Statistical analysis of the prompt and afterglow emission of the three groups of gamma-ray bursts

TL;DR

This study analyzes prompt and afterglow emissions of gamma-ray bursts from Swift data, identifying differences and potential connections among burst types through statistical comparison of various emission parameters.

Contribution

It provides a comparative statistical analysis of different gamma-ray burst types, revealing significant differences and potential emission connections.

Findings

Differences in gamma-ray and X-ray fluences among burst types.

Potential link between XRT initial decay index and early flux.

Significant variation in photon indices across burst groups.

Abstract

We investigated the main prompt and afterglow emission parameters of gamma-ray bursts detected by the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) and X-Ray Telescope installed on the Swift satellite. Our aim was to look for differences or connections between the different types of gamma-ray bursts, so we compared the BAT fluences, 1-sec peak photon fluxes, photon indices, XRT early fluxes, initial temporal decay and spectral indices. We found that there might be a connection between the XRT initial decay index and XRT early flux/BAT photon index. Using statistical tools we also determined that beside the duration and hardness ratios, the means of the \gamma- and X-ray--fluences and the \gamma-ray photon index differ significantly between the three types of bursts.