SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

Samuel E. Whitebook

Publications and source records attributed to Samuel E. Whitebook.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

GRB 250424A: A Case Study of Energy Injection with Multiwavelength Observations

We present a comprehensive multiwavelength analysis of the long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) 250424A. Our dataset spans from the prompt gamma-ray emission to late-time optical monitoring, including spectra obtained with the Keck 10\,m telescope. We find that the afterglow light curves display a prominent, simultaneous shallow decay phase in both X-ray and optical bands, followed by an achromatic transition to a standard decay regime. The broadband spectral energy distributions are well-modeled by a single power-law function, indicating a common synchrotron origin for the emission across frequencies. We interpret the afterglow evolution within the framework of a relativistic forward shock refreshed by continuous energy injection. This scenario successfully reproduces the observed temporal and spectral behavior, yielding an isotropic equivalent kinetic energy of $E_{\rm K,iso} \approx 5.5 \times 10^{52}$ erg and an injection index of $q\approx 0.34$ in a constant-density circumburst environment. The shallow decay phase is consistent with sustained energy injection lasting $\sim$ 9 ks. Despite the relatively low redshift, late-time optical observations reveal no distinct supernova component; however, our derived upper limits do not strictly rule out the presence of a typical GRB-associated supernova.

astro-ph.HE

A Fast Periodicity Detection Algorithm Sensitive to Arbitrary Waveforms

A reexamination of period finding algorithms is prompted by new large area astronomical sky surveys that can identify billions of individual sources having a thousand or more observations per source. This large increase in data necessitates fast and efficient period detection algorithms. In this paper, we provide an initial description of an algorithm that is being used for detection of periodic behavior in a sample of 1.5 billion objects using light curves generated from Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) data (Bellm et al. 2019; Masci et al. 2018). We call this algorithm "Fast Periodicity Weighting" (FPW), derived using a Gaussian Process (GP) formalism. A major advantage of the FPW algorithm for ZTF analysis is that it is agnostic to the details of the phase-folded waveform. Periodic sources in ZTF show a wide variety of waveforms, some quite complex, including eclipsing objects, sinusoidally varying objects also exhibiting eclipses, objects with cyclotron emission at various phases, and accreting objects with complex waveforms. We describe the FPW algorithm and its application to ZTF, and provide efficient code for both CPU and GPU.

astro-ph.IM