Jet and accretion power in the most powerful Fermi blazars

Among the blazars detected by the Fermi satellite, we have selected the 23 blazars that in the 3 months of survey had an average γ-ray luminosity above 10⁴⁸ erg s⁻¹. For 17 out of the 23 sources we found and analysed X-ray and optical–ultraviolet data taken by the Swift satellite. With these data, implemented by archival and not simultaneous data, we construct the spectral energy distributions, and interpreted them with a simple one-zone, leptonic, synchrotron and inverse Compton model. When possible, we also compare different high-energy states of single sources, like 0528+134 and 3C 454.3, for which multiple good sets of multiwavelength data are available. In our powerful blazars the high energy emission always dominates the electromagnetic output, and the relatively low level of the synchrotron radiation often does not hide the accretion disc emission. We can then constrain the black hole mass and the disc luminosity. Both are large (i.e. masses equal or greater than  10⁹ M _⊙  and disc luminosities above 10 per cent of Eddington). By modelling the non-thermal continuum we derive the power that the jet carries in the form of bulk motion of particles and fields. On average, the jet power is found to be slightly larger than the disc luminosity, and proportional to the mass accretion rate.     

Optical afterglows of gamma-ray bursts: a bimodal distribution?

The luminosities of the optical afterglows of gamma-ray bursts, 12 h (rest-frame time) after the trigger, show a surprising clustering, with a minority of events being at a significantly smaller luminosity. If real, this dichotomy would be a crucial clue to understand the nature of optically dark afterglows, i.e. bursts that are detected in the X-ray band, but not in the optical. We investigate this issue by studying bursts of the pre- Swift era, both detected and undetected in the optical. The limiting magnitudes of the undetected ones are used to construct the probability that a generic burst is observed down to a given magnitude limit. Then, by simulating a large number of bursts with pre-assigned characteristics, we can compare the properties of the observed optical luminosity distribution with the simulated one. Our results suggest that the hints of bimodality present in the observed distribution reflect a real bimodality: either the optical luminosity distribution of bursts is intrinsically bimodal, or there exists a population of bursts with a quite significant grey absorption, i.e. wavelength-independent extinction. This population of intrinsically weak or grey-absorbed events can be associated with dark bursts.     

Synergies of THESEUS with the large facilities of the 2030s and guest observer opportunities

Experimental Astronomy - The proposed THESEUS mission will vastly expand the capabilities to monitor the high-energy sky. It will specifically exploit large samples of gamma-ray bursts to probe the...     

Spectral analysis of Swift long gamma-ray bursts with known redshift

We study the spectral and energetics properties of 47 long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with known redshift, all of them detected by the Swift satellite. Due to the narrow energy range (15–150 keV) of the Swift -BAT detector, the spectral fitting is reliable only for fitting models with two or three parameters. As high uncertainty and correlation among the errors is expected, a careful analysis of the errors is necessary. We fit both the power law (PL, two parameters) and cut-off power law (CPL, three parameters) models to the time-integrated spectra of the 47 bursts, and we present the corresponding parameters, their uncertainties and the correlations among the uncertainties. The CPL model is reliable only for 29 bursts for which we estimate the  ν f _ν  peak energy E _pk. For these GRBs, we calculate the energy fluence and the rest-frame isotropic-equivalent radiated energy,   E _γ,iso  , as well as the propagated uncertainties and correlations among them. We explore the distribution of our homogeneous sample of GRBs on the rest-frame diagram   E '_pk  versus   E _γ,iso  . We confirm a significant correlation between these two quantities (the 'Amati' relation) and we verify that, within the uncertainty limits, no outliers are present. We also fit the spectra to a Band model with the high-energy PL index frozen to −2.3, obtaining a rather good agreement with the 'Amati' relation of non- Swift GRBs.