On The External Shock Synchrotron Model for GRBs' GeV Emission

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the external shock synchrotron model for GRB GeV emission, showing that it cannot explain late high-energy photons above 10 GeV and highlighting the importance of magnetic field amplification.

Contribution

It provides constraints on magnetic fields in the external shock model and demonstrates the model's limitations in explaining late-time high-energy GRB photons.

Findings

Late >100s photons >10 GeV unlikely from external shock synchrotron

Magnetic field amplification is necessary to sustain GeV emission

Simultaneous IR-optical and GeV observations can test the model

Abstract

The dominant component of the (100 MeV - 50 GeV) GRB emission detected by LAT starts with a delay relative to the prompt soft (sub-MeV) gamma-rays and lasts long after the soft component fades. This has lead to the intriguing suggestion that this high energy emission is generated via synchrotron emission of relativistic electrons accelerated by the external shock. Moreover, the limits on the MeV afterglow emission lead to the suggestion that, at least in bright GeV bursts the field is not amplified beyond compression in the shock. We show here that considerations of confinement (within the decelerating shock), efficiency and cooling of the emitting electrons constrain, within this model, the magnetic fields that arise in both the upstream (circum burst) and downstream (ejecta) regions, allowing us to obtain a direct handle on their values. The well known limit on the maximal synchrotron emission, when combined with the blast wave evolution, implies that late photons (arriving more than ~100 s after the burst) with energies higher than ~ 10GeV do not arise naturally from external shock synchrotron and almost certainly have a different origin. Finally, even a modest seed flux (a few mJy) at IR-optical would quench, via Inverse Compton cooling, the GeV emission unless the magnetic field is significantly amplified behind the shock. An observation of a burst with simultaneous IR-optical and GeV emission will rule out this model.