Detection of GeV emission from an ultra-long gamma-ray burst with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

TL;DR

This paper reports the first detection of GeV emission from an ultralong gamma-ray burst, GRB 220627A, using Fermi LAT data, and concludes it is an intrinsically long burst rather than a lensing event.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence of GeV emission from an ultralong GRB and rules out gravitational lensing as the cause of the observed two-episode emission.

Findings

49 gamma-ray photons above 100 MeV in the first episode

No photons above 100 MeV in the second episode

Detection of a 15.7 GeV photon constrains the Lorentz factor to ≥300

Abstract

GRB 220627A, detected by Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM), shows two episodes of gamma-ray emission, which are separated by a {$\sim$700} s long quiescent phase. Due to similar temporal shapes and spectra in the two episodes, GRB 220627A is speculated to be a gravitationally lensed gamma-ray burst (GRB). We analyze the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data and find that about 49 gamma-ray photons above 100 MeV come from the GRB during the first episode, while there are no photons above 100 MeV in the second episode. Based on the broadband spectral study of the two episodes, the gravitationally lensing scenario can be ruled out at a high confidence level and we thus conclude that GRB 220627A is an intrinsically ultralong GRB with the prompt burst emission lasting longer than 1000 s. It is then the first case that GeV emission is detected from an ultralong GRB. We find that a short spike seen in the LAT light curve is also present in GBM detectors that see the burst, suggesting a common internal region of emission across the entire Fermi energy range. The detection of a 15.7 GeV photon during the early prompt phase places a lower limit of $\Gamma\ge300$ on the bulk Lorentz factor of the GRB ejecta. The constraint on the bulk Lorentz factor could shed light on the origin of ultralong GRBs.