Low-Luminosity Gamma-Ray Bursts as a Unique Population: Luminosity Function, Local Rate, and Beaming Factor

By E. Liang, Bing Zhang, F. Virgili, Z. Dai. 2006

262 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Swift BAT has detected ~200 long-duration GRBs, with redshift measurements for ~50 of them. We derive the luminosity function (ΦHL) and the local event rate (ρ) of the conventional high-luminosity (HL) GRBs by using the z-known Swift GRBs. Our results are generally consistent with that derived from the CGRO BATSE data. However, the fact that Swift detected a low-luminosity (LL) GRB, GRB 060218, at z = 0.033 within ~2 years of operation, together with the previous detection of the nearby GRB 980425, suggests a much higher local rate for these LL-GRBs. We explore the possibility that LL-GRBs are a distinct GRB population from the HL-GRBs. We find that ρ is ~325 Gpc-3 yr-1, which is much higher than ρ (1.12 Gpc-3 yr-1). This rate is ~0.7% of the local Type Ib/c SNe. Our results, together with the finding that less than 10% of Type Ib/c SNe are associated with off-beam GRBs, suggest that LL-GRBs have a beaming factor typically less than 14, or a jet angle typically wider than 31°. The high local GRB rate, small beaming factor, and low-luminosity make the LL-GRBs distinct from the HL-GRBs. Although the current data could not fully rule out the possibility that both HL- and LL-GRBs are the same population, our results suggest that LL-GRBs are likely a unique GRB population and that the observed low-redshift GRB sample is dominated by the LL-GRBs.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Computational Mechanics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0700598d291f134333f5f779d6b42befb96c94f1

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Bing Zhang
2. E. Berger
3. B. Metzger
4. Pawan Kumar
5. E. Quataert
6. E. Nakar
7. E. Liang
8. T. Thompson

In Computational Mechanics

1. J. Xavier Prochaska
2. T. Thompson
3. B. Metzger
4. Pawan Kumar
5. A. Filippenko
6. N. Bucciantini
7. Ryan Chornock
8. E. Nakar

In Instrumentation

1. Bing Zhang
2. E. Liang
3. E. Berger
4. E. Quataert
5. Pawan Kumar
6. B. Metzger
7. T. Thompson
8. M. Della Valle

Citations in the corpus

• SEARCH FOR PROMPT NEUTRINO EMISSION FROM GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH ICECUBE (2014, background): “If GRBs accelerate protons with comparable efficiency to electrons, then they could account for most or all of the UHECR flux (Waxman 1995).”
• AFTERGLOW OBSERVATIONS OF FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE GAMMA-RAY BURSTS AND THE EMERGING CLASS OF HYPER-ENERGETIC EVENTS (2010, background): “But their volumetric rate is inferred to be 10–100 times larger than that of the more distant longduration GRBs (Soderberg et al. 2006; Cobb et al. 2006; Liang et al. 2007).”
• The Proto-Magnetar Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts (2010, background): “LLGRBs are distinguished from classical GRBs by their lower energies, simple gamma-ray light curves (generally a single pulse), longer durations, and higher local rates (e.g. Coward 2005; Le & Dermer 2007; Liang et al. 2007).”
• A NEW POPULATION OF ULTRA-LONG DURATION GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (2013, background): “…to be low-redshift, low-luminosity explosions whose nature appears distinct from the bulk of cosmological GRBs (e.g., Soderberg et al. 2004, 2006; Liang et al. 2007; Chapman et al. 2007), although such events provide some of the best evidence for the association of GRBs with broad-lined type Ic…”
• The physics of gamma-ray bursts & relativistic jets (2014, background): “…− 1049 erg s−1, typically with long durations, soft spectra, and single-peaked smooth lightcurves) as a separate population, which has a distinct bump in the luminosity function, then it is found that α1 ∼ 0.5 for the high-luminosity GRB component (e.g. Liang et al., 2007a; Virgili et al., 2009).”
• The luminosity function and the rate of Swift's Gamma Ray Bursts (2009, background): “…than was previously possible sparked renewed interest in the GRB redshift distribution (e.g. Berger et al. 2005; Natarajan et al. 2005; Bromm and Loeb 2006; Jakobsson et al. 2006; Le and Dermer 2007; Yüksel and Kistler 2007; Salvaterra and Chincarini 2007; Liang et al. 2007; Chary et al. 2007).”
• Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies (2019, unknown): “The quoted characteristic luminosity and local burst rate for HL and LL GRB rates are based on the X-ray luminosity functions of Guetta and Piran (2007) and Liang et al. (2007), respectively.”
• THE INTERNAL-COLLISION-INDUCED MAGNETIC RECONNECTION AND TURBULENCE (ICMART) MODEL OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (2010, background): “The nearby low-luminosity GRBs may be more abundant (Liang et al. 2007; Virgili et al. 2009).”
• DISCERNING THE PHYSICAL ORIGINS OF COSMOLOGICAL GAMMA-RAY BURSTS BASED ON MULTIPLE OBSERVATIONAL CRITERIA: THE CASES OF z = 6.7 GRB 080913, z = 8.2 GRB 090423, AND SOME SHORT/HARD GRBs (2009, background): “Low luminosity GRBs may form a distinct bump at L < 1049 erg s−1 (Liang et al. 2007; Virgili et al. 2009a; Dai 2009).”
• THE AFTERGLOWS OF SWIFT-ERA GAMMA-RAY BURSTS. II. TYPE I GRB VERSUS TYPE II GRB OPTICAL AFTERGLOWS (2008, background): “Analyses of Swift GRB X-ray afterglows however suggest that most bursts are consistent with a constant-density medium (Zhang et al. 2007b; Liang et al. 2007b).”