Physical origin of multi-wavelength emission of GRB 100418A and implications for its progenitor

TL;DR

This paper investigates the multi-wavelength emission of GRB 100418A, revealing a two-component jet structure and suggesting its progenitor may be a compact star merger, challenging typical GRB models.

Contribution

It introduces a two-component jet model for GRB 100418A and links its emission features to a possible compact star merger progenitor.

Findings

The prompt emission has an internal origin with an extremely soft spectrum.

The late afterglow bump can be modeled by an off-axis two-component jet.

GRB 100418A's properties deviate from typical GRB correlations, indicating a different progenitor.

Abstract

GRB 100418A is a long burst at z=0.624 without detection of any associated supernova (SN). Its lightcurves in both the prompt and afterglow phases are similar to GRB 060614, a nearby long GRB without an associated SN. We analyze the observational data of this event and discuss the possible origins of its multi-wavelength emission. We show that its joint lightcurve at 1 keV derived from Swift BAT and XRT observations is composed of two distinguished components. The first component, whose spectrum is extremely soft (\Gamma = 4.32), ends with a steep decay segment, indicating the internal origin of this component. The second component is a slowly-rising, broad bump which peaks at ~10^5 seconds post the BAT trigger. Assuming that the late bump is due to onset of the afterglow, we derive the initial Lorentz factor (Gamma_0) of the GRB fireball and find that it significantly deviates from the relation between the Gamma_0 and Eiso of typical GRBs. We also check whether it follows the same anti-correlation between X-ray luminosity and the break time observed in the shallow decay phase of many typical GRBs, which is usually regarded as a signal of late energy injection from the GRB central engine. However, we find that it does not obey this correlation. We propose that the late bump could be contributed by a two-component jet. We fit the second component with an off-axis jet model for a constant medium density and find the late bump can be represented by the model. The derived jet half-opening angle is 0.30 rad and the viewing angle is 0.315 rad. The medium density is 0.05 cm^-3, possibly suggesting that it may be from a merger of compact stars. The similarity between GRBs 060614 and 100418A may indicate that the two GRBs are from the same population and the late bump observed in the two GRBs may be a signal of a two-component jet powered by the GRB central engine.