Prompt GRB emission from gradual energy dissipation

TL;DR

This paper presents a model for GRB emission where gradual magnetic energy dissipation via reconnection produces spectra consistent with observations, predicts high-energy cutoffs, and explains multi-wavelength prompt emission.

Contribution

It introduces a slow heating model for Poynting-flux-dominated GRB flows, providing detailed radiative transfer calculations that match observed spectral features.

Findings

Explains the observed sub-MeV spectral break in GRBs.

Predicts a high-energy cutoff in the 0.1-1 GeV range observable by GLAST.

Accounts for prompt optical and UV emission in GRB observations.

Abstract

I calculate the emission expected from a Poynting-flux-dominated gamma-ray burst (GRB) flow in which energy is dissipated gradually by magnetic reconnection. In this picture, the energy of the radiating particles is determined by heating and cooling balance (slow heating model). Detailed radiative transfer calculations show that, at Thomson optical depths of order of unity, the dominant radiative process is inverse Compton scattering. Synchrotron-self-absorbed emission and inverse Compton dominate in the Thomson thin parts of the flow. The electrons stay thermal throughout the dissipation region because of Coulomb collisions (Thomson thick part of the flow) and exchange of synchrotron photons (Thomson thin part). The resulting spectrum naturally explains the observed sub-MeV break of the GRB emission and the spectral slopes above and below the break. The model predicts that the gamma-ray power-law tail has a high-energy cutoff typically in the ~0.1-1 GeV energy range that should be observable with {\it GLAST}. The model also predicts a prompt emission component in the optical and UV associated with the GeV emission. Observations of the prompt emission of GRB 061121 that cover the energy range from the optical to ~1 MeV are explained by the model.