly accepted paradigms.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/774/157
- Title:
- Swift GRBs with X-ray afterglows and z<9.5
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/774/157
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which have been observed up to redshifts z~9.5, can be good probes of the early universe and have the potential to test cosmological models. Dainotti's analysis of GRB Swift afterglow light curves with known redshifts and a definite X-ray plateau shows an anti-correlation between the rest-frame time when the plateau ends (the plateau end time) and the calculated luminosity at that time (or approximately an anti-correlation between plateau duration and luminosity) (Dainotti+ 2008MNRAS.391L..79D, 2010ApJ...722L.215D). Here, we present an update of this correlation with a larger data sample of 101 GRBs with good light curves. Since some of this correlation could result from the redshift dependences of these intrinsic parameters, namely, their cosmological evolution, we use the Efron-Petrosian method to reveal the intrinsic nature of this correlation. We find that a substantial part of the correlation is intrinsic and describe how we recover it and how this can be used to constrain physical models of the plateau emission, the origin of which is still unknown. The present result could help to clarify the debated nature of the plateau emission.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/248/21
- Title:
- Swift long gamma-ray bursts
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/248/21
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The exact relationship between the long gamma-ray burst (LGRB) rate and the cosmic star formation rate (CSFR) is essential for using LGRBs as cosmological probes. In this work, we collect a large sample composed of 371 Swift LGRBs with known redshifts and prompt emission properties. We first compare the rest-frame prompt properties of these bursts in different redshift bins, finding negligible redshift evolution of the luminosity of LGRBs with L_iso_>~10^51^erg/s between z~1 and z~4. Then, by utilizing the CSFR obtained from the large-scale cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, the Illustris simulation, we calculate the cumulative redshift distribution of LGRBs under different metallicity thresholds. After comparing with our sample, we find that the predictions with a moderate threshold between 0.3Z_{sun}_<=Z_th_<=1.0Z_{sun}_ are consistent with the sample between redshift 0<z<3, while at higher redshifts, between 3<z<5, all metallicity thresholds fit the data well. When changing to an empirical model based on observations, the predictions show similar results as well. After comparing with the metallicity distribution of the observed LGRB host galaxies between 0<z<1, we confirm that the production of LGRBs in galaxies with super-solar metallicity is suppressed. Nevertheless, considering that a significant fraction of stars are born in sub-solar metallicity environments at z>~3, we suggest that, as a first approximation, LGRBs can be used as direct tracers of the CSFR in this redshift range.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/247/27
- Title:
- Swift obs. of Mrk 421. III. 2015 Dec-2018 Apr
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/247/27
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the results from the timing and spectral study of Mrk 421 based mainly on the Swift data in the X-ray energy range obtained during the time interval 2015 December-2018 April. The most extreme X-ray flaring activity on long-term, daily, and intraday timescales was observed during the 2 month period that started in 2017 December, when the 0.3-10keV flux exceeded a level of 5x10^-9^erg/cm^2^/s, recorded only twice previously. While the TeV- band and X-ray variabilities were mostly correlated, the source often varied in a complex manner in the MeV-GeV and radio-UV energy ranges, indicating that the multifrequency emission of Mrk 421 could not always be generated in a single zone. The longer-term flares at X-rays and {gamma}-rays showed a lognormal character, possibly indicating a variability imprint of the accretion disk onto the jet. A vast majority of the 0.3-10keV spectra were consistent with the log-parabolic model, showing relatively low spectral curvature and correlations between the different spectral parameters, predicted in the case of the first- and second-order Fermi processes. The position of the synchrotron spectral energy distribution peak showed an extreme variability on diverse timescales between the energies Ep<0.1 and >15keV, with 15% of the spectra peaking at the hard X-ray, and was related to the peak height as S^p^{propto}E_p_^{alpha}^ with {alpha}~0.6, which is expected for the transition from Kraichnan-type turbulence into the "hard sphere" one. The 0.3-300GeV spectra showed features of the hadronic contribution, jet-star interaction, and upscatter in the Klein-Nishina regime in different time intervals.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/866/97
- Title:
- Swift X-ray flash & rich gamma-ray bursts in BAT3
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/866/97
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We build a comprehensive sample to statistically describe the properties of X-ray flashes (XRFs) and X-ray riches (XRRs) from the third Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT3) catalog of Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We obtain 81 XRFs, 540 XRRs, and 394 classical GRBs (C-GRBs). We statistically explore the different properties of the {gamma}-ray prompt emission, the X-ray emission, the X-ray light-curve type, the association with supernovae (SNe), and the host galaxy properties for these sources. We confirm that most XRFs/XRRs are long GRBs with low values of peak energy E_peak_^obs^ and they are low-luminosity GRBs. XRFs, XRRs, and C-GRBs follow the same E_X,iso_-E_{gamma},iso_-E_peak,z_ correlations. Compared to the classical GRBs, XRFs are favorable to have the association with SN explosions. We do not find any significant differences of redshift distribution and host galaxy properties among XRFs, XRRs, and C-GRBs. We also discuss some observational biases and selection effects that may affect our statistical results. The GRB detectors with wide energy range and low energy threshold are expected for the XRF/XRR research in the future.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/208/25
- Title:
- Swift X-ray observations of 1FGL sources
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/208/25
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We have analyzed all the archival X-ray data of 134 unidentified (unID) gamma-ray sources listed in the first Fermi/LAT (1FGL) catalog and subsequently followed up by the Swift/XRT. We constructed the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from radio to gamma-rays for each X-ray source detected, and tried to pick up unique objects that display anomalous spectral signatures. In these analyses, we target all the 1FGL unID sources, using updated data from the second Fermi/LAT (2FGL) catalog on the Large Area Telescope (LAT) position and spectra. We found several potentially interesting objects, particularly three sources, 1FGL J0022.2-1850, 1FGL J0038.0+1236, and 1FGL J0157.0-5259, which were then more deeply observed with Suzaku as a part of an AO-7 program in 2012. We successfully detected an X-ray counterpart for each source whose X-ray spectra were well fitted by a single power-law function. The positional coincidence with a bright radio counterpart (currently identified as an active galactic nucleus, AGN) in the 2FGL error circles suggests these sources are definitely the X-ray emission from the same AGN, but their SEDs show a wide variety of behavior. In particular, the SED of 1FGL J0038.0+1236 is not easily explained by conventional emission models of blazars. The source 1FGL J0022.2-1850 may be in a transition state between a low-frequency peaked and a high-frequency peaked BL Lac object, and 1FGL J0157.0-5259 could be a rare kind of extreme blazar.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/800/16
- Title:
- Swift-XRT long GRB durations
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/800/16
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The discovery of a number of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with duration exceeding 1000s has opened the debate on whether these bursts form a new class of sources, the so-called ultra-long GRBs, or if they are rather the tail of the distribution of the standard long GRB duration. Using the long GRB sample detected by Swift, we investigate the statistical properties of long GRBs and compare them with the ultra-long burst properties. We compute the burst duration of long GRBs using the start epoch of the so-called "steep decay" phase detected with Swift/XRT. We discuss also the differences observed in their spectral properties. We find that ultra-long GRBs are statistically different from the standard long GRBs with typical burst duration less than 100-500s, for which a Wolf-Rayet star progenitor is usually invoked. Together with the presence of a thermal emission component we interpret this result as indication that the usual long GRB progenitor scenario cannot explain the extreme duration of ultra-long GRBs, their energetics, as well as the mass reservoir and size that can feed the central engine for such a long time.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/397/1177
- Title:
- Swift-XRT observations of GRBs
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/397/1177
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a homogeneous X-ray analysis of all 318 Gamma Ray Bursts detected by the X-ray Telescope on the Swift satellite up to 2008 July 23; this represents the largest sample of X-ray GRB data published to date. In Sections 2-3 we detail the methods which the Swift-XRT team has developed to produce the enhanced positions, light curves, hardness ratios and spectra presented in this paper. Software using these methods continues to create such products for all new GRBs observed by the Swift-XRT. We also detail web-based tools allowing users to create these products for any object observed by the XRT, not just GRBs. In Sections 4-6 we present the results of our analysis of GRBs, including probability distribution functions of the temporal and spectral properties of the sample. We demonstrate evidence for a consistent underlying behaviour which can produce a range of light curve morphologies, and attempt to interpret this behaviour in the framework of external forward shock emission. We find several difficulties, in particular that reconciliation of our data with the forward shock model requires energy injection to continue for days to weeks.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/403/945
- Title:
- Swift/XRT obs. of unidentified IBIS sources
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/403/945
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The most recent IBIS/ISGRI survey, i.e. the fourth one, lists 723 hard X-ray sources, many still unidentified, i.e. lacking an X-ray counterpart or simply not studied at lower energies, i.e. below 10keV. In order to overcome this lack of X-ray information, we cross-correlated the list of IBIS sources included in the fourth IBIS catalogue with the Swift/X-ray Telescope (XRT) data archive, finding a sample of 20 objects, not yet reported in the literature, for which XRT data could help in the search for the X-ray and hence optical counterpart and/or, for the first time, in the study of the source spectral and variability properties below 10keV. 16 of these objects are new INTEGRAL detections, while four were already listed in the third survey but not yet observed in X-rays.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/641/A152
- Title:
- TANAMI radio galaxies II
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/641/A152
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- This is the second paper in our series studying the evolution of parsec-scale radio emission in radio galaxies in the southern hemisphere. Following our study of the radio and high-energy properties of gamma-ray-emitting sources, here we investigate the kinematic and spectral properties of the parsec-scale jets of radio galaxies that have not yet been detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) instrument on board NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. For many sources, these results represent the first milliarcsecond resolution information in the literature. These studies were conducted within the framework of the Tracking Active Nuclei with Austral Milliarcsecond Interferometry (TANAMI) monitoring program and in the context of high-energy gamma-ray observations from Fermi-LAT. We take advantage of the regular 8.4GHz and 22.3GHz Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations provided by the TANAMI monitoring program, and explore the kinematic properties of six gamma-ray-faint radio galaxies. We complement this with ~8.5 years of Fermi-LAT data, deriving updated upper limits on the gamma-ray emission from this subsample of TANAMI radio galaxies. We include publicly available VLBI kinematics of gamma-ray-quiet radio galaxies monitored by the MOJAVE program and perform a consistent Fermi-LAT analysis. We combine these results with those from our previous paper to construct the largest sample of radio galaxies with combined VLBI and gamma-ray measurements to date. The connection between parsec-scale jet emission and high-energy properties in the misaligned jets of radio galaxies is explored. We report for the first time evidence of superluminal motion up to beta_app_=3.6 in the jet of the gamma-ray-faint radio galaxy PKS 2153-69. We find a clear trend of higher apparent speed as a function of distance from the jet core, which indicates that the jet is still being accelerated on scales of tens of parsecs, or ~10^5^R_{sun}_, corresponding to the end of the collimation and acceleration zone in nearby radio galaxies. We find evidence of subluminal apparent motion in the jets of PKS 1258-321 and IC 4296, and no measurable apparent motion for PKS 1549-79, PKS 1733-565 and PKS 2027-308. For all these sources, TANAMI provides the first multi-epoch kinematic analysis on parsec scales. We then compare the VLBI properties of gamma-ray-detected and undetected radio galaxies, and find that the two populations show a significantly different distribution of median core flux density, and, possibly, of median core brightness temperature. In terms of correlation between VLBI and gamma-ray properties, we find a significant correlation between median core flux density and gamma-ray flux, but no correlation with typical Doppler boosting indicators such as median core brightness temperature and core dominance. Our study suggests that high-energy emission from radio galaxies is related to parsec-scale radio emission from the inner jet, but is not driven by Doppler boosting effects, in contrast to the situation in their blazar counterparts. This implies that gamma-ray loudness does not necessarily reflect a higher prevalence of boosting effects.
