arXiv subjects

T. Sakamoto

Publications and source records attributed to T. Sakamoto.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Discovery of a new Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR J1833-0832

On 2010 March 19, the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope triggered on a short burst with temporal and spectral characteristics similar to those of Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR) bursts. The source location, however, did not coincide with any known SGR. Subsequent observations of the source error box with the Swift/X-ray Telescope and the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) led to the discovery of a new X-ray source, with a spin period of 7.56 s, confirming SGR J1833-0832 as a new magnetar. Based on our detailed temporal and spectral analyses, we show that the new SGR is rapidly spinning down (4 x 10^{-12} s/s) and find an inferred dipole magnetic field of 1.8 x 10^{14} G. We also show that the X-ray flux of SGR J1833-0832 remained constant for approximately 20 days following the burst and then started to decline. We derived an accurate location of the source with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and we searched for a counterpart in deep optical and infrared observations of SGR J1833-0832, and for radio pulsed emission with the Westerbork Radio Synthesis Telescope. Finally, we compare the spectral and temporal properties of the source to the other magnetar candidates.

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arXiv2010

"Dark" GRB 080325 in a Dusty Massive Galaxy at z ~ 2

We present optical and near infrared observations of GRB 080325 classified as a "Dark GRB". Near-infrared observations with Subaru/MOIRCS provided a clear detection of afterglow in Ks band, although no optical counterpart was reported. The flux ratio of rest-wavelength optical to X-ray bands of the afterglow indicates that the dust extinction along the line of sight to the afterglow is Av = 2.7 - 10 mag. This large extinction is probably the major reason for optical faintness of GRB 080325. The J - Ks color of the host galaxy, (J - Ks = 1.3 in AB magnitude), is significantly redder than those for typical GRB hosts previously identified. In addition to J and Ks bands, optical images in B, Rc, i', and z' bands with Subaru/Suprime-Cam were obtained at about one year after the burst, and a photometric redshift of the host is estimated to be z_{photo} = 1.9. The host luminosity is comparable to L^{*} at z \sim 2 in contrast to the sub-L^{*} property of typical GRB hosts at lower redshifts. The best-fit stellar population synthesis model for the host shows that a large dust extinction (Av = 0.8 mag) attributes to the red nature of the host and that the host galaxy is massive (M_{*} = 7.0 \times 10^{10} Msun) which is one of the most massive GRB hosts previously identified. By assuming that the mass-metallicity relation for star-forming galaxies at z \sim 2 is applicable for the GRB host, this large stellar mass suggests the high metallicity environment around GRB 080325, consistent with inferred large extinction.

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arXiv2010

The December 2009 gamma-ray flare of 3C 454.3: the multifrequency campaign

During the month of December, 2009 the blazar 3C 454.3 became the brightest gamma-ray source in the sky, reaching a peak flux F ~2000E-8 ph/cm2/s for E > 100 MeV. Starting in November, 2009 intensive multifrequency campaigns monitored the 3C 454 gamma-ray outburst. Here we report the results of a 2-month campaign involving AGILE, INTEGRAL, Swift/XRT, Swift/BAT, RossiXTE for the high-energy observations, and Swift/UVOT, KANATA, GRT, REM for the near-IR/optical/UV data. The GASP/WEBT provided radio and additional optical data. We detected a long-term active emission phase lasting ~1 month at all wavelengths: in the gamma-ray band, peak emission was reached on December 2-3, 2009. Remarkably, this gamma-ray super-flare was not accompanied by correspondingly intense emission in the optical/UV band that reached a level substantially lower than the previous observations in 2007-2008. The lack of strong simultaneous optical brightening during the super-flare and the determination of the broad-band spectral evolution severely constrain the theoretical modelling. We find that the pre- and post-flare broad-band behavior can be explained by a one-zone model involving SSC plus external Compton emission from an accretion disk and a broad-line region. However, the spectra of the Dec. 2-3, 2009 super-flare and of the secondary peak emission on Dec. 9, 2009 cannot be satisfactorily modelled by a simple one-zone model. An additional particle component is most likely active during these states.

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arXiv2010

The lag-luminosity relation in the gamma-ray burst source-frame

We have investigated the empirical lag-luminosity relation in the Gamma-ray Burst (GRB) source-frame. We selected two energy bands (100-200 keV and 300-400 keV) in the GRB source-frame, which after redshift correction, lie in the observer-frame energy range of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT). The spectral lags between these energy channels are then presented as a function of the isotropic peak luminosity of the GRBs in the sample.

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arXiv2010

Spectral Lag Relations in GRB Pulses Detected with HETE-2

Using a pulse-fit method, we investigate the spectral lags between the traditional gamma-ray band (50-400 keV) and the X-ray band (6-25 keV) for 8 GRBs with known redshifts (GRB 010921, GRB 020124, GRB 020127, GRB 021211, GRB 030528, GRB 040924, GRB 041006, GRB 050408) detected with the WXM and FREGATE instruments aboard the HETE-2 satellite. We find several relations for the individual GRB pulses between the spectral lag and other observables, such as the luminosity, pulse duration, and peak energy (Epeak). The obtained results are consistent with those for BATSE, indicating that the BATSE correlations are still valid at lower energies (6-25 keV). Furthermore, we find that the photon energy dependence for the spectral lags can reconcile the simple curvature effect model. We discuss the implication of these results from various points of view.

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arXiv2010

Spectral Lags and the Lag-Luminosity Relation: An Investigation with Swift BAT Gamma-ray Bursts

Spectral lag, the time difference between the arrival of high-energy and low-energy photons, is a common feature in Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs). Norris et al. 2000 reported a correlation between the spectral lag and the isotropic peak luminosity of GRBs based on a limited sample. More recently, a number of authors have provided further support for this correlation using arbitrary energy bands of various instruments. In this paper we report on a systematic extraction of spectral lags based on the largest Swift sample to date of 31 GRBs with measured redshifts. We extracted the spectral lags for all combinations of the standard Swift hard x-ray energy bands: 15-25 keV, 25-50 keV, 50-100 keV and 100-200 keV and plotted the time dilation corrected lag as a function of isotropic peak luminosity. The mean value of the correlation coefficient for various channel combinations is -0.68 with a chance probability of ~ 0.7 x 10^{-3}. In addition, the mean value of the power-law index is 1.4 +/- 0.3. Hence, our study lends support for the existence of a lag-luminosity correlation, albeit with large scatter.

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arXiv2009

GRB081028 and its late-time afterglow re-brightening

Swift captured for the first time a smoothly rising X-ray re-brightening of clear non-flaring origin after the steep decay in a long gamma-ray burst (GRB): GRB081028. A rising phase is likely present in all GRBs but is usually hidden by the prompt tail emission and constitutes the first manifestation of what is later to give rise to the shallow decay phase. Contemporaneous optical observations reveal a rapid evolution of the injection frequency of a fast cooling synchrotron spectrum through the optical band, which disfavours the afterglow onset (start of the forward shock emission along our line of sight when the outflow is decelerated) as the origin of the observed re-brightening. We investigate alternative scenarios and find that the observations are consistent with the predictions for a narrow jet viewed off-axis. The high on-axis energy budget implied by this interpretation suggests different physical origins of the prompt and (late) afterglow emission. Strong spectral softening takes place from the prompt to the steep decay phase: we track the evolution of the spectral peak energy from the gamma-rays to the X-rays and highlight the problems of the high latitude and adiabatic cooling interpretations. Notably, a softening of both the high and low spectral slopes with time is also observed. We discuss the low on-axis radiative efficiency of GRB081028 comparing its properties against a sample of Swift long GRBs with secure E_gamma,iso measurements.

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arXiv2009

The 22-Month Swift-BAT All-Sky Hard X-ray Survey

We present the catalog of sources detected in the first 22 months of data from the hard X-ray survey (14--195 keV) conducted with the BAT coded mask imager on the \swift satellite. The catalog contains 461 sources detected above the 4.8 sigma level with BAT. High angular resolution X-ray data for every source from Swift XRT or archival data have allowed associations to be made with known counterparts in other wavelength bands for over 97% of the detections, including the discovery of ~30 galaxies previously unknown as AGN and several new Galactic sources. A total of 266 of the sources are associated with Seyfert galaxies (median redshift z ~ 0.03) or blazars, with the majority of the remaining sources associated with X-ray binaries in our Galaxy. This ongoing survey is the first uniform all sky hard X-ray survey since HEAO-1 in 1977. Since the publication of the 9-month BAT survey we have increased the number of energy channels from 4 to 8 and have substantially increased the number of sources with accurate average spectra. The BAT 22-month catalog is the product of the most sensitive all-sky survey in the hard X-ray band, with a detection sensitivity (4.8 sigma) of 2.2e-11 erg/cm2/s (1 mCrab) over most of the sky in the 14--195 keV band.

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arXiv2009

GRB090111: extra soft steep decay emission and peculiar re-brightening

We present a detailed study of GRB090111, focusing on its extra soft power-law photon index Gamma>5 at the very steep decay phase emission (power-law index alpha=5.1, steeper than 96% of GRBs detected by Swift) and the following peculiar X-ray re-brightening. Our spectral analysis supports the hypothesis of a comoving Band spectrum with the the peak of the nu*F_nu spectrum evolving with time to lower values: a period of higher temporal variability in the 1-2 keV light-curve ends when the E_peak evolves outside the energy band. The X-ray re-brightening shows extreme temporal properties when compared to a homogeneous sample of 82 early flares detected by Swift. While an internal origin cannot be excluded, we show these properties to be consistent with the energy injection in refreshed shocks produced by slow shells colliding with the fastest ones from behind, well after the internal shocks that are believed to give rise to the prompt emission have ceased.

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arXiv2009

Testing the Epeak - Eiso relation for GRBs detected by Swift and Suzaku-WAM

One of the most prominent, yet controversial associations derived from the ensemble of prompt-phase observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is the apparent correlation in the source frame between the peak energy Epeak) of the nu-F(nu) spectrum and the isotropic radiated energy, Eiso. Since most gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have Epeak above the energy range (15-150 keV) of the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on Swift, determining accurate Epeak values for large numbers of Swift bursts has been difficult. However, by combining data from Swift/BAT and the Suzaku Wide-band All-Sky Monitor (WAM), which covers the energy range from 50-5000 keV, for bursts which are simultaneously detected, one can accurately fit Epeak and Eiso and test the relationship between them for the Swift sample. Between the launch of Suzaku in July 2005 and the end of April 2009, there were 48 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) which triggered both Swift/BAT and WAM and an additional 48 bursts which triggered Swift and were detected by WAM, but did not trigger. A BAT-WAM team has cross-calibrated the two instruments using GRBs, and we are now able to perform joint fits on these bursts to determine their spectral parameters. For those bursts with spectroscopic redshifts, we can also calculate the isotropic energy. Here we present the results of joint Swift/BAT-Suzaku/WAM spectral fits for 91 of the bursts detected by the two instruments. We show that the distribution of spectral fit parameters is consistent with distributions from earlier missions and confirm that Swift bursts are consistent with earlier reported relationships between Epeak and isotropic energy. We show through time-resolved spectroscopy that individual burst pulses are also consistent with this relationship.

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arXiv2009

Variability in the Prompt Emission of Swift-BAT Gamma-Ray Bursts

We present the results of our study of the variability time scales of a sample of 27 long Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) with known redshifts. The variability time scale can help our understanding of fundamental GRB parameters such as the initial bulk Lorentz factor and the characteristic size associated with the emission region. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) techniques were used to extract a noise threshold crossing frequency, which we associate with a variability time scale. The threshold frequency appears to show a correlation with the peak isotropic luminosity of GRBs.

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arXiv2009

A glimpse of the end of the dark ages: the gamma-ray burst of 23 April 2009 at redshift 8.3

It is thought that the first generations of massive stars in the Universe were an important, and quite possibly dominant, source of the ultra-violet radiation that reionized the hydrogen gas in the intergalactic medium (IGM); a state in which it has remained to the present day. Measurements of cosmic microwave background anisotropies suggest that this phase-change largely took place in the redshift range z=10.8 +/- 1.4, while observations of quasars and Lyman-alpha galaxies have shown that the process was essentially completed by z=6. However, the detailed history of reionization, and characteristics of the stars and proto-galaxies that drove it, remain unknown. Further progress in understanding requires direct observations of the sources of ultra-violet radiation in the era of reionization, and mapping the evolution of the neutral hydrogen fraction through time. The detection of galaxies at such redshifts is highly challenging, due to their intrinsic faintness and high luminosity distance, whilst bright quasars appear to be rare beyond z~7. Here we report the discovery of a gamma-ray burst, GRB 090423, at redshift z=8.26 -0.08 +0.07. This is well beyond the redshift of the most distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy (z=6.96) and quasar (z=6.43). It establishes that massive stars were being produced, and dying as GRBs, ~625 million years after the Big Bang. In addition, the accurate position of the burst pinpoints the location of the most distant galaxy known to date. Larger samples of GRBs beyond z~7 will constrain the evolving rate of star formation in the early universe, while rapid spectroscopy of their afterglows will allow direct exploration of the progress of reionization with cosmic time.

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arXiv2009

Jet breaks and Energetics of Swift GRB X-ray Afterglows

We present a systematic temporal and spectral study of all Swift-XRT observations of GRB afterglows discovered between 2005 January and 2007 December. After constructing and fitting all light curves and spectra to power-law models, we classify the components of each afterglow in terms of the canonical X-ray afterglow and test them against the closure relations of the forward shock models for a variety of parameter combinations. The closure relations are used to identify potential jet breaks with characteristics including the uniform jet model with and without lateral spreading and energy injection, and a power-law structured jet model, all with a range of parameters. With this technique, we survey the X-ray afterglows with strong evidence for jet breaks (~12% of our sample), and reveal cases of potential jet breaks that do not appear plainly from the light curve alone (another ~30%), leading to insight into the missing jet break problem. Those X-ray light curves that do not show breaks or have breaks that are not consistent with one of the jet models are explored to place limits on the times of unseen jet breaks. The distribution of jet break times ranges from a few hours to a few weeks with a median of ~1 day, similar to what was found pre-Swift. On average Swift GRBs have lower isotropic equivalent gamma-ray energies, which in turn results in lower collimation corrected gamma-ray energies than those of pre-Swift GRBs. Finally, we explore the implications for GRB jet geometry and energetics.

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arXiv2009

GRB 080503: Implications of a Naked Short Gamma-Ray Burst Dominated by Extended Emission

We report on observations of GRB 080503, a short gamma-ray burst with very bright extended emission (about 30 times the gamma-ray fluence of the initial spike) in conjunction with a thorough comparison to other short Swift events. In spite of the prompt-emission brightness, however, the optical counterpart is extraordinarily faint, never exceeding 25 mag in deep observations starting at ~1 hr after the BAT trigger. The optical brightness peaks at ~1 day and then falls sharply in a manner similar to the predictions of Li & Paczynski (1998) for supernova-like emission following compact-binary mergers. However, a shallow spectral index and similar evolution in X-rays inferred from Chandra observations are more consistent with an afterglow interpretation. The extreme faintness of this probable afterglow relative to the bright gamma-ray emission argues for a very low-density medium surrounding the burst (a "naked" GRB), consistent with the lack of a coincident host galaxy down to 28.5 mag in deep HST imaging. Our observations reinforce the notion that short GRBs generally occur outside regions of active star formation, but demonstrate that in some cases the luminosity of the extended prompt emission can greatly exceed that of the short spike, which may constrain theoretical interpretation of this class of events. Because most previous BAT short bursts without observed extended emission are too faint for this signature to have been detectable even if it were present at typical level, conclusions based solely on the observed presence or absence of extended emission in the existing Swift sample are premature. (abridged)

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arXiv2009

Indication of Two Classes in the Swift Short Gamma-Ray Bursts from the XRT X-Ray Afterglow Light Curves

We present the discovery of two distinct classes in the Swift short duration gamma-ray bursts (S-GRBs) from the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) X-ray afterglow light curve. We find that about 40% of the Swift S-GRBs have an X-ray afterglow light curves which only lasts less than 10000 seconds after the burst trigger (hereafter short-lived S-GRBs). On the other hand, another 60% of S-GRBs have a long lasting X-ray afterglow light curve which resembles the long duration gamma-ray bursts. We also find that none of the short-lived S-GRBs shows the extended emission in the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) energy range. We compare the burst properties for both the prompt emission and the afterglow, and discuss the possibility of different progenitors for the Swift short GRBs.

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arXiv2009

Suzaku Observation of the New Soft Gamma Repeater SGR 0501+4516 in Outburst

We present the first Suzaku observation of the new Soft Gamma Repeater SGR 0501+4516, performed on 2008 August 26, four days after the onset of bursting activity of this new member of the magnetar family. The soft X-ray persistent emission was detected with the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS) at a 0.5-10 keV flux of 3.8E-11 erg/s/cm2, with a spectrum well fitted by an absorbed blackbody plus power-law model. The source pulsation was confirmed at a period of 5.762072+/-0.000002 s, and 32 X-ray bursts were detected by the XIS, four of which were also detected at higher energies by the Hard X-ray Detector (HXD). The strongest burst, which occurred at 03:16:16.9 (UTC), was so bright that it caused instrumental saturation, but its precursor phase, lasting for about 200 ms, was detected successfully over the 0.5-200 keV range, with a fluence of ~2.1E-7 erg/cm2 and a peak intensity of about 89 Crab. The entire burst fluence is estimated to be ~50 times higher. The precursor spectrum was very hard, and well modeled by a combination of two blackbodies. We discuss the bursting activity and X/gamma-ray properties of this newly discovered Soft Gamma Repeater in comparison with other members of the class.

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arXiv2009

Investigating the Possibility of Screening High-z GRBs based on BAT Prompt Emission Properties

Being able to quickly select among gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) seen by the Swift satellite those which are high-z candidates would give ground-based observers a better chance to determine a redshift for such distant GRBs. Information about these high-z GRBs is important in helping to resolve questions about the early universe such as the formation rate of high-z GRBs, the re-ionization period of the universe, the metallicity of the early universe, and the Hubble expansion. Initially using a sample of 51 GRBs with previously measured redshifts, we have developed high-z screening criteria employing the GRB spectral as well as temporal characteristics of the prompt emission from the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on Swift. Now that the sample has increased to 81 GRBs, we have revisited the screening criteria and our methodology. Our updated high-z screening criteria are presented in this paper.

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arXiv2008

Intrinsic properties of a complete sample of HETE-2 gamma-ray bursts. A measure of the GRB rate in the Local Universe

Aims: Taking advantage of the forthcoming Catalog of the HETE-2 mission, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the main properties of HETE-2 GRBs - the E_peak, the T_90 and the E_iso - in their source frames and to derive their unbiased distribution. Methods: We first construct a complete sample containing all the bursts localized by the WXM on-board HETE-2, which are selected with a uniform criterion and whose observed parameters can be constrained. We then derive the intrinsic E_peak, T_90 and E_iso distributions using their redshift when it is available, or their pseudo-redshift otherwise. We finally compute the number of GRB (N_Vmax) within the visibility volume (V_max) of each GRB, in order to derive a weight for each detected burst accounting both for the detection significance and the star formation history of the universe. Results: The unbiased distributions obtained clearly show the predominence of X-ray flashes (XRFs) in the global GRB population. We also derive the rate of local GRBs: R0^H2 > 11 Gpc-3 yr-1, which is intermediate between the local rate obtained by considering only the high-luminosity bursts (~1 Gpc-3 yr-1) and that obtained by including the low-luminosity bursts (>200 Gpc-3 yr-1).

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