Short-duration gamma-ray bursts with extended emission from protomagnetar spin-down

By B. Metzger, E. Quataert, T. Thompson. 2007

329 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Evidence is growing for a class of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) characterized by an initial ∼0.1-1 s spike of hard radiation followed, after a ∼3-10 s lull in emission, by a softer period of extended emission lasting ∼10-100 s. In a few well-studied cases, these 'short GRBs with extended emission' show no evidence for a bright associated supernova (SN). We propose that these events are produced by the formation and early evolution of a highly magnetized, rapidly rotating neutron star (a 'protomagnetar') which is formed from the accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of a white dwarf (WD), the merger and collapse of a WD-WD binary or perhaps, the merger of a double neutron star binary. The initial emission spike is powered by accretion on to the protomagnetar from a small disc that is formed during the AIC or merger event. The extended emission is produced by a relativistic wind that extracts the rotational energy of the protomagnetar on a time-scale ∼ 10-100 s. The ∼ 10 s delay between the prompt and extended emission is the time required for the newly formed protomagnetar to cool sufficiently that the neutrino-heated wind from its surface becomes ultrarelativistic. Because a protomagnetar ejects little or no 56 Ni (< 10 -3 M ⊙ ), these events should not produce a bright SN-like transient. We model the extended emission from GRB060614 using spin-down calculations of a cooling protomagnetar, finding reasonable agreement with observations for a magnetar with an initial rotation period of ∼1 ms and a surface dipole field of ∼3 x 10 15 G. If GRBs are indeed produced by AIC or WD-WD mergers, they should occur within a mixture of both early- and late-type galaxies and should not produce strong gravitational wave emission. An additional consequence of our model is the existence of X-ray flashes unaccompanied by a bright SN and not associated with massive star formation.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d36151a261eb846741b45247a12548bf3262f16e

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. B. Metzger
2. E. Berger
3. Bing Zhang
4. E. Quataert
5. D. Kasen
6. T. Thompson
7. R. Fern'andez
8. W. Fong

Citations in the corpus

• The Proto-Magnetar Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts (2010, methodology): “We also neglect the possibility of late-time accretion onto the protomagnetar (e.g. Metzger et al. 2008; Zhang & Dai 2009), which could affect the spin-down evolution both through accretion torques and by altering the geometry of the magnetosphere.”
• A POSSIBLE CONNECTION BETWEEN FAST RADIO BURSTS AND GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (2013, background): “…magnetar is indeed operating in both long (Usov 1992; Bucciantini et al. 2009; Metzger et al. 2011) and short (Dai et al. 2006; Fan & Xu 2006; Metzger et al. 2008; Kiuchi et al. 2012) GRBs1, then the very steep decay at the end of internal plateaus suggests that the emission stops abruptly.”
• EARLY X-RAY AND OPTICAL AFTERGLOW OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVE BURSTS FROM MERGERS OF BINARY NEUTRON STARS (2012, background): “If it has a wider solid angle than the short hard spike emission, as expected in the magnetar engine scenario (e.g. Metzger et al. 2008), then such a bright extended emission (lasting ∼ 100 s) can be also associated with SGRBless GWBs.”
• DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE GALAXIES HOSTING SHORT-DURATION GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (2013, background): “…mergers (Eichler et al. 1989; Narayan et al. 1992), with potential minor contribution from other proposed progenitors, such as the accretion-induced-collapse of a WD or NS (Qin et al. 1998; Levan et al. 2006b; Metzger et al. 2008) or magnetar flares (Levan et al. 2006b; Chapman et al. 2008).”
• THE MILLISECOND MAGNETAR CENTRAL ENGINE IN SHORT GRBs (2015, background): “The EE has been interpreted within the magnetar model as the epoch of tapping spin energy of the magnetar (Metzger et al. 2008; Bucciantini et al. 2012).”
• A Magnetar Origin for the Kilonova Ejecta in GW170817 (2018, background): “25) to synthesize lathanide nuclei is necessarily accompanied by a minimum mass-loss rate (Metzger et al. 2008c; their Equation (20)) M GM m R M M L M M 20 0.1 s 2 10 erg s 15 MeV 2.4 .”
• WHAT IS THE MOST PROMISING ELECTROMAGNETIC COUNTERPART OF A NEUTRON STAR BINARY MERGER? (2011, background): “Although the origin of this extended emission is still debated, one explanation is that it results from ongoing energy output from a highly magnetized neutron star, which survives the NS-NS merger (Metzger et al. 2008b; Bucciantini et al. 2011).”
• The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. V. Rising X-Ray Emission from an Off-axis Jet (2017, background): “Short GRBs are sometimes accompanied by late-time X-ray emission (e.g., Perley et al. 2009; Margutti et al. 2011; Fong et al. 2014), which may originate from a long-lived central engine, such as an accreting black hole (e.g., Perna et al. 2006) or a millisecond magnetar (e.g., Metzger et al. 2008).”
• GRB 080503: IMPLICATIONS OF A NAKED SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURST DOMINATED BY EXTENDED EMISSION (2008, methodology): “%) of the accretion disk that initially forms from the merger will also be ejected in powerful winds (Lee et al. 2005b) from the disk at late times; this material is also neutron rich and will produce radioactive isotopes (Metzger et al. 2008c).”
• Constraining the Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars from Multi-messenger Observations of GW170817 (2017, background): “Several works have explored the potentially exotic EM signals of BNS mergers in cases when a long-lived SMNS or stable neutron star remnant is formed (Metzger et al. 2008b; Bucciantini et al. 2012; Yu et al. 2013; Metzger & Bower 2014; Metzger & Piro 2014; Gao et al. 2016; Siegel & Ciolfi 2016a,b).”
• The birth of black holes: neutron star collapse times, gamma-ray bursts and fast radio bursts (2014, background): “Both features are difficult to explain through, for example, fall-back accretion on to black hole central engines (Metzger et al. 2008; Bucciantini et al. 2012, and references therein), although see Siegel, Ciolfi & Rezzolla (2014).”
• Red or blue? A potential kilonova imprint of the delay until black hole formation following a neutron star merger (2014, background): “This hierarchy is important because a large neutrino flux tends to drive Ye to a value higher than that in the disc midplane (e.g. Metzger et al. 2008a; Surman et al. 2008, 2014).”
• THE LOCATIONS OF SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURSTS AS EVIDENCE FOR COMPACT OBJECT BINARY PROGENITORS (2013, background): “2 s), several theoretical progenitor systems have been proposed, including NS-NS/NS-BH mergers (Eichler et al. 1989; Narayan et al. 1992), accretioninduced-collapse of a WD or NS (Qin et al. 1998; Levan et al. 2006; Metzger et al. 2008) and magnetar flares (Levan et al. 2006; Chapman et al. 2008).”
• Electromagnetic counterparts of compact object mergers powered by the radioactive decay of r‐process nuclei (2010, background): “Although some of the wind-driven material in NS mergers may have high entropy (Surman et al. 2008; Metzger et al. 2008), most of the total mass ejected likely has low-modest entropy (S ∼ 3−10 kb baryon −1; Metzger et al. 2009a).”
• HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS OF SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURST HOST GALAXIES: MORPHOLOGIES, OFFSETS, AND LOCAL ENVIRONMENTS (2009, methodology): “…progenitor models that invoke magnetars, either from a young population or through delayed formation in a WD-WD merger or white dwarf accretion-induced collapse (Levan et al. 2006b; Metzger et al. 2008), are expected to have a modest offset distribution since these systems do not experience kicks.”