Synchrotron Self-Compton Emission in the Two-Component Jet Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts

TL;DR

This paper models gamma-ray burst afterglows, including very-high-energy gamma-ray emission, using a two-component jet framework that explains observations across multiple wavelengths and predicts detectability of off-axis events.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed two-component jet model for GRBs that accounts for multi-wavelength afterglows and VHE gamma-ray emission, aligning with recent observations.

Findings

The model successfully explains multi-wavelength afterglows of several GRBs.

VHE gamma-ray flux from synchrotron self-Compton emission matches observations.

Off-axis orphan afterglows could be detectable by CTA.

Abstract

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are intense bursts of high-energy photons (prompt emissions) caused by relativistic jets. After the emissions, multi-wavelength afterglows, from radio to very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray, last for more than a few days. In the past three years, the VHE gamma-ray photons from four GRBs (GRBs 180720B, 190114C, 190829A and 201216C) were detected by ground-based Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes, such as the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes and the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.). One of them, GRB 190829A, had some peculiar features of showing achromatic peaks in X-ray and optical bands at $1.4\times10^3$ s and being classified as low-luminosity GRBs. Previously, we proposed a two-component jet model, which has `narrow jet' with a small initial opening half-angle $\theta_0=0.015$ rad and large bulk Lorentz factor $\Gamma_0=350$, and `wide jet' with $\theta_0=0.1$ rad and $\Gamma_0=20$. The narrow jet explained the early X-ray and optical emissions and apparently small isotropic gamma-ray energy and peak energy in the off-axis viewing case. Furthermore, the late X-ray and radio (1.3 and 15.5 GHz) afterglows were emitted from the wide jet. Here, we calculate the VHE gamma-ray flux by the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) emission. The multi-wavelength afterglows of GRB 190829A including the VHE gamma-ray emission are well explained by our two-component jet model. The afterglow emissions from our two-component jet are also consistent with the observational results of GRBs 180720B, 190114C and 201216C, when the jets are viewed on-axis. Furthermore, we discuss the detectability of off-axis orphan afterglows by the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA).