arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jay P. Norris.
This presentation describes the Bayesian Block algorithm in the context of its application to analysis of time series data from the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope. More generally this algorithm performs optimal segmentation analysis on sequential data in any mode, with arbitrary sampling and in the presence of gaps and exposure variations. A new procedure for correcting for backgrounds is also described.
This paper addresses the problem of detecting and characterizing local variability in time series and other forms of sequential data. The goal is to identify and characterize statistically significant variations, at the same time suppressing the inevitable corrupting observational errors. We present a simple nonparametric modeling technique and an algorithm implementing it - an improved and generalized version of Bayesian Blocks (Scargle 1998) - that finds the optimal segmentation of the data in the observation interval. The structure of the algorithm allows it to be used in either a real-time trigger mode, or a retrospective mode. Maximum likelihood or marginal posterior functions to measure model fitness are presented for events, binned counts, and measurements at arbitrary times with known error distributions. Problems addressed include those connected with data gaps, variable exposure, extension to piecewise linear and piecewise exponential representations, multi-variate time series data, analysis of variance, data on the circle, other data modes, and dispersed data. Simulations provide evidence that the detection efficiency for weak signals is close to a theoretical asymptotic limit derived by (Arias-Castro, Donoho and Huo 2003). In the spirit of Reproducible Research (Donoho et al. 2008) all of the code and data necessary to reproduce all of the figures in this paper are included as auxiliary material.
The double burst, GRB 110709B, triggered Swift/BAT twice at 21:32:39 UT and 21:43:45 UT, respectively, on 9 July 2011. This is the first time we observed a GRB with two BAT triggers. In this paper, we present simultaneous Swift and Konus-WIND observations of this unusual GRB and its afterglow. If the two events originated from the same physical progenitor, their different time-dependent spectral evolution suggests they must belong to different episodes of the central engine, which may be a magnetar-to-BH accretion system.
We analyze the Swift/BAT sample of short gamma-ray bursts, using an objective Bayesian Block procedure to extract temporal descriptors of the bursts' initial pulse complexes (IPCs). The sample comprises 12 and 41 bursts with and without extended emission (EE) components, respectively. IPCs of non-EE bursts are dominated by single pulse structures, while EE bursts tend to have two or more pulse structures. The medians of characteristic timescales - durations, pulse structure widths, and peak intervals - for EE bursts are factors of ~ 2-3 longer than for non-EE bursts. A trend previously reported by Hakkila and colleagues unifying long and short bursts - the anti-correlation of pulse intensity and width - continues in the two short burst groups, with non-EE bursts extending to more intense, narrower pulses. In addition we find that preceding and succeeding pulse intensities are anti-correlated with pulse interval. We also examine the short burst X-ray afterglows as observed by the Swift/XRT. The median flux of the initial XRT detections for EE bursts (~ 6 x 10^-10 erg cm^-2 s^-1) is ~> 20 x brighter than for non-EE bursts, and the median X-ray afterglow duration for EE bursts (~ 60,000 s) is ~ 30 x longer than for non-EE bursts. The tendency for EE bursts toward longer prompt-emission timescales and higher initial X-ray afterglow fluxes implies larger energy injections powering the afterglows. The longer-lasting X-ray afterglows of EE bursts may suggest that a significant fraction explode into more dense environments than non-EE bursts, or that the sometimes-dominant EE component efficiently powers the afterglow. Combined, these results favor different progenitors for EE and non-EE short bursts.
The initial pulse complex (IPC) in short gamma-ray bursts is sometimes accompanied by a softer, low-intensity extended emission (EE) component. In cases where such a component is not observed, it is not clear if it is present but below the detection threshold. Using Bayesian Block (BB) methods, we measure the EE component and show that it is present in one quarter of a Swift/BAT sample of 51 short bursts, as was found for the Compton/BATSE sample. We simulate bursts with EE to calibrate the BAT threshold for EE detection and show that this component would have been detected in nearly half of BAT short bursts if it were present, to intensities ~ 10^-2 counts cm^-2 s^-1, a factor of five lower than actually observed in short bursts. In the BAT sample the ratio of average EE intensity to IPC peak intensity, Rint, ranges over a factor of 25, Rint ~ 3 x 10^-3 to 8 x 10^-2. In comparison, for the average of the 39 bursts without an EE component, the 2-sigma upper limit is Rint < 8 x 10^-4. These results suggest that a physical threshold effect operates near Rint ~ few x 10^-3, below which the EE component is not manifest.
We report on observations of correlated behavior between the prompt gamma-ray and optical emission from GRB 080319B, which confirm that (i) they occurred within the same astrophysical source region and (ii) their respective radiation mechanisms were dynamically coupled. Our results, based upon a new CCF methodology for determining the time-resolved spectral lag, are summarized as follows. First, the evolution in the arrival offset of prompt gamma-ray photon counts between Swift-BAT 15-25 keV and 50-100 keV energy bands (intrinsic gamma-ray spectral lag) appears to be anti-correlated with the arrival offset between prompt 15-350 keV gamma-rays and the optical emission observed by TORTORA (extrinsic optical/gamma-ray spectral lag), thus effectively partitioning the burst into two main episodes at ~T+28+/-2 sec. Second, the rise and decline of prompt optical emission at ~T+10+/-1 sec and ~T+50+/-1 sec, respectively, both coincide with discontinuities in the hard to soft evolution of the photon index for a power law fit to 15-150 keV Swift-BAT data at ~T+8+/-2 sec and ~T+48+/-1 sec. These spectral energy changes also coincide with intervals whose time-resolved spectral lag values are consistent with zero, at ~T+12+/-2 sec and ~T+50+/-2 sec. These results, which are robust across heuristic permutations of Swift-BAT energy channels and varying temporal bin resolution, have also been corroborated via independent analysis of Konus-Wind data. This potential discovery may provide the first observational evidence for an implicit connection between spectral lags and GRB emission mechanisms in the context of canonical fireball phenomenology. Future work includes exploring a subset of bursts with prompt optical emission to probe the unique or ubiquitous nature of this result.
We derive a new peak lag vs. peak luminosity relation in gamma-ray burst (GRB) pulses. We demonstrate conclusively that GRB spectral lags are pulse rather than burst properties and show how the lag vs. luminosity relation determined from CCF measurements of burst properties is essentially just a rough measure of this newly derived relation for individual pulses. We further show that most GRB pulses have correlated properties: short-lag pulses have shorter durations, are more luminous, and are harder within a burst than long-lag pulses. We also uncover a new pulse duration vs. pulse peak luminosity relation, and indicate that long-lag pulses often precede short-lag pulses. Although most pulse behaviors are supportive of internal shocks (including long-lag pulses), we identify some pulse shapes that could result from external shocks.
DisCan is a new algorithm implementing photon dispersion cancellation in order to measure energy-dependent delays in variable sources. This method finds the amount of reversed dispersion that optimally cancels any actual dispersion present. It applies to any time- and energy-tagged photon data, and can avoid binning in both time and energy. The primary motivation here is the search for quantum gravity based dispersion in future gamma ray burst data from the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). Extrapolation of what is know about bursts at lower energies yields a reasonable prospect that photon dispersion effects consistent with some quantum gravity formalisms may be detected in sufficiently bright bursts. Short bursts have no or very small inherent lags, and are therefore better prospects than long ones, but even they suffer systematic error due to pulse asymmetry that may yield an irreducible uncertainty. We note that data at energies higher than about 0.1 TeV may not be useful for detecting dispersion in GRBs. Of several variants of the proposed algorithm, one based on Shannon information is consistently somewhat superior to all of the others we investigated.
The recent association of several short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with early type galaxies with low star formation rate demonstrates that short bursts arise from a different progenitor mechanism than long bursts. However, since the duration distributions of the two classes overlap, membership is not always easily established. The picture is complicated by the occasional presence of softer, extended emission lasting tens of seconds after the initial spike-like emission. We show that the fundamental defining characteristic of the short burst class is that the initial spike exhibits negligible spectral evolution at energies above ~ 25 keV. This behavior is nearly ubiquitous for the 260 bursts with T90 < 2 s, where the BATSE TTE data completely included the initial spike. The same signature obtains for one HETE-2 and six Swift/BAT short bursts. Analysis of a small sample of "short" BATSE bursts with the most intense extended emission shows that the same lack of evolution on the pulse timescale obtains for the extended emission. The dynamic range in the ratio of peak intensities, spike : extended, is ~ 10^4. For some bursts, the extended emission is only a factor of 2-5 less intense. A high Lorentz factor, ~ 500-1000, might explain the negligible lags observed in short bursts.
We use the lag-luminosity relation to calculate self-consistently the redshifts, apparent peak bolometric luminosities L_B, and isotropic energies E_iso for a large sample of BATSE gamma-ray bursts. We consider two different forms of the lag-luminosity relation; for both forms the median redshift for our burst database is 1.6. We model the resulting E_iso sample with power law and Gaussian probability distributions without redshift evolution, both of which are reasonable models. The power law model has an index of alpha_E=1.76+/-0.05 (95% confidence), where p(E_iso) propto E_iso^(-alpha_E). The simple universal jet profile model suggested but did not require alpha_E=2, and subsequent physically reasonable refinements to this model permit greater diversity in alpha_E, as well as deviations from a power law; therefore our observed E_iso probability distribution does not disprove the universal jet model.
A possible subclass of gamma-ray bursts -- those with few, wide pulses, spectral lags of order one to several seconds, and soft spectra -- has been identified. Their Log[N]-Log[Fp] distribution approximates a -3/2 power-law, suggesting homogeneity and relatively nearby sources. These mostly dim bursts account for ~ 50% of the BATSE sample of long bursts near that instrument's trigger threshold, suggesting that this subluminous class constitutes a more common variety than the more familiar burst sources which lie at truly cosmological distances. Theoretical scenarios predicted such a class, motivated by their exemplar GRB 980425 (SN 1998bw) lying at a distance of ~ 38 Mpc. The observations are explained by invoking off-axis viewing of the GRB jet and/or bulk Lorentz factors of order a few. Long-lag bursts show a tendency to concentrate near the Supergalactic Plane with a quadrupole moment of -0.10+/-0.04, similar to that for SNe type Ib/c within the same volume. The rate of the observed subluminous bursts is of order 1/4 that of SNe Ib/c. Evidence for a sequential relationship between SNe Ib/c and GRBs is critiqued for two cases, as simultaneity of the SN and GRB events may be important for detection of the expected gravitational wave signal; at most, SN to GRB delays appear to be a few days. SN asymmetries and ultrarelativistic GRB jets suggest the possibility of rapid rotation in the pre-collapse objects, a primary condition required for highly non-axisymmetric SN collapse to produce strong gravitational waves.
Spectral lags are deduced for 1437 long GRBs with peak fluxes extending to near the BATSE trigger threshold. The lags are modeled to approximate the observed distribution in the peak flux-lag plane, realizing a noise-free representation. Assuming a two-branch lag-luminosity relationship, the lags are self- consistently corrected for cosmological effects to yield distributions in luminosity, distance, and redshift. The results have several consequences for GRB populations -- including a possible nearby subpopulation of low-luminosity, long-lag GRBs -- and for unified gamma-ray/afterglow scenarios which would account for afterglow break times and gamma-ray spectral evolution in terms of jet opening angle, viewing angle, or a profiled jet with variable Lorentz factor.
We analyze BATSE 64-ms data for long gamma-ray bursts (T90 > 2.6 s), exploring the relationships between spectral lag, duration, and the number of distinct pulses per burst, Npulses. We measure durations using a brightness-independent technique. Within a similarly brightness-independent framework, we use a "Bayesian Block" method to find significant valleys and peaks, and thereby identify distinct pulses in bursts. Our results show that, across large dynamic ranges in peak flux and the Npulses measure, bursts have short lags and narrow pulses, while bursts with long lags tend to have just a few significant, wide pulses. There is a tendency for harder bursts to have few pulses, and these hardest bursts have short lags. Spectral lag and duration appear to be nearly independent - even for those bursts with relatively long lags: wider pulses tend to make up in duration for fewer pulses. Our brightness-independent analysis adds to the nascent picture of an intimate connection between pulse width, spectral lag, and peak luminosity for bursts with known redshifts: We infer that lower-luminosity bursts should have fewer episodes of organized emission - wider pulses with longer spectral lags.
A new search for the gravitational lens effects of a significant cosmological density of supermassive compact objects (SCOs) on gamma-ray bursts has yielded a null result. We inspected the timing data of 774 BATSE-triggered GRBs for evidence of millilensing: repeated peaks similar in light-curve shape and spectra. Our null detection leads us to conclude that, in all candidate universes simulated, $Ω_{SCO} < 0.1$ is favored for $10^5 < M_{SCO}/M_{\odot} < 10^9$, while in some universes and mass ranges the density limits are as much as 10 times lower. Therefore, a cosmologically significant population of SCOs near globular cluster mass neither came out of the primordial universe, nor condensed at recombination.
GRBs vary more rapidly than any other known cosmological phenomena. The lower limits of this variability have not yet been explored. Improvements in detectors would reveal or limit the actual rate of short GRBs. Were microsecond "spike" GRBs to exist and be detectable, they would time-resolve stellar mass objects throughout the universe by their gravitational microlensing effect. Analyzing the time structure of sufficient numbers of GRB spikes would reveal or limit $Ω_{star}$, $Ω_{MACHO}$, and/or $Ω_{baryon}$.