Anisotropy in the sky distribution of short gamma-ray bursts

We analyze the sky distribution of various types of cosmic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs): short, long, and intermediate; they are determined by burst duration T ₉₀ (T ₉₀ is the time during which 90% of the burst energy is accumulated). We have found an anisotropy in the distribution of intermediate (2 s < T ₉₀ < 8 s) and short (T ₉₀ < 8 s) GRBs in the form of spots with an enhanced GRB concentration near the Galactic coordinates l=115° and b=30°. Given the BATSE nonuniform exposure function, the statistical significance of the anisotropy is 99.89% for intermediate GRBs and 99.99% for short GRBs. Thus, we suggest that this anisotropy has a natural origin and is not caused by BATSE instrumental effects.     

Temporal properties of short gamma-ray bursts

We analyse a sample of bright short bursts from the BATSE 4B-catalog and find that many short bursts are highly variable  ( δt _min/ T ≪1  , where δt _min is the shortest pulse duration and T is the burst duration). This indicates that it is unlikely that short bursts are produced by external shocks. We also analyse the available (first  1–2 s)  high-resolution Time Tagged Events (TTE) data of some of the long bursts. We find that variability on a 10-ms time-scale is common in long bursts. This result shows that some long bursts are even more variable than it was thought before  ( δt _min/ T ≈10^-4–10^-3)  .     

Early afterglows of short gamma-ray bursts

In the relativistic fireball model, the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) is produced by synchrotron radiation of the electrons accelerated in the external shock that emerges as the relativistic flow moves. According to this model, the afterglow peaks on a time scale of ～10 s when observed in the soft gamma-ray band. The peak flux can be high enough to be detected by modern all-sky monitors. We investigate the emission from short (ΔT<1 s) GRBs on a time scale t≈10 s using BATSE/CGRO data. A significant flux is recorded for ～20% of the events. In most cases, the observed persistent emission can be explained in terms of the model as an early burst afterglow. No early afterglows of most short GRBs are observed. The model parameters for these bursts are constrained.     

Supernovae-optical precursors of short gamma-ray bursts

The probability of observing “supernova-gamma-ray burst” (GRB) pair events and recurrent GRBs from one galaxy in a time interval of several years has been estimated. Supernova explosions in binary systems accompanied by the formation of a short-lived pair of compact objects can be the sources of such events. If a short GRB is generated during the collision of a pair, then approximately each of ∼300 short GRBs with redshift z must have an optical precursor—a supernova in the observer’s time interval <2(1 + z) yr. If the supernova explosion has the pattern of a hypernova, then a successive observation of long and short GRBs is possible. The scenario for the generation of multiple GRBs in collapsing galactic nuclei is also discussed.     

Analysis of TTE/BATSE time profiles for short gamma-ray bursts

The TTE/BATSE time profiles for short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are analyzed. A sample of 287 short GRBs and a sample of 143 background regions are studied. Bursts similar to BRBs with precursors and bursts with time profiles that are not encountered among the bursts whose time profiles were investigated by using a combination of DISCSC and PREB data. In addition, there are fewer events with single-peak time profiles among short GRBs than among long GRBs (many double and triple bursts). A fractal analysis of the TTE time profiles for short GRBs is performed. According to the TTE data, the range of fractal dimensions for short bursts is 0.80≤D≤2.25. The derived fractal-dimension distribution exhibits two peaks that correspond to a similar distribution obtained previously by reducing the DISCSC data for short GRBs (D=1.44±0.02 and D=1.90±0.03) and a third peak (D=1.05±0.03). The bursts with 〈D〉=1.90±0.03 correspond to events in whose sources the processes with long-term variations and (or) quasi-periodicity take place, while the event time profiles with a fractal dimension 〈D〉=1.05±0.03 correspond to events in whose sources many extremely short random processes take place. A more detailed analysis of a subgroup of bursts with D=1.44±0.02 shows that its fractal dimension distribution is broader than that for a group with the same (within the limits of the measurement errors) D. At least two more GRB subgroups can be distinguished in this subgroup: (1) bursts with 〈D〉=1.51±0.04; according to the TTE data, their fractal dimensions correspond to those of the background; i.e., these are events with smooth time profiles without any variability in the sources on the time scales on which the fractal dimension is analyzed; and (2) bursts with 〈D〉=1.31±0.05, whose time profiles can correspond to those of the events obtained from the fireball model with internal shock waves. We present time profiles for the events obtained by using this model. The range of fractal dimensions for the modeled time profiles is 1.213≤D≤1.400, with the fractal dimensions for such an event and for the real GRB 990208 being equal, within the error limits, for some model parameters. A study of the TTE and DISCSC fractal-dimension distributions for the background indicates that the fractal dimension distributions obtained by analyzing these two types of data can be processed simultaneously.     

Inhomogeneities in the spatial distribution of gamma-ray bursts

The distribution of pairwise distances f(l) for different dependences r(z) of the metric distance is used to reveal inhomogeneities in the spatial distribution of 201 long (T ₉₀>2^s) gamma-ray bursts with measured redshifts z. For a fractal set with dimensionality D, this function behaves asymptotically as f(l) ∼ l ^D−1 for small l. Signs of fractal behavior with dimensionality D = 2.2–2.5 show up in all the models considered for the spatial distribution of the gamma-ray bursts. Several spatially distinct groups of gamma-ray bursts are identified. The group with equatorial coordinates ranging from 23^h56^m to 0^h49^m and δ from +19° to +23° with redshifts of 0.81–0.94 is examined separately.     

Evidence for luminosity evolution of long gamma-ray bursts in Swift data

We compute the luminosity function (LF) and the formation rate of long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) by fitting the observed differential peak flux distribution obtained by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) in two different scenarios: (i) the GRB luminosity evolves with redshift and (ii) GRBs form preferentially in low-metallicity environments. In both cases, model predictions are consistent with the Swift number counts and with the number of detections at   z > 2.5  and >3.5. To discriminate between the two evolutionary scenarios, we compare the model results with the number of luminous bursts (i.e. with isotropic peak luminosity in excess of 10⁵³ erg s⁻¹) detected by Swift in its first 3 yr of mission. Our sample conservatively contains only bursts with good redshift determination and measured peak energy. We find that pure luminosity evolution models can account for the number of sure identifications. In the case of a pure density evolution scenario, models with   Z _th > 0.3 Z_⊙  are ruled out with high confidence. For lower metallicity thresholds, the model results are still statistically consistent with available lower limits. However, many factors can increase the discrepancy between model results and data, indicating that some luminosity evolution in the GRB LF may be needed also for such low values of Z _th. Finally, using these new constraints, we derive robust upper limits on the bright end of the GRB LF, showing that this cannot be steeper than ∼2.6.     

Observational constraints on the nature of very short gamma-ray bursts

We discuss a very peculiar subgroup of gamma-ray bursts among the BATSE sources. These bursts are very short (T₉₀ ? 0.1 s), hard, and came predominantly from a restricted direction of the sky (close to the Galactic anti-center). We analyze their arrival times and possible correlations, as well as the profiles of individual bursts. We find no peculiarities in the arrival times of Very Short Bursts (VSBs) despite their highly non-uniform spatial distribution. There is no dependence in the burst shapes on location. Bursts coming both from the burst-enhancement Galactic Anticenter region and from all other directions show considerable dispersion in their rise and fall times. Significant fraction of VSBs have multiple peaks despite their extremely short duration. Burst time properties are most likely to be consistent with two origin mechanisms: either with binary NS–NS mergers with low total masses passing through a phase of hypermassive neutron star, or with evaporation of the primordial black holes in the scenario of no photosphere formation.     

Analysis of narrow spikes in two cosmic gamma-ray bursts

An analysis has been made of the narrow intensity spikes occurring in two cosmic gammaray bursts which were observed with a fast time resolution germanium spectrometer on board the low altitude polar orbiting satellite 1972-076B (Imhofet al., 1974a, 1975; Nakanoet al., 1974a). The bursts on 18 December, 1972 and 21 July, 1973, were also recorded on the Vela satellite system. The durations of three spikes were observed to be 0.06 s with the limits being 0.03 to 0.10 s. Four other narrow spikes were measured to have time width limits between 0.001 and 0.10 s. An additional eight spikes had widths less than 0.9 s. During the spikes, the gamma-ray intensities increased by factors of 2 to 10, with a median value of 3. These and other characteristics of the fast time structure are presented.Paper presented at the COSPAR Symposium on Fast Transients in X- and Gamma-Rays, held at Varna, Bulgaria, 29–31 May, 1975.     

A comparison of temporal properties of short and long gamma-ray bursts

In this paper, we have performed a temporal analysis of single pulses from short (46) and long (51) gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) to investigate possible differences in their properties. In particular we pay detailed attention to the asymmetry of pulses. We find that the asymmetry ratio of short GRB pulses clusters around 0.81 and that these pulses are on average more symmetric than those from long GRBs, which have an average value of 0.47. In addition we note that the pulses in short GRBs display exponential rises and fast decays (ERFD) in comparison the fast rise exponential decays (FRED) pulses of long GRBs. The asymmetry ratio does not depend on the full width at half maximum (FWHM) and does not vary with energy channel. Moreover, there is a general trend for slower pulses to be more asymmetric. Finally, we deduce that the asymmetry could be used to probe the emission mechanisms of GRBs.     

The isotropic energy function and formation rate of short gamma-ray bursts

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are brief,intense,gamma-ray flashes in the universe,lasting from a few milliseconds to a few thousand seconds.For short gamma-ray bursts (s GRBs) with duration less than 2 seconds,the isotropic energy (E_(iso)) function may be more scientifically meaningful and accurately measured than the luminosity (L_p) function.In this work we construct,for the first time,the isotropic energy function of s GRBs and estimate their formation rate.First,we derive the L_p-E_pcorrelation using22 s GRBs with known redshifts and well-measured spectra and estimate the pseduo redshifts of 334 Fermi s GRBs.Then,we adopt the Lynden-Bell c~-method to study isotropic energy functions and formation rate of s GRBs without any assumption.A strong evolution of isotropic energy E_(iso)∝(1+z)~(5.79)is found,which is comparable to that between L_pand z.After removing effect of the cosmic evolution,the isotropic energy function can be reasonably fitted by a broken power law,which isφ(E_(iso,0))∝E~(-0)_(iso),._0~(45)for dim s GRBs andφ(E_(iso,0))∝E~(-1)_(iso),._0~(11)for bright s GRBs,with the break energy 4.92×10~(49)erg.We obtain the local formation rate of s GRBs is about 17.43 events Gpc~(-3)yr~(-1).If assuming a beaming angle is 6?to 26?,the local formation rate including off-axis s GRBs is estimated asρ_(0,all)=155.79-3202.35 events Gpc~(-3)yr~(-1).     

The spectra and light curves of two gamma-ray bursts

During the last half of 1977 the UCSD/MIT Hard X-Ray and Low Energy Gamma-Ray Experiment of HEAO-1 observed two of the three gamma-ray bursts detected by at least three satellites. The first of these bursts (20 October, 1977) had a fluence of (3.1±0.5)×10^–5 erg cm^–2 integrated over the energy range 0.135–2.05 MeV and over its duration of 38.7 s, placing it among the largest bursts observed. The second (10 November, 1977) had a fluence of (2.1±0.8)×10^–5 erg cm^–2 integrated over the energy range 0.125–3 MeV and over its duration of 2.8 s. The light curves of both bursts exhibit time fluctuations down to the limiting time resolution of the detectors (0.1 s). The spectrum of the 20 October, 1977 burst can be fitted with a power law (index –1.93±0.16), which is harder than other reported gamma-ray burst spectral fits. This burst was detected up to 2.05 MeV, and approximately half of its energy was emitted at photon energies above 0.5 MeV. The spectrum of the 10 November, 1977 burst is softer (index –2.4±0.7) and is similar to the spectrum of the 27 April, 1972 burst.Paper presented at the Symposium on Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts held at Toulouse, France, 26–29 November, 1979.     

Precursors of short gamma-ray bursts in the SPI-ACS/INTEGRAL experiment

We have analyzed the light curves of 519 short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected in the SPI-ACS/INTEGRAL experiment from December 2002 toMay 2014 to search for precursors (a possible activity of the GRB source before the beginning of themain episode). Both the light curves of 519 individual events and the averaged light curve of 372 brightest bursts have been analyzed. In several cases, we have found and thoroughly studied precursor candidates based on SPI-ACS/INTEGRAL, GBM/Fermi, and LAT/Fermi data. A statistical analysis of the averaged light curve for the entire sample of short bursts has revealed no regular precursor. Upper limits for the relative intensity of precursors have been estimated. We have compared our results with those of other authors; no convincing evidence for the existence of precursors of short GRBs has been found. We show that the fraction of short GRBs with precursors is less than 0.4% of all short bursts.