Probing the multiwavelength emission scenario of GRB 190114C

TL;DR

This study analyzes multiwavelength data of GRB 190114C to evaluate whether synchrotron self-Compton or synchrotron emission models better explain its early afterglow, finding no stable preference for either model.

Contribution

First statistical comparison of combined synchrotron and SSC models versus synchrotron-only models for GRB 190114C's early afterglow.

Findings

No stable statistical preference for either emission model.

Systematic calibration effects influence model preference.

Early afterglow emission can be explained by multiple models.

Abstract

Multiwavelength observation of the gamma-ray burst, GRB 190114C, opens a new window for studying the emission mechanism of GRB afterglows. Its Very-High-Energy (VHE; $\gtrsim 100$ GeV) detection has motivated an inverse Compton interpretation for the emission, but this has not been tested. Here, we revisit the early afterglow emission from 68 to 180 seconds and perform the modeling likelihood analysis with the keV to TeV datasets. We compute for the first time the statistical preference in the combined synchrotron (syn) and synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model over the syn-only model. In agreement with earlier analyses, between 68 and 110 seconds an unstable preference for the SSC model can be found, which can also be explained by systematic cross calibration effect between the included instruments. We conclude that there is no stable statistical preference for one of the two models.