Monte Carlo simulations of the photospheric emission in GRBs

TL;DR

This paper uses Monte Carlo simulations to analyze photon decoupling in relativistic GRB outflows, revealing distinct spectral regimes and confirming the importance of diffusion effects in shaping observed spectra.

Contribution

It provides a detailed Monte Carlo study confirming the photon thick and thin regimes and characterizes their spectral and temporal features in GRB photospheric emission.

Findings

Photon thick spectra are broader than Planck and fit fuzzy photosphere models.

Photon thin spectra exhibit Band shape with peaks at diffusion radius.

Diffusion plays a crucial role in photon decoupling and spectral formation.

Abstract

We studied the decoupling of photons from ultra-relativistic spherically symmetric outflows expanding with constant velocity by means of Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation. For outflows with finite width we confirm the existence of two regimes: photon thick and photon thin introduced recently by Ruffini, Siutsou, Vereshchagin (2011), hereafter RSV. The probability density function of photon last scattering is shown to be very different in these two cases. We also obtained spectra as well as light curves. In photon thick case, the time integrated spectrum is much broader than the Planck function and its shape is well described by the fuzzy photosphere approximation introduced by RSV. In the photon thin case we confirm the crucial role of photon diffusion, hence the probability density of decoupling has a maximum near the diffusion radius, well below the photosphere. Its spectrum has Band shape. It is produced when the outflow is optically thick and its peak is formed at diffusion radius.