A Comprehensive Analysis of Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Data: II. $E_{\rm p}$-Evolution Patterns and Implications for the Observed Spectrum-Luminosity Relations

TL;DR

This study analyzes the evolution patterns of peak energy in gamma-ray bursts and explores their implications for spectrum-luminosity relations, revealing complex behaviors and challenging existing models of GRB prompt emission.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed time-resolved analysis of $E_{p}$ evolution in both long and short GRBs, highlighting the coexistence of different evolution patterns and their potential independence.

Findings

Hard-to-soft and intensity-tracking are common $E_{p}$ evolution patterns.

Short GRBs show exclusive intensity-tracking $E_{p}$ behavior.

The $E_{p}$-luminosity correlation has comparable scatter to global relations.

Abstract

We present a time-resolved spectral analysis of 51 long and 11 short bright GRBs observed with the {\em Femri}/GBM, paying special attention to $E_{\rm p}$ evolution within a same burst. Among 8 single-pulse long GRBs, 5 show hard-to-soft evolution, while 3 show intensity-tracking. The multi-pulse long GRBs have more complicated patterns. Among the GRBs whose time-resolved spectrum is available for the first pulse, almost half (15/32 GRBs) show clear hard-to-soft evolution, and the other half (17/32 GRBs) show clear intensity-tracking. Later pulses typically show the tracking behavior, although a hard-to-soft evolution pattern was identified in the 2nd pulse of 2 GRBs whose pulses are well separated. Statistically, the hard-to-soft evolution pulses tend to be more asymmetric than the intensity-tracking ones, with a steeper rising wing than the falling wing. Short GRBs have $E_{\rm p}$ tracking intensity exclusively with the 16ms time resolution analysis. We performed a simulation analysis, and suggest that at least for some bursts, the late intensity-tracking pulses could be a consequence of overlapping hard-to-soft pulses. However, the fact that the intensity-tracking pattern exists in the first pulse of multi-pulse long GRBs and some single-pulse GRBs suggest that intensity tracking is an independent component, which may operate in some late pulses as well. For the GRBs with measured redshifts, we present a time-resolved $E_{\rm p}-L_{\gamma, \rm iso}$ correlation analysis and show that the scatter of the correlation is comparable to that of the global Amati/Yonetoku relation. We discuss the predictions of various radiation models regarding $E_{\rm p}$ evolution, as well as the possibility of a precession jet in GRBs. It seems that the data pose great challenge to all these models, and hold the key to unveil the physics of GRB prompt emission.