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The Afterglows of Swift-Era Short and Long Gamma-Ray Bursts

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The Afterglows of Swift-Era Short and Long Gamma-Ray Bursts The Afterglows of Swift-era Short and Long Gamma-Ray Bursts Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Dr. rer. nat. vorgelegt dem Rat der Physikalisch-Astronomischen Fakult¨at der Friedrich-Schiller-Universit¨atJena eingereicht von Dipl.-Phys. David Alexander Kann geboren am 15.02.1977 in Trier Gutachter 1. Prof. Dr. Artie Hatzes, Th¨uringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg 2. Prof. Dr. J¨orn Wilms, Dr. Remeis-Sternwarte, Sternwartstraße 7, 96049 Bamberg 3. PD Dr. Hans-Thomas Janka, Max-Planck-Institut fr Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748 Garching Tag der letzten Rigorosumspr¨ufung: 13. 07. 2011 Tag der ¨offentlichen Verteidigung: 13. 07. 2011 Zusammenfassung Das Ph¨anomen der Gammastrahlenausbr¨uche (Englisch: Gamma-Ray Bursts, kurz: GRBs) war auch lange nach ihrer Entdeckung vor ¨uber vier Jahrzehnten ein großes R¨atsel. Selbst heute, ¨uber ein Jahrzehnt seit Beginn der “Ara¨ der Nachgl¨uhen” (engl.: Afterglows) sind noch viele Fragen unbeantwortet. Das akzeptierte Bild, welches einen Großteil der Daten erkl¨aren kann ist, dass GRBs erzeugt werden, wenn ein massereicher Himmelsk¨orper (en- tweder ein Stern, der die Hauptreihe verlassen hat, oder miteinander verschmelzende kom- pakte Objekte) in kosmologischer Distanz zu einem schnell rotierenden Objekt kollabiert (ein Schwarzes Loch oder vielleicht ein kurzlebiger Magnetar), welches ultrarelativistische Materieausw¨urfe (sogenannte “Jets”) entlang der Polachse ausschleudert. Die interne Dissi- pation von Energie in dem Jet f¨uhrt zu kollimierter nicht-thermischer Strahlung bei hohen Energien (der eigentliche GRB), w¨ahrend Schockfronten, die bei der Interaktion des Jets mit der interstellaren Materie erzeugt werden, zu einem langlebigen abklingenden Afterglows f¨uhren. Die gesammelten physikalischen Prozesse, die die GRB-Emission beschreiben, werden als das Standard-Feuerballmodell bezeichnet. GRBs sind f¨urkurze Zeitr¨aumenachweislich die leuchtkr¨aftigsten elektromagnetischen Quellen des Universums. Noch vor der Entdeckung der Afterglows wurde festgestellt, dass es (mindestens) zwei Klassen von GRBs gibt welche, ihren Zeitverl¨aufen und Spektren nach, als kurze/harte und lange/weiche GRBs bezeichnet werden. In den letzten Jahren wurde offensichtlich, dass diese klassischen Definitionen nicht universell g¨ultig sind, und die Begriffe Typ I GRB (nicht mit massereicher Sternentstehung verkn¨upft, vermutlich durch die Verschmelzung kompakter Ob- jekte ausgel¨ost) und Typ II GRB (mit massereicher Sternentstehung verkn¨upft, die optische Emission zu sp¨aten Zeiten enth¨alt eine Komponente, die einer Typ Ic Supernova mit hoher Ausbreitungsgeschwindigkeit zuzuschreiben ist) wurden vorgeschlagen. W¨ahrend die Untersuchung der Afterglows von Typ II GRBs seit ihrer Entdeckung Anfang 1997 schnell voranschritt, und inzwischen große Samples untersucht werden k¨onnen, wurde kein Afterglows eines Typ I GRBs in irgendeinem Wellenl¨angenbereich entdeckt, bis im Jahre 2005 der dedizierte Satellit Swift in Betrieb ging. Die ersten Afterglows wurden in Galaxien mit geringer Sternentstehungsrate gefunden, was sofort best¨atigte, dass Typ I GRBs durch alte Sternpopulationen erzeugt werden k¨onnen, was das Verschmelzungsmodell unterst¨utzt. Des weiteren sind Typ I GRBs signifikant weniger energiereich als Typ II GRBs, sowohl was die GRB-Emission angeht als auch die Leuchtkraft des Afterglows. Weitere Detektierungen zeigten jedoch, dass das Bild nicht so einheitlich war, da sich viele Typ I GRBs in Galaxien mit aktiver Sternentstehung ereignen und sie doch energeireicher sein k¨onnen, als zu Beginn angenommen. In dieser Dissertation pr¨asentiere ich meine Untersuchungen zu den Afterglows von Typ I und Typ II GRBs, und vergleiche sie miteinander, insbesondere, was die Extinktion durch Staub in den Muttergalaxien sowie die Leuchtkraftverteilung angeht. Um dies zu erm¨oglichen, habe ich das weltweit gr¨oßte Archiv an photometrischen Daten zu Afterglows zusammengestellt und habe aus diesem GRBs selektiert, die ausreichende Daten f¨ureine weitergehende Analyse boten. Die Dissertation is folgendermaßen geordnet: Das erste Kapitel gibt eine Einleitung zu der Geschichte der GRB-Forschung und pr¨asentiert die Beobachtungen, die zu dem heutigen Bild gef¨uhrt haben, wie GRBs erzeugt werden. Das zweite Kapitel beinhaltet die theoretis- chen Grundlagen und Vorhersagen des Standard-Feuerballmodells. Im dritten Kapitel stelle ich die Analysemethoden vor und erl¨autere, wie ich die Samples erstellt habe. Im vierten Kapitel diskutiere ich die Eigenschaften der Afterglows von Typ II GRBs, w¨ahrend im f¨unften Kapitel diese mit den Afterglows von Typ I GRBs verglichen werden. Im sechsten Kapitel komme ich zum Schluß, fasse meine Ergebnisse zusammen und gebe einen Ausblick auf weit- ere Arbeit, an der ich beteiligt bin. Im Anhang schließlich prsentiere ich zustzliche Ergebnisse zu den Afterglows von Type I und Typ II GRBs, diskutiere weitere Untersuchungen an di- versen GRBs, an denen ich beteiligt war, und f¨uhre die Beobachtungen auf, die wir mit dem Tautenburger Teleskop gewonnen haben und an denen ich beteiligt war. Abstract The phenomenon of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) has been a great mystery since their dis- covery four decades ago. Even today, over a decade into the “afterglow age”, many questions are still unanswered. The canonical picture which satisfies most of the data is that GRBs are produced when a massive celestial body (either a post-main sequence star or merging compact objects) at cosmological distances collapses to a rapidly rotating compact object (a black hole or possibly a short-lived massive magnetar) which launches ultra-relativistic polar jets. The internal dissipation of energy within the jets leads to collimated non-thermal high- energy emission (the actual GRB), whereas shocks created from the interactions of the jets with the interstellar medium create a long-lasting fading afterglow. The collected physical processes describing this emission are called the standard fireball model. GRBs have been found to be the most luminous electromagnetic sources in the universe for short time periods. Even before the discovery of afterglows, it was established that GRBs exist in (at least) two classes, which, according to their temporal and spectral properties, have been labelled short/hard and long/soft GRBs. In the last years, it has become obvious that these classical definitions do not apply universally, and the terms Type I GRB (not associated with massive star formation, probably due to the merger of compact objects) and Type II GRB (associated with massive star formation, the late optical emission includes a component due to a Type Ic supernova with high expansions speeds) have been suggested instead. While the study of afterglows of Type II GRBs has progressed rapidly since their discov- ery in early 1997, and large samples can be studied today, no Type I GRB afterglow was detected at any wavelength until the advent of the dedicated Swift satellite in 2005. The first afterglows were localized in early-type galaxies, immediately confirming that Type I GRBs can be produced by an old stellar population, and supporting the merger model. Further- more, Type I GRBs were clearly significantly less energetic than Type II GRBs, both in the GRB emission as well as the afterglow luminosity. Further detections, though, showed that the picture was not so clear, as many Type I GRBs occur in star-forming galaxies and are more energetic than initially expected. In this Thesis, I present my study of the afterglows of Type I and Type II GRBs, and compare them with each other, especially in terms of host-galaxy dust extinction and the luminosity distribution. To accomplish this, I have collected the largest sample of photometric afterglow data available worldwide, and from this, selected GRBs with data sufficient for a more detailed analysis. The Thesis is ordered as follows: Chapter 1 gives an introduction into the history of GRB science, and presents the observations which have given us our current picture of how GRBs are generated. Chapter 2 presents the basic equations and predictions of the standard fireball model. In Chapter 3, I present the analysis methods and explain how I created the samples. In Chapter 4, the properties of Type II GRB afterglows are discussed, and in Chapter 5, they are compared with those of Type I GRBs. In Chapter 6, I conclude and sum up my results, and give an outlook on further research in progress. Finally, in the Appendix, I present additional results on the afterglows of Type I and Type II GRBs, observational results on multiple GRB events which I was involved in, and also list the observations performed with our Tautenburg telescope which I was involved in. Contents 1 The History of GRB Research 1 1.1 The discovery of GRBs and the first two decades . 1 1.2 The BATSE era – creating a large GRB sample . 2 1.3 BeppoSAX and the Beginning of the Afterglow Era . 4 1.4 HETE II and INTEGRAL – rapid localization . 6 1.5 Swift – afterglows and redshifts become common . 7 1.6 Fermi and AGILE – exploring the high-energy regime . 9 2 The Physics of GRBs: a Primer 11 2.1 The Fireball Model . 11 2.1.1 The Compactness Problem – the Need for a Relativistic Fireball . 11 2.1.2 Creating the GRB – the Formation of Internal Shocks . 12 2.1.3 Creating the Broadband Afterglow – the External Shock Mechanism . 13 2.1.4 Evidence for Collimated Emission – the Jet and its Break . 17 2.2 Collapsars – the Progenitors of long GRBs . 18 2.3 Mergers – the viable Progenitors of Short GRBs . 20 2.4 GRB Environments and Dust Extinction . 21 2.4.1 Dust Extinction and Extinction Laws . 21 2.4.2 The “Drude” Approach . 25 2.4.3 The Hydrogen and Metal Columns . 25 3 Background, Analysis Methods and Sample Creation 27 3.1 Introduction . 27 3.2 Analysis Methods . 29 3.2.1 Light-curve analysis . 29 3.2.2 SED analysis . 30 3.2.3 Further procedures . 31 3.3 Sample Selection and Data Mining . 31 3.3.1 On the Problems of Classification – the Type I/II Denomination . 31 3.3.2 Data Mining and Additional Photometry .
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