Gamma-Ray Bursts: a Population Study

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Gamma-Ray Bursts: a Population Study International Max-Planck Research School on Astrophysics Max-Planck-Institut fur¨ Extraterrestrische Physik Gamma-Ray Bursts: A Population Study Arne Rau Vollst¨andiger Abdruck der von der Fakult¨at f¨ur Physik der Technischen Universit¨at M¨unchen zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Naturwissenschaften genehmigten Dissertation. Vorsitzender: Univ.-Prof. Dr. M. Lindner Pr¨ufer der Dissertation: 1. Hon.-Prof. Dr. G. Hasinger 2. Univ.-Prof. Dr. F. v. Feilitzsch Die Dissertation wurde am 31. Oktober 2005 bei der Technischen Universit¨at M¨unchen eingereicht und durch die Fakult¨at f¨ur Physik am 14. Dezember 2005 angenommen. Contents Zusammenfassung 1 1 Introduction 5 1.1 Theearlyyears ................................ 5 1.2 Theafterglowera ............................... 7 1.3 Thetheoryofgamma-rayburstemission . .... 9 1.4 Theprogenitors ................................ 12 1.5 Thehostgalaxies ............................... 13 1.6 Apopulationstudy .............................. 15 2 The1stINTEGRALSPI-ACSgamma-rayburstcatalogue 19 2.1 Introduction.................................. 19 2.2 Instrumentation&data . 20 2.3 Sampleselection ............................... 22 2.4 Sampleanalysis................................ 25 2.5 Results..................................... 26 2.5.1 Durations............................... 26 2.5.2 The origin of events with T90<0.25s................. 28 2.5.3 Intensity ............................... 32 2.5.4 V/Vmax ................................ 33 2.5.5 Variability............................... 34 2.6 Conclusion .................................. 34 2.7 AppendixA-cataloguetable. 36 3 Discovery of the near-IR afterglow and of the host of GRB 030528 43 3.1 Introduction.................................. 43 3.2 GRB030528 ................................. 45 3.3 Observations ................................. 47 3.4 DataReduction ................................ 49 3.5 Results..................................... 50 3.6 Discussion................................... 54 3.7 AppendixA-CXOUJ170354.0–223654 . 58 3.8 AppendixB- K-bandafterglowlightcurvedata . 61 i Contents 4 The host of GRB/XRF 030528 - an actively star forming galaxy atz=0.782 63 4.1 Introduction.................................. 63 4.2 GRB/XRF030528 .............................. 64 4.3 Observationsanddatareduction . ... 65 4.4 Results..................................... 66 4.5 Discussion................................... 69 5 Constraining the GRB collimation with a survey for orphan afterglows 73 5.1 Introduction.................................. 73 5.2 Observationsanddatareduction . ... 75 5.2.1 Strategy,instrumentation&surveyfields . .... 75 5.2.2 Datareduction ............................ 78 5.2.3 Transientdetectionmethod. 80 5.3 Results..................................... 81 5.3.1 Candidatetransients . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 81 J132653.8-212702 .......................... 81 J132813.7-214237 .......................... 83 J161953.3+031909 .......................... 83 J215406.6-274226 .......................... 84 5.4 Efficiencyfororphanafterglowdetection . ...... 85 5.5 Discussion................................... 86 5.6 Conclusion .................................. 88 6 Epilogue 91 References 95 List of Publications 103 Acknowledgments 109 ii Zusammenfassung In der vorliegenden Arbeit erh¨alt der interessierte Leser Einblick in drei separate Aspekte der Beobachtungen von Gammastrahlungsblitzen (engl: Gamma-ray Bursts = GRBs). Der Reihenfolge der beobachtbaren Strahlungskomponenten dieser kosmologischen Explosio- nen nach, werden die Gamma- und Nachgl¨uhemission (engl: afterglow emission) sowie die Charakteristiken der Muttergalaxien (engl: host galaxies) untersucht. Die Arbeit basiert auf vier Publikationen im renomierten referierten Zeitschrift Astronomy & Astrophysics. Im ersten Teil wird die prompte Gammaemission, entstehend in internen Schocks in ultra- relativistischen, kollimierten Materieausstr¨omungen (engl: jets), untersucht. Dazu werden die GRBs, welche mit dem Anti-Koinzidenz Schild (SPI-ACS) des Spektrometers SPI des Satelliten INTEGRAL entdeckt wurden, verwendet. Es wird gezeigt, dass SPI-ACS erfolg- reich als omnidirektionaler GRB-Detektor bei Energien oberhalb von 80 keV arbeitet. 236 GRB-Kandidaten wurden w¨ahrend der ersten 26.5 Monate der Mission entdeckt und ihre Eigenschaften sind im ersten SPI-ACS GRB-Katalog zusammengefasst. Durch gleichzeit- ige Beobachtungen mit anderen Gammastrahlungsdetektoren, welche im Interplanetaren Netzwerk (engl: Interplanetary Network = IPN) zusammengefasst sind, konnte der GRB- Ursprung f¨ur 179 Ereignisse best¨atigt werden. Neben der bereits bekannten bimodalen Verteilung der GRB-Dauer (lange (>2s) und kurze Ereignisse (<2s)), wurde eine weitere Gruppe mit sehr kurzer Dauer (<0.25s) entdeckt. An- hand verschiedener Untersuchungen, zB.: logN–logCmax und <V /Vmax>, zeige ich, dass der Ursprung dieser sehr kurzen Population (ca. 40% der Gesamtereignisse) deutlich von dem der regul¨aren GRBs abweicht. Die sehr kurzen Ereignisse zeigen eine homogenen Verteilung im Euklidischen Raum, w¨ahrend Ereignisse l¨anger als 0.25 s eine deutliche Abweichung von der Homogenit¨at aufzeigen. Letzteres entspricht den bereits bekannten Ergebnissen des CGRO Instruments BATSE. Zeitgleich zu den sehr kurzen Ereignissen in SPI-ACS fand ich Saturierungen in einzelnen oder benachbarten Germaniumkristallen des Spektrometers. Dieses deutet auf den Ursprung eines grossen Teils der Ereignisse durch hochernergetische Kosmische Strahlung hin. Vernachl¨assigt man die sehr kurzen Ereignisse, so erscheint die Population der kurzen GRBs eher als eine Fortsetzung der langen GRBs zu kurzen Dauern, als eine separate Population. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wird der Fokus von der hochenergetischen Gammastrahlung auf die Phase des Nachgl¨uhens und die Untersuchung der Muttergalaxien im optischen und nah-infraroten Wellenl¨angenbereich gelegt. Dieses wird an einem Beispiel, dem op- tischen dunklen GRB/XRF 030528 durchgef¨uhrt (XRF = engl: X-ray Flash). Ich demon- striere, dass Nachgl¨uhen, welche bei optischen Wellenl¨angen aufgrund interstellarer Absorp- 1 Zusammenfassung tion nicht sichtbar sind, durch Beobachtungen im Nah-Infraroten entdeckt werden k¨onnen. Leider waren die Beobachtungen von GRB/XRF 030528 nicht ausreichend, um neben der eigentlichen Entdeckung eine akkurate Lichtkurve zu erhalten oder um die Entfernung mit Hilfe photometrischer Rotverschiebung zu bestimmen. Aus diesem Grund beantragte und erhielt ich Beobachtungszeit am Very Large Telescope der Europ¨aischen S¨udsternwarte in Chile, um die Muttergalaxie spektroskopisch zu untersuchen. Basierend auf den prominen- ten Sauerstoff- und Wasserstoff-Emissionslinien im Spektrum, konnte eine Rotverschiebung von z=0.782 0.001 abgeleitet werden. Die Linienleuchtkr¨afte und -verh¨altniss zeigen, dass ± die Muttergalaxie eine sehr aktive Phase der Sternentstehung durchlebt sowie eine sub-solare Metallizit¨at aufweist. Diese Beobachtungen stimmen mit den anderer GRB-Muttergalaxien und den theoretischen Vorl¨aufermodellen von langen GRBsuberein. ¨ Mit einer Sternenmasse von 1010 M ist die Muttergalaxie von GRB/XRF 030528 eine der massereichsten GRB- ∼ ⊙ Muttergalaxien bei z 0.8. ∼ Mit Hilfe der bekannten Entfernung k¨onnen die Eigenschaften der prompten Gammastrah- lung im Ruhesystem berechnet werden. Demzufolge wird GRB/XRF 030528, im Gegensatz zur Klassifizierung im Beobachtersystem als XRF, als ein r¨ontgenreicher Ausbruch (engl: X-ray Rich Burst = XRR) eingeordnet. Das zeigt, dass die generell verwendete Unterteilung in GRBs, XRRs und XRFs im Beobachtersystem bestenfalls als eine technische Klassi- fizierung gesehen werden kann, ohne repr¨asentativ f¨ur die physikalischen Eigenschaften der Ereignisse zu sein. Auf Grund der immer deutlicher werdenden Indizien, dass GRBs, XRRs und XRFs eine kontinuierliche Verteilung in den intrinsischen und beobachtbaren Eigenschaften bilden, wird eine strenge Unterteilung generell in Frage gestellt. Stattdessen k¨onnen die beobachteten Unterschiede durchaus durch stetige Verteilungen des Lorentzfak- tors der Ausstr¨omungen, des Kontrastes zwischen den Lorentzfaktoren miteinander wechsel- wirkender Dichteschalen, des Blickwinkels hinsichtlich der Achse der Ausstr¨omungen oder der Rotverschiebung, erkl¨art werden. Im abschliessenden Teil meiner Arbeit beschreibe ich eine Himmelsdurchmusterung nach langsam-variablen optischen Quellen, wie zB. “verwaiste” Nachgl¨uhen von GRBs (engl: orphan afterglows). Eine nat¨urliche Konsequenz der Kollimierung der ultra-relativistischen Ausstr¨omungen von GRBs ist, dass nur f¨ur solche Ereignisse die prompte Gammastrahlung detektiert werden kann, f¨ur welche sich der Beobachter innerhalb der Offnungswinkels¨ der Ausstr¨omung befindet. GRBs, die nicht direkt auf den Beobachter gerichtet sind, k¨onnen jedoch durch ihre “verwaisten” Nachgl¨uhen entdeckt werden, da erwartet wird, dass die sp¨ate Emission in einen gr¨osseren Raumwinkel abgestrahlt wird (bis hin zu isotroper Abstrahlung). Die beschriebene Himmelsdurchmusterungwurde mit dem Wide Field Imager am ESO/MPG 2.2m Teleskop in La Silla (Chile) durchgef¨uhrt. Ca. 12 Quadratgrad wurden in bis zu 25 N¨achten mit einer Grenzhelligkeit von R=23 beobachtet. Vier zuvor unbekannte variable Quellen konnten entdeckt werden, von denen ich drei als einen Kataklysmischen Variablen, einen Flarestern und eine Zwergnova identifizieren konnte. Der vierte Ver¨anderliche wurde in einer Beobachtungsnacht als helles Objekt nahe einer konstanten,
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