The long-active afterglow of GRB 210204A: Detection of the most delayed flares in a Gamma-Ray Burst

TL;DR

This study reports the detection of the most delayed optical flares in a gamma-ray burst afterglow, suggesting late-time activity possibly caused by refreshed shocks, with implications for understanding GRB afterglow behaviors.

Contribution

First detection of extremely delayed optical flares in a GRB afterglow, highlighting the importance of systematic late-time observations for understanding GRB jet activity.

Findings

Detected optical flares at 7.6 x 10^5 s and 1.1 x 10^6 s after the burst

Flares likely caused by refreshed shocks in the jet

Late-time flaring activity is more common than previously observed

Abstract

We present results from extensive broadband follow-up of GRB 210204A over the period of thirty days. We detect optical flares in the afterglow at 7.6 x 10^5 s and 1.1 x 10^6 s after the burst: the most delayed flaring ever detected in a GRB afterglow. At the source redshift of 0.876, the rest-frame delay is 5.8 x 10^5 s (6.71 d). We investigate possible causes for this flaring and conclude that the most likely cause is a refreshed shock in the jet. The prompt emission of the GRB is within the range of typical long bursts: it shows three disjoint emission episodes, which all follow the typical GRB correlations. This suggests that GRB 210204A might not have any special properties that caused late-time flaring, and the lack of such detections for other afterglows might be resulting from the paucity of late-time observations. Systematic late-time follow-up of a larger sample of GRBs can shed more light on such afterglow behaviour. Further analysis of the GRB 210204A shows that the late time bump in the light curve is highly unlikely due to underlying SNe at redshift (z) = 0.876 and is more likely due to the late time flaring activity. The cause of this variability is not clearly quantifiable due to the lack of multi-band data at late time constraints by the bad weather conditions. The flare of GRB 210204A is the latest flare detected to date.