GRB 211227A as a peculiar long gamma-ray burst from compact star merger

TL;DR

This paper presents GRB 211227A as a peculiar long gamma-ray burst likely originating from a compact star merger, characterized by its lack of supernova and kilonova signatures, and a large offset from its host galaxy.

Contribution

It proposes a new interpretation of GRB 211227A as a compact star merger, challenging the typical association of long GRBs with massive star collapse.

Findings

No supernova detected despite deep observations

Large physical offset from host galaxy center

Pseudo-kilonova emission too faint to detect

Abstract

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) associated with supernovae (SNe) are believed to originate from massive star core-collapse events, whereas short-duration GRBs that are related to compact star mergers are expected to be accompanied by kilonovae. GRB 211227A, which lasted about 84 s, had an initial short/hard spike followed by a series of soft gamma-ray extended emission at redshift $z=$0.228. We performed follow-up observations of the optical emission using BOOTES, LCOGT, and the Lijiang 2.4m telescope, but we detected no associated supernova signature, even down to very stringent limits at such a low redshift. We observed the host galaxy within a large error-circle and roughly estimate the physical offset of GRB 211227A as $20.47\pm14.47$ kpc from the galaxy center. These properties are similar to those of GRB 060614, and suggest that the progenitor of GRB 211227A is not favored to be associated with the death of massive stars. Hence, we propose that GRB 211227A originates from a compact star merger. Calculating pseudo-kilonova emission for this case by adopting the typical parameters, we find that any associated pseudo-kilonova is too faint to be detected. If this is the case, it explains naturally the characteristics of the prompt emission, the lack of SN and kilonova emission, and the large physical offset from the galaxy center.