The $E_{\rm p}$-Flux Correlation in the Rising and Decaying Phases of Gamma-Ray Burst Pulses: Evidence for Viewing Angle Effect?

TL;DR

This study analyzes the flux and peak energy correlation in GRB pulses, revealing different spectral evolution patterns and suggesting viewing angle effects influence observed correlations, challenging some existing models.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed time-resolved spectral analysis of 22 GRB pulses, identifying diverse E_p evolution trends and proposing viewing angle effects as a key factor.

Findings

A tight F-E_p correlation with a power-law index of ~2.2 in decay phases.

More than 80% of spectra with E_p anti-correlated with flux violate synchrotron death line.

Spectral evolution features are independent of pulse shape.

Abstract

A time-resolved spectral analysis for a sample of 22 intense, broad GRB pulses from the BATSE GRB sample is presented. We fit the spectra with the Band function and investigate the correlation between the observed flux (F) and the peak energy (E_p) of the $\nu f_\nu$ spectrum in the rising and decaying phases of these pulses. Two kinds of E_p evolution trends, i.e., hard-to-soft (the two-third pulses in our sample) and $E_{\rm p}$-tracing-$F$ (the one-third pulses in our sample) are observed in pulses from different GRBs and even from different pulses of the same burst. No dependence of spectral evolution feature on the pulse shape is found. A tight $F-E_{\rm p}$ positive correlation is observed in the decaying phases, with a power-law index $\sim 2.2$, which is much shallower than that expectation of the curvature effect. In the rising phase, the observed $F$ is either correlated or anti-correlated with $E_{\rm p}$, depending on the spectral evolution feature, and the power-law index of the correlation is dramatically different among pulses. More than $80%$ of the low energy photon indices in the time-resolved spectra whose $E_{\rm p}$ is anti-correlated with $F$ during the rising phase violate the death line of the synchrotron radiation, disfavoring the synchrotron radiation model for these gamma-rays. The $F-E_{\rm p}$ correlation, especially for those GRBs with $E_{\rm p}$-tracking-$F$ spectral evolution, may be due to the viewing angle and jet structure effects. In this cenario, the observed $F-E_{\rm p}$ correlation in the rising phase may be due to the line of sight from off-beam to on-beam toward a structured jet (or jitter), and the decaying phase is contributed by both the on-beam emission and the decayed photons from high latitude of the GRB fireball,resulting in a shallower slope of the observed $F-E_{\rm p}$ correlation than that predicted by the pure curvature effect.