Gamma-ray bursts: connecting the prompt emission with the afterglow

TL;DR

This paper investigates the relationship between the prompt emission and afterglow phases of gamma-ray bursts using Swift data, aiming to understand whether they originate from the same or different parts of the progenitor system.

Contribution

It combines Swift-XRT and BAT data with various binning techniques to analyze gamma-ray burst flux curves and explore the connection between prompt emission and afterglow.

Findings

Different binning methods reveal diverse flux behaviors.

The analysis suggests potential links or distinctions between the two phases.

The methodology provides a framework for future GRB studies.

Abstract

With the early afterglow localizations of gamma-ray burst positions made by Swift, the clear delimitation of the prompt phase and the afterglow is not so obvious any more. It is important to see weather the two phases have the same origin or they stem from different parts of the progenitor system. We will combine the two kinds of gamma-ray burst data from the Swift-XRT instrument (windowed timing and photon counting modes) and from BAT. A thorough desription of the applied procedure is given. We apply various binning techniques to the different data: Bayes blocks, exponential binning and signal-to-noise type of binning. We present a handful of flux curves and some possible applications.