Constraining the Type of Central Engine of GRBs with Swift Data

TL;DR

This study analyzes Swift/XRT data of 101 GRBs with plateau phases to constrain their central engines, finding most are likely powered by black holes, while a subset could be magnetars, based on energy budgets and model consistency.

Contribution

It systematically distinguishes between black hole and magnetar central engines in GRBs using energy constraints and model testing on a large sample.

Findings

Most GRBs are consistent with black hole central engines.

Approximately 20% of GRBs could have magnetar engines.

Energy budgets effectively differentiate between engine types.

Abstract

The central engine of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is poorly constrained. There exist two main candidates: a fast-rotating black hole and a rapidly spinning magnetar. Furthermore, the X-ray plateaus are widely accepted by the energy injection into the external shock. In this paper, we systematically analyze the \emph{Swift}/XRT light curves of 101 GRBs having plateau phases and known redshifts (before May 2017). Since a maximum energy budget ($\sim2\times10^{52}$ erg) exists for magnetars but not for a black hole, this provides a good clue to identify the type of GRB central engine. We calculate the isotropic kinetic energy $E_{\rm K,iso}$ and the isotropic X-ray energy release $E_{\rm X,iso}$ for individual GRB. We identify three categories based on how likely a black hole harbor at central engine: 'Gold' (9 out of 101, both $E_{\rm X,iso}$ and $E_{\rm K,iso}$ exceed the energy budget), 'Silver' (69 out of 101, $E_{\rm X,iso}$ less than the limit but $E_{\rm K,iso}$ is greater than the limit), and 'Bronze' (23 out of 101, the energies are not above the limit). We then derive and test the black hole parameters with the Blandford Znajek mechanism, and find that the observations of the black hole candidate ('Gold'+'Silver') samples are consistent with the expectations of the black hole model. Furthermore, we also test the magnetar candidate ('Bronze') sample with the magnetar model, and find that the magnetar surface magnetic led ($B_{p}$) and initial spin period ($P_{0}$) are consistent with the expectations of the magnetar model. Our analysis indicates that, if the magnetar wind is isotropic, a magnetar central engine is possible for 20\% of the analyzed GRBs. For most GRBs a black hole is most likely operating.