Flares in Gamma Ray Bursts (II)

TL;DR

This paper presents preliminary analysis of gamma-ray burst flares, focusing on flare energy, luminosity curves, and the implications for central engine activity, with case studies of GRB050904 and GRB050724.

Contribution

It introduces a new sample and analysis methods for GRB flares, providing insights into flare energy contributions and the nature of early XRT light curve decay.

Findings

GRB050904 significantly contributes to flare energy.

Early decay in GRB050724 linked to subsequent emission events.

Evidence suggests ongoing central engine activity after initial burst.

Abstract

We illustrate some of the preliminary results obtained with a new sample of flares and a new analysis. In these proceedings we deal mainly with the analysis related to the flare energy and describe the work in progress to measure the average flare luminosity curve. We discuss in brief GRB050904 and GRB050724 for matters relevant to this work. In particular we measure the contribution given to the flares by GRB050904 and give a new interpretation for the decaying early XRT light curve of GRB050724. We briefly illustrate the first evidence that the early decay is given by the subsequent emission of events with Width/TPeak < 1 and the total energy of these events is larger than the energy emitted during the prompt emission spike showing, indeed, that not only the central engine may still be active after hundreds of seconds of the first spike but that this may still be part of the prompt emission.