Gamma-ray burst jet breaks revisited

TL;DR

This study revisits gamma-ray burst jet breaks using a large sample, confirming many theoretical predictions, refining empirical correlations, and highlighting the diversity and complexity of GRB energetics and jet structures.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of optical and X-ray jet breaks in 99 GRBs, testing theoretical models and empirical relations with a large, updated dataset.

Findings

55 GRBs show behaviors consistent with jet break models

Typical beaming correction factor is around 1000 for Type II GRBs

Most empirical correlations are less tight than previously thought

Abstract

Gamma-ray Burst (GRB) collimation has been inferred with the observations of achromatic steepening in GRB light curves, known as jet breaks. Identifying a jet break from a GRB afterglow lightcurve allows a measurement of the jet opening angle and true energetics of GRBs. In this paper, we reinvestigate this problem using a large sample of GRBs that have an optical jet break which is consistent with being achromatic in the X-ray band. Our sample includes 99 GRBs from February 1997 to March 2015 that have optical and, for Swift GRBs, X-ray lightcurves that are consistent with the jet break interpretation. Out of 99 GRBs we have studied, 55 GRBs are found to have temporal and spectral behaviors both before and after the break consistent with the theoretical predictions of the jet break models, respectively. These include 53 long/soft (Type II) and 2 short/hard (Type I) GRBs. Only 1 GRB is classified as the candidate of a jet break with energy injection. Another 41 and 3 GRBs are classified as the candidates with the lower and upper limits of the jet break time, respectively. The typical beaming correction factor $f_b^{-1} \sim 1000$ for Type II GRBs, suggesting an even higher total GRB event rate density in the universe. Both isotropic and jet-corrected energies have a wide span in their distributions. We also investigate several empirical correlations (Amati, Frail, Ghirlanda and Liang-Zhang) previously discussed in the literature. We find that in general most of these relations are less tight than before. The existence of early jet breaks and hence small opening angle jets, which were detected in the {\em Swfit era}, is most likely the source of scatter. If one limits the sample to jet breaks later than $10^4$ s, the Liang-Zhang relation remains tight and the Ghirlanda relation still exists. These relations are derived from Type II GRBs, and Type I GRBs usually deviate from them.