Transition from Fireball to Poynting-flux-dominated Outflow in Three-Episode GRB 160625BстатьяЭлектронная публикация
Статья опубликована в высокорейтинговом журнале
Информация о цитировании статьи получена из
Web of Science,
Scopus
Статья опубликована в журнале из списка Web of Science и/или Scopus
Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 28 июня 2018 г.
Аннотация:The ejecta composition of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is an open question in GRB physics. Some GRBs possess a quasi-thermal spectral component in the time-resolved spectral analysis, suggesting a hot fireball origin. Some others show an essentially feature-less non-thermal spectrum known as the "Band" function, which can be interpreted as synchrotron radiation in an optically thin region, suggesting a Poynting-flux-dominated jet composition. Here we report an extraordinarily bright GRB 160625B, simultaneously observed in gamma-rays and optical wavelengths, whose prompt emission consists of three dramatically different isolated episodes separated by long quiescent intervals, with the durations of each "sub-burst" being $\sim$ 0.8 s, 35 s, and 212 s, respectively. The high brightness (with isotropic peak luminosity L$_{\rm p, iso}\sim 4\times 10^{53}$ erg/s) of this GRB allows us to conduct detailed time-resolved spectral analysis in each episode, from precursor to the main burst and extended emission. Interestingly, the spectral properties of the first two sub-bursts are distinctly different, which allow us for the first time to observe the transition from thermal to non-thermal radiation in a single GRB. Such a transition is a clear indication of the change of jet composition from a fireball to a Poynting-flux-dominated jet.