A Comparison between Radio Loud and Quiet Gamma-Ray Bursts, and Evidence for a Potential Correlation between Intrinsic Duration and Redshift in the Radio Loud Population

TL;DR

This study compares radio loud and quiet gamma-ray bursts, finding distinct differences in duration, energy, and correlations with redshift, supporting the idea of different progenitor systems for each type.

Contribution

It provides expanded data and analysis showing separate characteristics and potential origins for radio loud and quiet GRBs, including a possible correlation between duration and redshift.

Findings

Radio quiet GRBs have shorter intrinsic durations and lower energies.

An anti-correlation between duration and redshift exists in radio loud GRBs.

High-energy extended emission is exclusive to radio loud GRBs.

Abstract

We extend our study of energetic radio loud and quiet gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), suggesting these GRBs potentially come from two separate progenitor systems. We expand the sample from our previous paper (Lloyd-Ronning & Fryer, 2017) and find our results are strengthened - radio quiet GRBs have significantly shorter intrinsic prompt duration, and are also less energetic on average. However, the tenuous correlation between isotropic energy and intrinsic duration in the radio dark sample remains tenuous and is slightly weakened by adding more bursts. Interestingly, we find an anti-correlation between the intrinsic duration and redshift in the radio bright sample but not the radio dark sample, further supporting that these two samples may come from separate progenitors. We also find that very high energy (0.1 - 100 GeV) extended emission is only present in the radio loud sample. There is no significant difference between the presence of X-ray/optical plateaus or the average jet opening angles between the two samples. We explore the interpretation of these results in the context of different progenitor models. The data are consistent with the radio loud GRBs coming from a Helium-merger system and the radio quiet GRBs coming from a collapsar system, but may also reflect other dichotomies in the inner engine such as a neutron star versus black hole core.