arXiv subjects

Xue-Feng Wu

Publications and source records attributed to Xue-Feng Wu.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

The Stellar-mass Function of Long Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies

Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been discussed as a potential tool to probe the cosmic star formation rate (SFR) for a long time. Some studies found an enhancement in the GRB rate relative to the galaxy-inferred SFR at high redshifts, which indicates that GRBs may not be good tracers of star formation. However, in these studies, the GRB rate measured at any redshift is an average over all galaxies at that epoch. A deep understanding of the connection between GRB production and environment also needs to characterize the population of GRB host galaxies directly. Based on a complete sample of GRB hosts, we constrain the stellar-mass function (SMF) of GRB hosts, and examine redshift evolution in the GRB host population. Our results confirm that a strong redshift evolution in energy (with an evolution index of $δ=2.47^{+0.73}_{-0.89}$) or in density ($δ=1.82^{+0.22}_{-0.59}$) is needed in order to account for the observations. The GRB host SMF can be well described by the Schechter function with a power-law index $ξ\approx-1.10$ and a break mass $M_{b,0}\approx4.9\times10^{10}$ ${\rm M}_\odot$, independent of the assumed evolutionary effects. This is the first formulation of the GRB host SMF. The observed discrepancy between the GRB rate and the galaxy-inferred SFR may also be explained by an evolving SMF.

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arXiv2022

Gravitationally Lensed Orphan Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts

The cosmological nature of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) implies that a small portion of them could be gravitationally lensed by foreground objects during their propagation. The gravitational lensing effect on the GRB prompt emission and on-axis afterglows has been discussed, and some candidates have been found in the literature. In this work, considering the high detection rate of GRB orphan afterglows in future wide-field survey era, we investigate the gravitationally lensed orphan afterglows in view of three lens models, i.e., the point-mass model, the singular isothermal sphere model, and the Chang-Refsdal model. The structure of the GRB jet itself is also incorporated in calculating the lensed afterglow light curves. It is found that lensed optical/X-ray orphan afterglows in principle could be diagnosed through their temporal characteristics, and the optical band is the best band to observe the galaxy-lensed orphan afterglows. Moreover, the event rate for galaxy-lensed orphan afterglows is estimated to be $\lesssim$ 1.8 $\text{yr}^{-1}$ for the whole sky. If most orphan afterglows could be identified (from other transients in the survey data), the optimistic detection rates of the 2.5m Wide Field Survey Telescope of China and 8.4m Vera Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time for galaxy-lensed orphan afterglows in the optical band are $\lesssim$ 0.01$\sim$0.02 $\text{yr}^{-1}$ and $\lesssim$ 0.04$\sim$0.08 $\text{yr}^{-1}$, respectively.

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arXiv2022

ET White Paper: To Find the First Earth 2.0

We propose to develop a wide-field and ultra-high-precision photometric survey mission, temporarily named "Earth 2.0 (ET)". This mission is designed to measure, for the first time, the occurrence rate and the orbital distributions of Earth-sized planets. ET consists of seven 30cm telescopes, to be launched to the Earth-Sun's L2 point. Six of these are transit telescopes with a field of view of 500 square degrees. Staring in the direction that encompasses the original Kepler field for four continuous years, this monitoring will return tens of thousands of transiting planets, including the elusive Earth twins orbiting solar-type stars. The seventh telescope is a 30cm microlensing telescope that will monitor an area of 4 square degrees toward the galactic bulge. This, combined with simultaneous ground-based KMTNet observations, will measure masses for hundreds of long-period and free-floating planets. Together, the transit and the microlensing telescopes will revolutionize our understandings of terrestrial planets across a large swath of orbital distances and free space. In addition, the survey data will also facilitate studies in the fields of asteroseismology, Galactic archeology, time-domain sciences, and black holes in binaries.

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arXiv2022

A semi-analytical solution to the forward-reverse shock hydrodynamics of the gamma-ray burst afterglow

We extend the standard model of forward-reverse shock (FS-RS) for gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow to more general cases. On one hand, we derive the analytical solution to the hydrodynamics of the shocks in two limiting cases, i.e., an ultra-relativistic reverse shock case and a Newtonian reverse shock case. Based on the asymptotic solutions in these two limiting cases, we constitute a semi-analytical solution for the hydrodynamics of the shocks in the generic case, covering the mildly-relativistic reverse shock case. On the other hand, we derive the evolution of the system taking into account the condition of energy conservation which is not satisfied in the standard FS-RS model. A generic solution of semi-analytical expressions is also given. In both the extended standard FS-RS model (satisfying pressure balance condition) and the model satisfying energy conservation, we find that the results in the ultra-relativistic reverse shock case and in the early stage of the Newtonian reverse shock case are different from those in the standard FS-RS model by only a factor that close to one while the same initial conditions adopted. However, the asymptotic solutions in the limiting cases are not good approximations to those in the intermediate case. Our semi-analytical results agree well with the numerical results for a large range of model parameters, and hence can be easily employed to diagnose the physical quantities of the GRB shell and circumburst environment.

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arXiv2022

Diagnosing Circumburst Environment with Multiband Gamma-Ray Burst Radio Afterglows

It has been widely recognized that gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows arise from interactions between GRB outflow and circumburst medium, while their evolution follows the behaviors of relativistic shock waves. Assuming the distribution of circumburst medium follows a general power-law form, that is, $n = A_{\ast} R^{-k}$, where $R$ denotes the distance from the burst, it is obvious that the value of density-distribution index $k$ can affect the behaviors of the afterglow. In this paper, we analyze the temporal and spectral behaviors of GRB radio afterglows with arbitrary $k$-values. In the radio band, a standard GRB afterglow produced by forward shock exhibits a late-time flux peak, and the relative peak fluxes as well as peak times at different frequencies show dependencies on $k$. Thus with multi-band radio peak observations, one can determine the density profile of circumburst medium by comparing the relations between peak flux/time and frequency at each observing band. Also, the effects of trans-relativistic shock waves, as well as jets in afterglows are discussed. By analyzing 31 long and 1 short GRBs with multi-band data of radio afterglows, we find that nearly half of them can be explained with uniform interstellar medium ($k=0$), $\sim 1/5$ can be constrained to exhibiting stellar wind environment ($k=2$), while less than $\sim 1/3$ samples show $0< k< 2$.

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arXiv2022

Direct Estimate of the Post-Newtonian Parameter and Cosmic Curvature from Galaxy-scale Strong Gravitational Lensing

Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) has been precisely tested on solar system scales, but extragalactic tests are still poorly performed. In this work, we use a newly compiled sample of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses to test the validity of GR on kiloparsec scales. In order to solve the circularity problem caused by the preassumption of a specific cosmological model based on GR, we employ the distance sum rule in the Friedmann-Lema\^ıtre-Robertson-Walker metric to directly estimate the parameterized post-Newtonian (PPN) parameter $γ_{\rm PPN}$ and the cosmic curvature $Ω_k$ by combining observations of strong lensing and Type Ia supernovae. This is the first simultaneous measurement of $γ_{\rm PPN}$ and $Ω_k$ without any assumptions about the contents of the universe or the theory of gravity. Our results show that $γ_{\rm PPN}=1.11^{+0.11}_{-0.09}$ and $Ω_{k}=0.48^{+1.09}_{-0.71}$, indicating a strong degeneracy between the two quantities. The measured $γ_{\rm PPN}$, which is consistent with the prediction of 1 from GR, provides a precise extragalactic test of GR with a fractional accuracy better than 9.0\%. If a prior of the spatial flatness (i.e., $Ω_{k}=0$) is adopted, the PPN parameter constraint can be further improved to $γ_{\rm PPN}=1.07^{+0.07}_{-0.07}$, representing a precision of 6.5\%. On the other hand, in the framework of GR (i.e., $γ_{\rm PPN}=1$), our results are still marginally compatible with zero curvature ($Ω_k=-0.12^{+0.48}_{-0.36}$), supporting no significant deviation from a flat universe.

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arXiv2021

The Photosphere Emission Spectrum of Hybrid Relativistic Outflow for Gamma-ray Bursts

The photospheric emission in the prompt phase is the natural prediction of the original fireball model for gamma-ray burst (GRB) due to the large optical depth ($τ>1$) at the base of the outflow, which is supported by the quasi-thermal components detected in several Fermi GRBs. However, which radiation mechanism (photosphere or synchrotron) dominates in most GRB spectra is still under hot debate. The shape of the observed photosphere spectrum from a pure hot fireball or a pure Poynting-flux-dominated outflow has been investigated before. In this work, we further study the photosphere spectrum from a hybrid outflow containing both a thermal component and a magnetic component with moderate magnetization ($σ_{0}=L_{P}/L_{\text{Th}}\sim 1-10$), by invoking the probability photosphere model. The high-energy spectrum from such a hybrid outflow is a power law rather than an exponential cutoff, which is compatible with the observed Band function in large amounts of GRBs. Also, the distribution of the low-energy indices (corresponding to the peak-flux spectra) is found to be quite consistent with the statistical result for the peak-flux spectra of GRBs best-fitted by the Band function, with similar angular profiles of structured jet in our previous works. Finally, the observed distribution of the high-energy indices can be well understood after considering the different magnetic acceleration (due to magnetic reconnection and kink instability) and the angular profiles of dimensionless entropy with the narrower core.

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arXiv2021

Tests of Lorentz Invariance

Lorentz invariance is a fundamental symmetry of both Einstein's theory of general relativity and quantum field theory. However, deviations from Lorentz invariance at energies approaching the Planck scale are predicted in many quantum gravity theories seeking to unify the force of gravity with the other three fundamental forces of matter. Even though any violations of Lorentz invariance are expected to be very small at observable energies, they can increase with energy and accumulate to detectable levels over large distances. Astrophysical observations involving high-energy emissions and long baselines can therefore offer exceptionally sensitive tests of Lorentz invariance. With the extreme features of astrophysical phenomena, it is possible to effectively search for signatures of Lorentz invariance violations (LIV) in the photon sector, such as vacuum dispersion, vacuum birefringence, photon decay, and photon splitting. All of these potential signatures have been studied carefully using different methods over the past few decades. This chapter attempts to review the status of our current knowledge and understanding of LIV, with particular emphasis on a summary of various astrophysical tests that have been used to set lower limits on the LIV energy scales.

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arXiv2021

Similar Scale-invariant Behaviors between Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters and An Extreme Epoch from FRB 121102

The recent discovery of a Galactic fast radio burst (FRB) associated with a hard X-ray burst from the soft gamma-ray repeater (SGR) J1935+2154 has established the magnetar origin of at least some FRBs. In this work, we study the statistical properties of soft gamma-/hard X-ray bursts from SGRs 1806--20 and J1935+2154 and of radio bursts from the repeating FRB 121102. For SGRs, we show that the probability density functions for the differences of fluences, fluxes, and durations at different times have fat tails with a $q$-Gaussian form. The $q$ values in the $q$-Gaussian distributions are approximately steady and independent of the temporal interval scale adopted, implying a scale-invariant structure of SGRs. These features indicate that SGR bursts may be governed by a self-organizing criticality (SOC) process, confirming previous findings. Very recently, 1652 independent bursts from FRB 121102 have been detected by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). Here we also investigate the scale-invariant structure of FRB 121102 based on the latest observations of FAST, and show that FRB 121102 and SGRs share similar statistical properties. Given the bimodal energy distribution of FRB 121102 bursts, we separately explore the scale-invariant behaviors of low- and high-energy bursts of FRB 121102. We find that the $q$ values of low- and high-energy bursts are different, which further strengthens the evidence of the bimodality of the energy distribution. Scale invariance in both the high-energy component of FRB 121102 and SGRs can be well explained within the same physical framework of fractal-diffusive SOC systems.

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arXiv2021

Revisiting the luminosity and redshift distributions of long gamma-ray bursts

In this work, we update and enlarge the long gamma-ray burst (GRB) sample detected by the {\it Swift} satellite. Given the incomplete sampling of the faint bursts and the low completeness in redshift measurement, we carefully select a subsample of bright {\it Swift} bursts to revisit the GRB luminosity function (LF) and redshift distribution by taking into account the probability of redshift measurement. Here we also explore two general expressions for the GRB LF, i.e., a broken power-law LF and a triple power-law LF. Our results suggest that a strong redshift evolution in luminosity (with an evolution index of $δ=1.92^{+0.25}_{-0.37}$) or in density ($δ=1.26^{+0.33}_{-0.34}$) is required in order to well account for the observations, independent of the assumed expression of the GRB LF. However, in a one-on-one comparison using the Akaike information criterion, the best-fitting evolution model involving the triple power-law LF is statistically preferred over the best-fitting one involving the broken power-law LF with a relative probability of $\sim94.3$\% versus $\sim5.7$\%. Extrapolating our fitting results to the flux limit of the whole {\it Swift} sample, and considering the trigger probability of {\it Swift}/Burst Alert Telescope in detail, we find that the expectations from our evolution models provide a good representation of the observed distributions of the whole sample without the need for any adjustment of the model free parameters. This further confirms the reliability of our analysis results.

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arXiv2021

Constraints on Lorentz invariance violation with multiwavelength polarized astrophysical sources

Possible violations of Lorentz invariance (LIV) can produce vacuum birefringence, which results in a frequency-dependent rotation of the polarization plane of linearly polarized light from distant sources. In this paper, we try to search for a frequency-dependent change of the linear polarization angle arising from vacuum birefringence in the spectropolarimetric data of astrophysical sources. We collect five blazars with multiwavelength polarization measurements in different optical bands $(UBVRI)$. Taking into account the observed polarization angle contributions from both the intrinsic polarization angle and the rotation angle induced by LIV, and assuming that the intrinsic polarization angle is an unknown constant, we obtain new constraints on LIV by directly fitting the multiwavelength polarimetric data of the five blazars. Here we show that the birefringence parameter $η$ quantifying the broken degree of Lorentz invariance is limited to be in the range of $-8.91\times 10^{-7}$ < $η$ < $2.93\times10^{-5}$ at the $2σ$ confidence level, which is as good as or represents one order of magnitude improvement over the results previously obtained from ultraviolet/optical polarization observations. Much stronger limits can be obtained by future multiwavelength observations in the gamma-ray energy band.

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arXiv2021

Polarization Predictions in the GRB Prompt Phase with the Internal Shock Model

As the standard gamma-ray burst (GRB) prompt-emission model, the internal shock (IS) model can reproduce the fast-rise and slow-decay features of the pulses in the GRB light curve. The time- and energy-dependent polarization can deliver important physical information on the emission region and can be used to test models. Polarization predictions for the GRB prompt phase with the magnetized IS model should be investigated carefully. The magnetic field of the magnetized IS model is very likely to be mixed and decays with radius. The synchrotron emission in the presence of such a decaying magnetic field can recover the Band-like spectrum of the GRB prompt phase. We investigate the dependence of the polarization of GRB prompt emission on both time and energy in the framework of the magnetized IS model. Due to the large range of parameters, it is hard to distinguish the magnetized IS model and the magnetic-reconnection model through polarization degree (PD) curves. The energy-dependent PD could increase toward the high-energy band for the magnetized IS model, while it decreases to zero above the megaelectronvolt band for the dissipative photosphere model. Therefore, we conclude that the energy dependence of PD can be used to distinguish these two models for the GRB prompt emission. Finally, we find that, independent of the observational energy band, the profiles of the $ξ_B-PD$ curve for the time-integrated and time-resolved PDs are very similar, where $ξ_B$ is the magnetic field strength ratio of the ordered component to the random component.

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arXiv2021

Testing Fundamental Physics with Astrophysical Transients

Explosive astrophysical transients at cosmological distances can be used to place precision tests of the basic assumptions of relativity theory, such as Lorentz invariance, the photon zero-mass hypothesis, and the weak equivalence principle (WEP). Signatures of Lorentz invariance violations (LIV) include vacuum dispersion and vacuum birefringence. Sensitive searches for LIV using astrophysical sources such as gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, and pulsars are discussed. The most direct consequence of a nonzero photon rest mass is a frequency dependence in the velocity of light propagating in vacuum. A detailed representation of how to obtain a combined severe limit on the photon mass using fast radio bursts at different redshifts through the dispersion method is presented. The accuracy of the WEP has been well tested based on the Shapiro time delay of astrophysical messengers traveling through a gravitational field. Some caveats of Shapiro delay tests are discussed. In this article, we review and update the status of astrophysical tests of fundamental physics.

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arXiv2020

A comparison between repeating bursts of FRB 121102 and giant pulses from Crab pulsar and its applications

There are some similarities between bursts of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) and giant pulses (GPs) of pulsars. To explore possible relations between them, we study the cumulative energy distributions of these two phenomena using the observations of repeating FRB 121102 and the GPs of Crab pulsar. We find that the power-law slope of GPs (with fluence $\geq$130 Jy ms) is $2.85\pm0.10$. The energy distribution of FRB 121102 can be well fitted by a smooth broken power-law function. For the bursts of FRB 121102 above the break energy (1.22 $\times 10^{37}$ erg), the best-fitting slope is $2.90_{-0.44}^{+0.55}$, similar to the index of GPs at the same observing frequency ($\sim$1.4 GHz). We further discuss the physical origin of the repeating FRB 121102 in the framework of the super GPs model. And we find that the super GPs model involving a millisecond pulsar is workable and favored for explaining FRB 121102 despite that the magnetar burst model is more popular.

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arXiv2020

Lorentz Invariance Violation Limits from the Spectral Lag Transition of GRB~190114C

The spectral lags of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been viewed as the most promising probes of the possible violations of Lorentz invariance (LIV). However, these constraints usually depend on the assumption of the unknown intrinsic time lag in different energy bands and the use of a single highest-energy photon. A new approach to test the LIV effects has been proposed by directly fitting the spectral lag behavior of a GRB with a well-defined transition from positive lags to negative lags. This method simultaneously provides a reasonable formulation of the intrinsic time lag and robust lower limits on the quantum-gravity energy scales ($E_{\rm QG}$). In this work, we perform a global fitting to the spectral lag data of GRB~190114C by considering the possible LIV effects based on a Bayesian approach. We then derive limits on $E_{\rm QG}$ and the coefficients of the Standard Model Extension. The Bayes factors output in our analysis shows a very strong evidence for the spectral-lag transition in GRB~190114C. Our constraints on a variety of isotropic and anisotropic coefficients for LIV are somewhat weaker than existing bounds, but they can be viewed as comparatively robust and have the promise to complement existing LIV constraints. The observations of GRBs with higher-energy emissions and higher temporal resolutions will contribute to a better formulation of the intrinsic time lag and more rigorous LIV constraints in the dispersive photon sector.

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arXiv2020

Self-organized Criticality in Multi-pulse Gamma-Ray Bursts

The variability in multi-pulse gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) may help to reveal the mechanism of underlying processes from the central engine. To investigate whether the self-organized criticality (SOC) phenomena exist in the prompt phase of GRBs, we statistically study the properties of GRBs with more than 3 pulses in each burst by fitting the distributions of several observed physical variables with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach, including the isotropic energy $E_{\rm iso}$, the duration time $T$ and the peak count rate $P$ of each pulse. Our sample consists of 454 pulses in 93 GRBs observed by the CGRO/BATSE satellite. The best-fitting values and uncertainties for these power-law indices of the differential frequency distributions are: $α^d_{E}=1.54 \pm 0.09$, $α^d_{T}=1.82_{-0.15}^{+0.14}$ and $α^d_{P}=2.09_{-0.19}^{+0.18}$, while the power-law indices in the cumulative frequency distributions are: $α^c_{E}=1.44_{-0.10}^{+0.08}$, $α^c_{T}=1.75_{-0.13}^{+0.11}$ and $α^c_{P}=1.99_{-0.19}^{+0.16}$. We find that these distributions are roughly consistent with the physical framework of a Fractal-Diffusive, Self-Organized Criticality (FD-SOC) system with the spatial dimension $S=3$ and the classical diffusion $β$=1. Our results support that the jet responsible for the GRBs should be magnetically dominated and magnetic instabilities (e.g., kink model, or tearing-model instability) lead the GRB emission region into the SOC state.

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arXiv2020

Pair separation in parallel electric field in magnetar magnetosphere and narrow spectra of fast radio bursts

When the magnetosphere of a magnetar is perturbed by crustal deformation, an electric field $E_\parallel$ parallel to the magnetic field line would appear via Alvfén waves in the charge starvation region. The electron-positron pair bunches will be generated via two-stream instability in the magnetosphere, and these pairs will undergo charge separation in the $E_\parallel$ and in the meantime emit coherent curvature radiation. Following the approach of Yang & Zhang (2018), we find that the superposed curvature radiation becomes narrower due to charge separation, with the width of spectrum depending on the separation between the electron and positron clumps. This mechanism can interpret the narrow spectra of FRBs, in particular, the spectrum of Galactic FRB 200428 recently detected in association with a hard X-ray burst from the Galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154.

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arXiv2020

Polarization of GRB Prompt Emission and its Application to POLAR's Data

Synchrotron emission polarization is very sensitive to the magnetic field configuration. Recently, polarization of synchrotron emission with a mixed (SM) magnetic field in Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow phase had been developed. Here, we apply these SM models to GRB prompt phase and compare their polarization properties with that of synchrotron emission in purely ordered (SO) magnetic field. We find that the polarization properties in a SM model are very similar to these in a corresponding SO model (e.g., synchrotron emission in a mixed magnetic field with an aligned ordered part (SMA) and synchrotron emission with a purely ordered aligned magnetic field (SOA)), only with a lower polarization degree (PD). We also discuss the statistical properties of the models. We find PDs of the simulated bursts are concentrated around $25\%$ for both SOA and synchrotron emission in a purely ordered toroidal magnetic field (SOT), while they can range from $0\%$ to $25\%$ for SMA and synchrotron emission in a mixed magnetic field with a toroidal ordered part (SMT), depending on $ξ_B$ value, i.e., the ratio of magnetic reduction of the ordered magnetic field over that of random magnetic field. From statistics, if PDs of majority GRBs are non-zero, then it favours SO and SM models. Further, if there are some bright GRBs with a prominently lower PDs than that of the majority GRBs, it favours SOT (SMT) models; if all the bright GRBs have comparable PDs with the majority ones, it favours SOA (SMA) models. Finally, we apply our results to POLAR's data and find that $\sim10\%$ time-integrated PDs of the observed bursts favor SMA and SMT models, and $ξ_B$ parameter of these bursts is constrained to be around 1.135.

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