Neutrino-cooled Accretion Model with Magnetic Coupling for X-ray Flares in GRBs

TL;DR

This paper enhances the neutrino-cooled accretion disk model for gamma-ray bursts by including magnetic coupling, which can explain the observed X-ray flares through increased neutrino annihilation luminosity.

Contribution

It introduces magnetic coupling effects into the accretion model, showing how they boost neutrino annihilation luminosity and can account for X-ray flares post-GRB.

Findings

Magnetic coupling significantly increases neutrino annihilation luminosity.

Remnant disks with less than 0.5 solar masses can power X-ray flares.

Comparison with Blandford-Znajek mechanism highlights different energy extraction processes.

Abstract

The neutrino-cooled accretion disk, which was proposed to work as the central engine of gamma-ray bursts, encounters difficulty in interpreting the X-ray flares after the prompt gamma-ray emission. In this paper, the magnetic coupling between the inner disk and the central black hole is taken into consideration. For mass accretion rates around $0.001 \sim 0.1 M_{\sun} s^{-1}$, our results show that the luminosity of neutrino annihilation can be significantly enhanced due to the coupling effects. As a consequence, after the gamma-ray emission, a remnant disk with mass $M_{disk} \la 0.5 M_{\sun}$ may power most of the observed X-ray flares with the rest frame duration less than 100 seconds. In addition, a comparison between the magnetic coupling process and the Blandford-Znajek mechanism is shown on the extraction of black hole rotational energy.