GRB 080913,with a spectroscopically determined redshift of z=6.7,was the record holder for being the most remote stellar object before the discovery of the recent gamma-ray burst GRB 090423,whose redshift is about 8.2.The gradually accumulated high redshift GRB sample has shed light on the origin and physical properties of GRBs during the cosmic re-ionization epoch.Here,we present a detailed numerical fit to the multi-wavelength data of the optical afterglow of GRB 080913 and then constrain its circumburst environment and the other model parameters.We conclude that the late optical/X-ray plateau at about one day since the burst is due to the Poynting-flux dominated injection from the central engine which is very likely a massive spinning black hole with super strong magnetic fields.
LIU XueWen,WU XueFeng & LU Tan Purple Mountain Observatory,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Nanjing 210008,China
In the fireball model, it is more physically realistic that gamma-rayburst (GRB) ejecta have a range of bulk Lorentz factors (assuming M ∝Γ-s). The low Lorentz factor part of the ejecta will catch up with the high Lorentz factor part when the latter is decelerated by the surrounding medium to a comparable Lorentz factor. Such a process will develop a long-lasting weak reverse shock until the whole ejecta are shocked. Meanwhile, the forward shocked materials are gradually supplied with energy from the ejecta that are catching-up, and thus the temporal decay of the forward shock emission will be slower than that without an energy supply. However, the reverse shock may be strong. Here, we extend the standard reverse-forward shock model to the case of radially nonuniform ejecta. We show that this process can be classified into two cases: the thick shell case and the thin shell case. In the thin shell case, the reverse shock is weak and the temporal scaling law of the afterglow is the same as that in Sari & Me′sza′ros (2000). However, in the thick shell case, the reverse shock is strong and thus its emission dominates the afterglow in the high energy band. Our results also show slower decaying behavior of the afterglow due to the energy supply by low Lorentz factor materials, which may help the understanding of the plateau observed in the early optical and X-ray afterglows.
We investigate redshift distributions of three long burst samples,with the first sample containing 131 long bursts with observed redshifts,the second including 220 long bursts with pseudo-redshifts calculated by the variability-luminosity relation,and the third including 1194 long bursts with pseudo-redshifts calculated by the lag-luminosity relation,respectively.In the redshift range 0-1 the Kolmogorov-Smirnov probability of the observed redshift distribution and that of the variability-luminosity relation is large.In the redshift ranges 1-2,2-3,3-6.3 and 0-37,the Kolmogorov-Smirnov probabilities of the redshift distribution from lag-luminosity relation and the observed redshift distri-bution are also large.For the GRBs,which appear both in the two pseudo-redshift burst samples,the KS probability of the pseudo-redshift distribution from the lag-luminosity relation and the observed reshift distribution is 0.447,which is very large.Based on these results,some conclusions are drawn:i) the V -Liso relation might be more believable than the τ-Liso relation in low redshift ranges and the τ-Liso relation might be more real than the V -Liso relation in high redshift ranges;ii) if we do not consider the redshift ranges,the τ-Liso relation might be more physical and intrinsical than the V-Liso relation.
A long plateau phase and an amazing level of brightness have been observed in the X-ray afterglow of GRB 060729.This peculiar light curve is likely due to longterm energy injection in external shock.Here,we present a detailed numerical study of the energy injection process of magnetic dipole radiation from a strongly magnetized millisecond pulsar and model the multi-band afterglow observations.It is found that this model can successfully explain the long plateaus in the observed X-ray and optical afterglow light curves.The sharp break following the plateaus could be due to the rapid decline of the emission power of the central pulsar.At an even later time(～5×106 s) ,an obvious jet break appears,which implies a relatively large half opening angle of θ～ 0.3 for the GRB ejecta.Due to the energy injection,the Lorentz factor of the outflow is still larger than two even at 107 s after the GRB trigger,making the X-ray afterglow of this burst detectable by Chandra even 642d after the burst.
