The Prompt Energy Release of Gamma-Ray Bursts using a Cosmological k-Correction

By Joshua S. Bloom, D. Frail, R. Sari. 2001

271 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The fluences of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are measured with a variety of instruments in different detector energy ranges. A detailed comparison of the implied energy releases of the GRB sample requires then an accurate accounting of this diversity in fluence measurements that properly corrects for the redshifting of GRB spectra. Here we develop a methodology to "k-correct" the implied prompt energy release of a GRB to a fixed comoving bandpass. This allows us to homogenize the prompt energy release of 17 cosmological GRBs (using published redshifts, fluences, and spectra) to two common comoving bandpasses: 20–2000 keV and 0.1 keV–10 MeV ("bolometric"). While the overall distribution of GRB energy releases does not change significantly by using a k-correction, we show that uncorrected energy estimates systematically undercount the bolometric energy by ∼5% to 600%, depending on the particular GRB. We find that the median bolometric isotropic equivalent prompt energy release is 2.19 × 1053 ergs, with an rms scatter of 0.80 dex. The typical estimated uncertainty on a given k-corrected energy measurement is ∼20%.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Radiation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/15965556d65d234b30f5e98f3fbb931f3b1f1ac3

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

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

In Radiation

1. Bing Zhang
2. E. Liang
3. P. Chandra
4. D. Frail
5. Shrinivas R. Kulkarni
6. Binbin Zhang
7. Joshua S. Bloom
8. E. Nakar

Citations in the corpus

• Low-Luminosity Gamma-Ray Bursts as a Unique Population: Luminosity Function, Local Rate, and Beaming Factor (2006, methodology): “We use this method to estimate the parameters of the Band function for the GRBs in our sample, and then correct the observed luminosity to 1 − 104 keV band in the burst rest frame with the k-correction presented by Bloom et al. (2001).”
• A Comprehensive Analysis of Swift XRT Data. II. Diverse Physical Origins of the Shallow Decay Segment (2007, methodology): “We then calculate the bolometric energy Ebiso,γ in the 1−10 4 keV band with the k-correction method used by Bloom et al. (2001), assuming that the photon indices are -1 and -2.3 before and after Ep, respectively (Preece et al. 2000).”
• THE THIRD SWIFT BURST ALERT TELESCOPE GAMMA-RAY BURST CATALOG (2015, methodology): “In summary, as mentioned in Bloom et al. (2001), if one would like to calculate the luminosity or energy in the restframe bandpass that matches perfectly with the redshifted band in the observer frame, one can use Equation (18) and Equation (19) without extra factor of k-correction.”
• The physics of gamma-ray bursts (2004, background): “Given an observed g-ray fluence and the redshift to a burst, one could easily estimate the energy emitted in g rays, Eg,iso assuming that the emission is isotropic ssee Bloom et al., 2001 for a detailed study including k correctiond.”
• Gamma-Ray Bursts from Delayed Collapse of Neutron Stars to Quark Matter Stars (2002, methodology): “The data have been estracted from Amati et al. (2002) and Bloom et al. (2001).”
• AFTERGLOW OBSERVATIONS OF FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE GAMMA-RAY BURSTS AND THE EMERGING CLASS OF HYPER-ENERGETIC EVENTS (2010, background): “In order to facilitate direct comparisons between events, we must transform this high-energy fluence to a common (rest-frame) bandpass (i.e., a “k”-correction; Bloom et al. 2001).”
• Intrinsic spectra and energetics of BeppoSAX Gamma-Ray Bursts with known redshifts (2002, methodology): “With respect to previous works (e.g. Jimenez et al. 2001, Bloom et al. 2001) ) we adopted a different technique for the estimate of the intrinsic GRB properties.”
• Gamma-Ray Burst Formation Rate Inferred from the Spectral Peak Energy-Peak Luminosity Relation (2003, methodology): “The k-correction factors (kc) are estimated by the same method used by Amati et al. (2002), are consistent with the ones of Bloom et al. (2001), and do not exceed 2.”
• OBSERVATIONS OF THE NAKED-EYE GRB 080319B: IMPLICATIONS OF NATURE'S BRIGHTEST EXPLOSION (2008, background): “The restframe isotropic-equivalent energy release is Eiso = 1.3 × 1054 erg in the standard source frame 1–104 keV band (Amati et al. 2002; Bloom et al. 2001).”
• Gamma-Ray Burst Energetics and the Gamma-Ray Burst Hubble Diagram: Promises and Limitations (2003, methodology): “Bloom et al. (2001b) discuss the possible correlations between S and k. principle, for measuring the geometric parameters of the universe (‘‘ cosmography ’’).”
• THE AFTERGLOWS OF SWIFT-ERA GAMMA-RAY BURSTS. II. TYPE I GRB VERSUS TYPE II GRB OPTICAL AFTERGLOWS (2008, methodology): “Using the given spectral parameters and the redshifts, we derive k-corrections for the rest-frame bolometric bandpass of 1 to 10000 keV following the method of Bloom et al. (2001).”
• A RADIO-SELECTED SAMPLE OF GAMMA-RAY BURST AFTERGLOWS (2011, methodology): “…(1) Aleksić et al. 2010; (2) Chandra et al. 2010; (3) Amati 2006; (4) Antonelli et al. 2000; (5) Berger et al. 2005b; (6) Berger et al. 2007; (7) Bloom et al. 2001; (8) Butler et al. 2007; (9) Cardone et al. 2009; (10) Cenko et al. 2006; (11) Chandra et al. 2008; (12) Dado & Dar 2010; (13) de…”