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M. De Pasquale

Publications and source records attributed to M. De Pasquale.

96 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
arXiv2004

Probing the environment in Gamma-ray bursts: the case of an X-ray precursor, afterglow late onset and wind vs constant density profile in GRB011121 and GRB011211

In this paper we present BeppoSax and XMM observations of two long Gamma-ray bursts, the X-ray rich event of December 11, 2001 (GRB011211) and the hard and very bright event of November 21, 2001 (GRB011121). In both events we find evidence of a late X-ray burst, taking place several minutes after the prompt emission. The temporal and spectral behaviour of this phenomenon suggest that it represents the onset of the afterglow. Broad band spectral modelling of the afterglow indicate that the fireball evolution in the December burst takes place in a ISM environment. On the contrary in the November burst the wind case is revealed by an X-ray decay slower than that observed in the optical ($δ_{\rm X}=1.29\pm0.04$ vs $δ_{\rm O}=1.66\pm0.06$). The wind profile should change into a constant density profile at large radii, in order to reconcile late-time radio data with a jet. Two other results are obtained for this burst. An X-ray burst is preceding by about 30 s the much harder GRB. Contrary to the prediction of simple models of precursor activity for collapsars, its spectrum is not consistent with a black body. Finally, a substantial absorption column ($\NH=(7\pm2)\times10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$) is detected during the early part of the prompt emission. This is much greater than that of the wind, and it is thus likely associated with the region surrounding the burst.

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arXiv2004

A systematic analysis of X-ray afterglows of gamma-ray burst observed by XMM-Newton

This work is part of a systematic re-analysis program of all the data of Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) X-ray afterglows observed so far, in order to constrain the GRB models. We present here a systematic analysis of those afterglows observed by XMM-Newton between January 2000 and March 2004. This dataset includes GRB 011211 and GRB 030329. We have obtained spectra, light curves and colors for these afterglows. In this paper we focus on the continuum spectral and temporal behavior. We compare these values with the theoretical ones expected from the fireball model. We derive constraints about the burst environment (absorption, density profile) and put constraints on their beaming angle.

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arXiv2004

Multiwavelength study of the very long GRB 020410

GRB 020410 is by far the longest gamma-ray burst (with a duration of about 1600 s) to have been followed up from the X-ray through the radio regime. Afterglow emission was detected in X-rays and at optical wavelengths while no emission was detected at 8 GHz brighter than 120 microJy. The decaying X-ray afterglow, back extrapolated to 11 hr after the burst, had a flux of 7.9 10^-12 cgs (2-10 keV); the brightest detected so far. No direct redshift determination is available yet for this GRB, but according to the empirical relationship between the peak energy in the νF_νspectrum and the isotropic energy output, z is constrained in the range 0.9-1.5. The reconstructed optical afterglow light curve implies at least two breaks in the simple power-law decay. This may be related to emergence of a SN, or refreshment of the external shock by a variation in the circumstellar medium. By comparing the backward extrapolation of the 2-10 keV afterglow decay it is shown that the long duration of the prompt emission is not related to an early onset of afterglow emission, but must be related to prolonged activity of the ``central engine''.

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arXiv2004

Absorption in Gamma Ray Burst afterglows

We studied the X-ray and optical absorption properties of 13 Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) afterglows observed by BeppoSAX. We found that X-ray absorption in addition to the Galactic one along the line of sight is highly statistically significant in the two cases with the best statistics (probability >99.9%). In three other cases the presence of X-ray absorption is marginally significant (probability 97%). Measured rest frame equivalent hydrogen column densities NH range from 0.1 to 10.0 x 10^22 cm-2 (at 90% confidence level) assuming a solar metal abundance. X-ray absorption may be common, although the quality of present data does not allow us to reach a firm conclusion. The rest frame NH derived from XMM and Chandra data as quoted in the literature are in good agreement with the BeppoSAX estimates. For the same GRB afterglow sample we evaluated the rest frame visual extinction AVr. We fitted the optical-NIR afterglow photometry with a power law model corrected by four different extinction curves. By comparing X-ray absorptions and optical extinction, we found that if a Galactic-like dust grain size distribution is assumed, a dust to gas ratio lower than the one observed in the Galaxy is required by the data. A dust to gas ratio 1/10 than the Galactic one, has been tested using the Small Magellanic Cloud extinction curve, which produces inconsistent results. Alternative scenarios to explain simultaneously the optical and X-ray data involve dust with grain size distributions biased toward large grains. Possible mechanisms that can bring to such a grain size distribution are discussed.

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arXiv2002

A comparative study of the X-ray afterglow properties of optically bright and dark GRBs

We have examined the complete set of X-ray afterglow observations of dark and optically bright GRBs performed by BeppoSAX until February 2001. X-ray afterglows are detected in 90% of the cases. We do not find significant differences in the X-ray spectral shape, in particular no higher X-ray absorption in GRBs without optical transient (dark GRBs) compared to GRBs with optical transient (OTGRBs). Rather, we find that the 1.6-10 keV flux of OTGRBs is on average about 5 times larger than that of the dark GRBs. A K-S test shows that this difference is significant at 99.8% probability. Under the assumption that dark and OTGRB have similar spectra, this could suggest that the first are uncaught in the optical band because they are just faint sources. In order to test this hypothesis, we have determined the optical-to-X ray flux ratios of the sample. OTGRBs show a remarkably narrow distribution of flux ratios, which corresponds to an average optical-to-x spectral index 0.794\pm 0.054. We find that, while 75% of dark GRBs have flux ratio upper limits still consistent with those of OT GRBs, the remaining 25% are 4 - 10 times weaker in optical than in X-rays. The significance of this result is equal to or higher than 2.6 sigma. If this sub-population of dark GRBs were constituted by objects assimilable to OTGRBs, they should have shown optical fluxes higher than upper limits actually found. We discuss the possible causes of their behaviour, including a possible occurrence in high density clouds or origin at very high redshift and a connection with ancient, Population III stars.

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