Synchrotron and Inverse-Compton Signatures of Black to White Hole Explosions: Weibel-Mediated External Shocks in the Interstellar Medium

Abstract

We study the non-thermal electromagnetic counterpart expected when the relativistic, near-isotropic ejecta of a black-to-white hole transition sweep up the interstellar medium (ISM). Building on a photospheric model for the prompt $\gamma$-ray emission~\cite{Villani2026}, we parametrize the kinetic energy available for an external shock, $\eiso=R_k\egprompt$, and model the resulting collisionless forward shock with a Weibel-mediated field~\cite{Weibel1959,MedvedevLoeb1999,SironiSpitkovsky2011}. We estimate the synchrotron and synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) emission from shock-accelerated electrons in a one-zone, Thomson-regime approximation, including inverse-Compton cooling, Klein-Nishina suppression, self-absorption, and $\gamma$-$\gamma$ opacity, all at order-of-magnitude or first-order accuracy. For illustrative parameters ($\egprompt\sim10^{44}$ erg, $R_k=0.1$, $\Gamma_0=100$), the electrons are slow-cooling, so for $p=2.5<3$ the synchrotron spectrum peaks at the cooling frequency $\nu_c$, in the MeV-to-GeV range and softening with time; the afterglow evolves in a fraction of a second to tens of seconds -- orders of magnitude faster than a classical long-duration GRB afterglow at comparable energy, density, and Lorentz factor -- with duration, peak energy, and flux depending sensitively on $R_k$, $\nism$, and $\epse,\epsB,\xie$. We identify parameter regions where a 1 keV photon-count estimate, below the intrinsic peak, exceeds a nominal detection threshold, and discuss features -- a fast, faint, roughly isotropic transient after a hard-spectrum prompt flash, without an achromatic jet break -- that may distinguish this scenario from short GRBs, magnetar giant flares, and other fast transients, while flagging the assumptions (forward-shock-only dynamics, one-zone Thomson-regime radiation, an illustrative detectability criterion) limiting its quantitative reach.