Searching for the Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitor Robert Mesler
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Physics & Astronomy ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2-14-2014 Searching for the Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitor Robert Mesler Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/phyc_etds Recommended Citation Mesler, Robert. "Searching for the Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitor." (2014). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ phyc_etds/46 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Physics & Astronomy ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Robert Mesler Candidate Physics and Astronomy Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Ylva Pihlström , Chairperson Greg Taylor Rich Rand Mark Gilmore Blank Blank Blank Blank Blank Searching for the Long-Duration Gamma Ray Burst Progenitor by Robert A. Mesler, III B.S., James Madison University, 2008 M.S., Physics, University of New Mexico, 2011 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Physics The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2013 c 2013, Robert A. Mesler, III iii Dedication To my parents, Bob and Kathy, without whom this dissertation would never have been possible. iv Acknowledgments Many thanks are in order... To my advisor, Ylva Pihlstr¨om, for her support and advice at every step of the long road that ended with this dissertation. Thank you for making graduate school such a challenging, and yet richly rewarding experience. To my collaborators Dan Whalen, Nicole Lloyd-Ronning, and Chris Fryer for their guidance and assistance. To Greg Taylor for generously offering to support me when other funding sources dried up, and to the LWA staff for bearing with me while I learned to operate the LWA. To Sarah, for her patience and understanding and for helping to keep me just a little sane. To Janelle Whalen and Kirsten White for challenging me in high school physics and computer science. You motivated me to learn and kindled my life-long love of science. This is all your fault! v Searching for the Long-Duration Gamma Ray Burst Progenitor by Robert A. Mesler, III B.S., James Madison University, 2008 M.S., Physics, University of New Mexico, 2011 Ph.D., Physics, University of New Mexico, 2013 Abstract Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the universe, yet relatively little is known about the progenitor that produces them de- spite more than forty years of study by the astronomical community. The current model of the progenitor is the collapse of a massive star and the ejection of a rel- ativistic jet into a pure stellar wind. In this dissertation, a semi-analytic model is produced to describe the evolution of the GRB jet and the resultant afterglow for an alternative class of binary merger stellar progenitors. It is shown that, in the case of GRB 030329, a single-component, relativistic jet propagating into a pure stellar wind does not best explain the burst afterglow. Stellar merger progenitors are invoked as a possible alternative to the collapse of a single star, and are shown to produce circum- burst density profiles that are profoundly more complex than the generally accepted stellar wind. Moreover, the interaction of the jet with these complex density profiles is shown to produce discernible features in the afterglow light curve which may, in principle, be used to constrain the nature of the burst progenitor. vi Contents List of Figures xii List of Tables xxi Glossary xxiii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Overview.................................. 1 1.2 GRBPhysics ............................... 3 1.2.1 TheFireballModel........................ 3 1.2.2 TheCentralEngine........................ 5 1.2.3 PromptEmission ......................... 5 1.2.4 TheAfterglow........................... 6 1.2.5 Progenitors ............................ 8 1.2.6 Jets ................................ 12 1.3 ThisDissertation ............................. 14 vii Contents 1.3.1 Goals................................ 14 1.3.2 Organization ........................... 15 2 Gamma-Ray Bursts in Circumstellar Shells 17 2.1 Introduction................................ 18 2.2 NumericalMethod ............................ 21 2.2.1 ZEUS-MP............................. 21 2.2.2 ProblemSetup .......................... 24 2.2.3 Grid of Shell Models . 25 2.2.4 WindBubbleTest ........................ 25 2.3 Circumburst Density Profiles of Collapsars andHeMergers.............................. 27 2.4 AfterglowLightCurves.......................... 31 2.4.1 JetHydrodynamics........................ 31 2.4.2 TheInjectionBreak ....................... 33 2.4.3 TheCoolingBreak ........................ 34 2.4.4 TheAbsorptionBreak . .. .. 36 2.4.5 LightCurves ........................... 37 2.4.6 Spherical Emission and Beaming . 40 2.4.7 Imprint of Dense Shells on GRB light curves . 42 2.5 DiscussionandConclusions . .. .. 47 viii Contents 3 Population II/III Gamma-Ray Bursts 52 3.1 Introduction................................ 53 3.2 PopII/IIIGRBProgenitorTypes . 55 3.2.1 EnvironmentsofPopIIIGRBs . 57 3.3 PopII/IIIGRBModels ......................... 60 3.3.1 ZEUS-MPOutburstModels . 62 3.3.2 AfterglowModel ......................... 64 3.3.3 DensityJumps .......................... 67 3.3.4 TheInjectionBreak ....................... 71 3.3.5 TheCoolingBreak ........................ 72 3.3.6 LightCurves ........................... 73 3.3.7 InverseComptonScattering . 74 3.3.8 Spherical Emission and Beaming . 74 3.4 LightCurves................................ 76 3.4.1 Collapsars in HII Regions . 76 3.4.2 Flares ............................... 85 3.5 Conclusions ................................ 86 4 VLBI and Archival VLA and WSRT Observations of GRB 030329 92 4.1 Introduction................................ 93 4.2 GRB030329................................ 96 ix Contents 4.3 ObservationsandDataReduction . 96 4.3.1 GlobalVLBI ........................... 96 4.3.2 VLAandWSRTArchivalObservations . 97 4.4 Results................................... 99 4.4.1 Flux Density Evolution . 99 4.4.2 SizeandExpansionRate. 101 4.4.3 ProperMotion .......................... 102 4.5 Discussion................................. 104 4.5.1 DensityProfiles .......................... 104 4.5.2 Rebrightening........................... 106 4.6 Conclusions ................................ 107 5 Calorimetry of GRB 030329 111 5.1 Introduction................................ 112 5.2 GRB030329................................ 113 5.3 ArchivalData ............................... 113 5.3.1 Determining the Initial Lorentz Factor . 115 2 5.3.2 Fitting the χr hydrodynamicsModels. 118 5.4 Burst Calorimetry From the Broadband Afterglow . 120 5.5 Conclusions ................................ 124 x Contents 6 Conclusions 128 6.1 TowardtheLong-DurationGRBProgenitor . 131 6.2 FutureWork................................ 132 6.3 Funding and Additional Acknowledgements . 134 Appendices 136 A Average Synchrotron Power Radiated by a Single Electron 137 xi List of Figures 1.1 Spectrum of GRB 970508 showing the three break frequencies, from Wijers&Galama(1999). ....................... 8 1.2 Histogram showing the distribution of GRB detections with T90, from Nakar(2007). .............................. 9 2.1 Left panel: wind-blown bubbles at 6.25 104 yr form ˙ = 10−5 × w 3 M⊙/yr and vw = 10 km/s for four fiducial ambient densities, 10, 100, 1000 and 1.8 104 cm−3. These profiles include no radiative × cooling. As can be seen in the plots, densities within 1 pc of ∼ −3 the star depend only onm ˙ and vw for n . 100 cm . Right panel: structure of the shell at 1.25 104 yr in an ambient density of 100 × −3 cm with no cooling, H2 cooling and fine structure cooling by C, O, N, Si and Fe at Z = 0.1 Z⊙ (from the Dalgarno–McCray, or DM, cooling curves). Radiative cooling flattens the shell plowed up by the wind into a cold dense structure, with no effect on the free-streaming region in the vicinity of the star. Note also that efficient cooling in the shell also radiates away some of its thermal energy and slows its advance. ................................. 28 xii List of Figures 2.2 Density profiles (a) and temperature profiles (b) for a 100 yr outburst −2 −5 withm ˙ b = 10 M⊙/yr in a stellar wind withm ˙ w = 10 M⊙/yr. Black: 120yr;red: 600yr;blue: 1000yr. 29 2.3 Light curves and break frequencies for a GRB in a dense shell. Panel (a): densities encountered by the jet over time; panel (b): syn- chrotron light curves; panel (c): break frequencies. Region V, a second region of unshocked wind, is not shown here because the fast detachedwindhasexitedthegrid. 41 2.4 Density encountered by the jet as it passes through the shell as a function of observer time tobs for shells ejected 100, 200, and 500 yr prior to the GRB (left to right). Here, the progenitor had a mass loss −6 −1 rate of 10 M⊙ yr and a hydrogen shell of mass 0.1 M⊙. These plots, and our calculations, implicitly include the slowing of the jet inthedenseshell. ............................ 46 2.5 Density profiles (a) and gamma-ray light curves (b) (3 108 GHz, or × 1.24 keV) for a GRB occurring 500 yr after ejection of the progenitor’s −6 −1 −5 hydrogen shell. Black:m ˙ w = 10 M⊙ yr ; blue:m ˙ w = 10 M⊙ −1 −4 −1 yr ; red:m ˙ w = 10 M⊙ yr . Solid lines: 0.1 M⊙ shells; dotted lines: