A New Classification Method for Gamma-Ray Bursts

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new phenomenological classification method for gamma-ray bursts based on a parameter epsilon, which better aligns with the physically motivated Type II/I classification scheme, improving upon the traditional long/short scheme.

Contribution

A novel epsilon-based classification method for GRBs that correlates with physical origins, distinguishing Type I and Type II more effectively than previous schemes.

Findings

Epsilon parameter shows a bimodal distribution separating GRB types.

High-epsilon GRBs are associated with Type II origins.

Low-epsilon GRBs are associated with Type I origins.

Abstract

Recent Swift observations suggest that the traditional long vs. short GRB classification scheme does not always associate GRBs to the two physically motivated model types, i.e. Type II (massive star origin) vs. Type I (compact star origin). We propose a new phenomenological classification method of GRBs by introducing a new parameter epsilon=E_{gamma, iso,52}/E^{5/3}_{p,z,2}, where E_{\gamma,iso} is the isotropic gamma-ray energy (in units of 10^{52} erg), and E_{p,z} is the cosmic rest frame spectral peak energy (in units of 100 keV). For those short GRBs with "extended emission", both quantities are defined for the short/hard spike only. With the current complete sample of GRBs with redshift and E_p measurements, the epsilon parameter shows a clear bimodal distribution with a separation at epsilon ~ 0.03. The high-epsilon region encloses the typical long GRBs with high-luminosity, some high-z "rest-frame-short" GRBs (such as GRB 090423 and GRB 080913), as well as some high-z short GRBs (such as GRB 090426). All these GRBs have been claimed to be of the Type II origin based on other observational properties in the literature. All the GRBs that are argued to be of the Type I origin are found to be clustered in the low-epsilon region. They can be separated from some nearby low-luminosity long GRBs (in 3sigma) by an additional T_{90} criterion, i.e. T_{90,z}<~ 5 s in the Swift/BAT band. We suggest that this new classification scheme can better match the physically-motivated Type II/I classification scheme.