arXiv subjects

W. H. Gao

Publications and source records attributed to W. H. Gao.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2006

Short-living supermassive magnetar model for the early X-ray flares following short GRBs

We suggest a short-living supermassive magnetar model to account for the X-ray flares following short $γ-$ray bursts. In this model, the central engine of the short $γ-$ray bursts is a supermassive millisecond magnetar. The X-ray flares are powered by the dipole radiation of the magnetar. When the magnetar has lost a significant part of its angular momentum, it collapses to a black hole and the X-ray flares disappear abruptly. Two important predictions of this model are (i) X-ray flares much more energetic than that detected in GRB 050724 may be detectable in the coming months and years by the XRT onboard {\it Swift}. (ii) The short GRBs with X-ray flares may occur outside of their host galaxy.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

The X-ray emission lines in GRB afterglows: the evidence for the two-component jet model

Recently, X-ray emission lines have been observed in X-ray afterglows of several $γ$-ray bursts. It is a major breakthrough for understanding the nature of the progenitors. It is proposed that the X-ray emission lines can be well explained by the Geometry-Dominated models, but in these models the illuminating angle is much larger than that of the collimated jet of the $γ$-ray bursts(GRBs). For GRB 011211, we obtain the illuminating angle is about $θ\sim45^{\circ}$, while the angle of GRB jet is only $3.6^{\circ}$, so we propose that the outflow of the GRBs with emission lines should have two distinct components. The wide component illuminates the reprocessing material, and produces the emission lines, while the narrow one produces the $γ$-ray bursts. The observations show that the energy for producing the emission lines is higher than that of the GRBs. In this case, when the wide component dominates the afterglows, a bump will appear in the GRBs afterglows. For GRB 011211, the emergence time of the bump is less than 0.05 days after the GRB, it is obviously too early for the observation to catch it. With the presence of the X-ray emission lines there should also be a bright emission component between the UV and the soft X-rays. These features can be tested by the $Swift$ satellite in the near future.

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arXiv2005

A New Model for Iron Emission Lines and Re-Burst in GRB X-Ray Afterglows

Recently iron emission features have been observed in several X-ray afterglows of GRBs. It is found that the energy obtained from the illuminating continuum which produces the emission lines is much higher than that of the main burst.The observation of SN-GRB association indicates a fallback disk should be formed after the supernovae explosion. The disk is optically thick and advection-dominated and dense. We suggest that the delayed injection energy after the initial main burst, much higher than energy of the main burst, causes the re-burst appearance in GRB afterglow and illuminates the region of the disk surface with $τ\approx1$($τ$ is the optical depth for the Thomson scatter ) and produces the iron emission line whose luminosity can be up to $10^{45}$ erg$s^{-1}$. The duration of the iron line emission can be $10^{4}-10^{5}$ s. This model can explain the appearance of re-burst and emission lines in GRB afterglow and disappearance of the iron emission lines, and also can naturally solve the problem of higher energy of the illuminating continuum than that of the main burst. This scenario is different from the models put forward to explain the emission lines before, that can be tested by SWIFT satellite.

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arXiv2003

Can the Bump be Observed in the Early Afterglow of GRBS with X-Ray Line Emission Features?

Extremely powerful emission lines are observed in the X-ray afterglow of several GRBs. The energy contained in the illuminating continuum which is responsible for the line production exceeds 10$^{51}$ erg, much higher than that of the collimated GRBs. It constrains the models which explain the production of X-ray emission lines. In this paper, We argue that this energy can come from a continuous postburst outflow. Focusing on a central engine of highly magnetized millisecond pulsar or magnetar we find that afterglow can be affected by the illuminating continuum, and therefore a distinct achromatic bump may be observed in the early afterglow lightcurves. With the luminosity of the continuous outflow which produces the line emission, we define the upper limit of the time when the bump feature appears. We argue that the reason why the achromatic bumps have not been detected so far is that the bumps should appear at the time too early to be observed.

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arXiv2003

Are there cosmological evolution trends on Gamma-Ray Burst features?

The variability of gamma-ray burst (GRB) is thought to be correlated with its absolute peak luminosity, and this relation had been used to derive an estimate of the redshifts of GRBs. Recently Amati et al. presented the results of spectral and energetic properties of several GRBs with known redshifts. Here we analyse the properties of two group GRBs, one group with known redshift from afterglow observation, and another group with redshift derived from the luminosity - variability relation. We study the redshift dependence of various GRBs features in their cosmological rest frames, including the burst duration, the isotropic luminosity and radiated energy, and the peak energy $E_p$ of $νF_ν$ spectra. We find that, for these two group GRBs, their properties are all redshift dependent, i.e. their intrinsic duration, luminosity, radiated energy and peak energy $E_p$, are all correlated with the redshift, which means that there are cosmological evolution effects on gamma-ray bursts features, and this can provide an interesting clue to the nature of GRBs. If this is true, then the results also imply that the redshift derived from the luminosity - variability relation may be reliable.

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