A Universal Central Engine Hypothesis for Short and Long GRBs

TL;DR

This paper proposes a universal central engine model to explain similarities between short and long gamma-ray bursts, emphasizing environmental differences over engine variations, with implications for gravitational wave detection.

Contribution

It introduces a unified hypothesis that accounts for observed similarities and differences in GRBs based on environmental factors rather than engine type.

Findings

X-ray tails of SHBs are similar to XRFs.

Environmental differences explain prompt emission variations.

Implications for gravitational wave detection from mergers.

Abstract

It is noted that X-ray tails (XRTs) of short, hard $\gamma$-ray bursts (SHBs) are similar to X-ray flashes (XRFs). We suggest a universal central engine hypothesis, as a way of accounting for this curiosity, in which SHBs differ from long $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs) in prompt emission because of the differences in the host star and attendant differences in the environment they present to the compact central engine (as opposed to differences in the central engine itself). Observational constraints and implications are discussed, especially for confirming putative detections of gravitational waves from merging compact objects.