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Wei-Wei Tan

Publications and source records attributed to Wei-Wei Tan.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Joint constraint on the jet structures from the short GRB population and GRB 170817A

The nearest GRB 170817A provided an opportunity to probe the angular structure of the jet of this short gamma-ray burst (SGRB), by using its off-axis observed afterglow emission. It is investigated that whether the afterglow-constrained jet structures can be consistent with the luminosity of the prompt emission of GRB 170817A. Furthermore, by assuming that all SGRBs including GRB 170817A have the same explosive mechanism and jet structure, we apply the different jet structures to the calculation of the flux and redshift distributions of the SGRB population, confronting with the observational distributions of the Swift and Fermi sources. In comparison, it is found that the power-law and double-Gaussian models could be somewhat more favored than the single-Gaussian structure, as the last one could be not very consistent with the flux distribution of the Fermi data. Nevertheless, in view of the large uncertainty of parameters, we are still unable to make a sufficiently conclusive judgment at present.

astro-ph.HE

Rotating massive strangeon stars and X-ray plateau of short GRBs

Strangeon stars, which are proposed to describe the nature of pulsar-like compact stars, have passed various observational tests. The maximum mass of a non-rotating strangeon star could be high, which implies that the remnants of binary strangeon star mergers could even be long-lived massive strangeon stars. We study rigidly rotating strangeon stars in the slowly rotating approximation, using the Lennard-Jones model for the equation of state. Rotation can significantly increase the maximum mass of strangeon stars with unchanged baryon numbers, enlarging the mass-range of long-lived strangeon stars. During spin-down after merger, the decrease of radius of the remnant will lead to the release of gravitational energy. Taking into account the efficiency of converting the gravitational energy luminosity to the observed X-ray luminosity, we find that the gravitational energy could provide an alternative energy source for the plateau emission of X-ray afterglow. The fitting results of X-ray plateau emission of some short gamma-ray bursts suggest that the magnetic dipole field strength of the remnants can be much smaller than that of expected when the plateau emission is powered only by spin-down luminosity of magnetars.

astro-ph.HE

The jet structure and the intrinsic luminosity function of short gamma-ray bursts

The joint observation of GW170817 and GRB 170817A indicated that short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) can originate from binary neutron star mergers. Moreover, some SGRBs could be detected off-axis, while the SGRB jets are highly structured. Then, by assuming an universal angular distribution of the jet emission for all SGRBs, we re-produce the flux and redshift distributions of the cosmological SGRBs detected by {\it Swift} and {\it Fermi}. For self-consistency, this angular distribution is simultaneously constrained by the luminosity and event rate of GRB 170817A. As a result, it is found that the universal jet structure of SGRBs could approximately have a two-Gaussian profile. Meanwhile, the intrinsic luminosity function (LF) of the on-axis emission of the jets can be simply described by a single power law with a low-luminosity exponential cutoff. The usually discovered broken-power-law apparent LF for relatively high luminosities can naturally result from the coupling of the intrinsic LF with the angular distribution of the jet emission, as the viewing angles to the SGRBs are arbitrarily distributed.

astro-ph.HE

Short Gamma-Ray Bursts and Gravitational-Wave Observations from Eccentric Compact Binaries

Mergers of compact binaries, such as binary neutron stars (BNSs), neutron star-black hole binaries (NSBHs), and binary black holes (BBHs), are expected to be the best candidates for the sources of gravitational waves (GWs) and the leading theoretical models for short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs). Based on the observations of SGRBs, we could derive the merger rates of these compact binaries, and study the stochastic GW backgrounds (SGWBs) or the co-detection rates of GWs associate with SGRBs (GW-SGRBs). But before that, the most important thing is to derive the GW spectrum from a single GW source. Usually, GW spectrum from a circular orbit binary is assumed. However, observations of the large spatial offsets of SGRBs from their host galaxies imply that SGRB progenitors may be formed by the dynamical processes, and will merge with residual eccentricities. The orbital eccentricity has important effect on GW spectra, and therefore on the SGWB and GW-SGRB co-detection rate. Our results show that the power spectra of the SGWBs from eccentric compact binaries are greatly suppressed at low frequencies. Especially, SGWBs from binaries with high residual eccentricities will hard to be detected (above the detection frequency of $\sim100~\rm Hz$). For the co-detection rates of GW-SGRB events, they could be $\sim1.4$ times higher than the circular case within some particular ranges of $e_{\rm r}$ , but greatly reduced for high residual eccentricities (e.g., $e_{\rm r}>0.1$ for BNSs). In general, the BBH progenitors produce 200 and 10 times higher GW-SGRB events than the BNS and NSBH progenitors, respectively. Therefore, binaries with low residual eccentricities and high total masses will easier to be detected by aLIGO.

astro-ph.HE

The star formation history inferred from long gamma-ray bursts with high pseudo-redshifts

By employing a simple semi-analytical star formation model where the formation rates of Population (Pop) I/II and III stars can be calculated, respectively, we account for the number distribution of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with high pseudo-redshifts that was derived from an empirical luminosity-indictor relationship. It is suggested that a considerable number of Pop III GRBs could exist in the present sample of Swift GRBs. By further combining the implication for the star formation history from the optical depth of the CMB photons, it is also suggested that only a very small fraction 0.6% of Pop III GRBs could have triggered the Swift BAT. These results could provide an useful basis for estimating future detectability of Pop III stars and their produced transient phenomena.

astro-ph.HE

Determining the luminosity function of Swift long gamma-ray bursts with pseudo-redshifts

The determination of luminosity function (LF) of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is of an important role for the cosmological applications of the GRBs, which is however hindered seriously by some selection effects due to redshift measurements. In order to avoid these selection effects, we suggest to calculate pseudo-redshifts for Swift GRBs according to the empirical L-E_p relationship. Here, such a $L-E_p$ relationship is determined by reconciling the distributions of pseudo- and real redshifts of redshift-known GRBs. The values of E_p taken from Butler's GRB catalog are estimated with Bayesian statistics rather than observed. Using the GRB sample with pseudo-redshifts of a relatively large number, we fit the redshift-resolved luminosity distributions of the GRBs with a broken-power-law LF. The fitting results suggest that the LF could evolve with redshift by a redshift-dependent break luminosity, e.g., L_b=1.2\times10^{51}(1+z)^2\rm erg s^{-1}. The low- and high-luminosity indices are constrained to 0.8 and 2.0, respectively. It is found that the proportional coefficient between GRB event rate and star formation rate should correspondingly decrease with increasing redshifts.

astro-ph.HE

Implications of the cosmic infrared background excess for the cosmic star formation

By phenomenologically describing the high-redshift star formation history, i.e., $\dotρ_{*}(z)\propto[(1+z)/4.5]^{-α}$, and semi-analytically calculating the fractions of high-redshift Pop I/II and Pop III stars, we investigate the contributions from both high-redshfit Pop I/II and Pop III stars to the observed near-infrared ($3 μ\rm m<λ<5 μm$) excess in the cosmic infrared background emission. In order to account for the observational level of the near-infrared excess, the power-law index $α$ of the assumed star formation history is constrained to within the range of $0\lesssimα\lesssim1$. Such a constraint is obtained under the condition that the virial temperature of dark matter halos belongs to the range of $500 {\rm K}\leq T_{\rm vir}\leq10^4$ K.

astro-ph.CO