Magnetization Factors of Gamma-Ray Burst Jets Revealed by a Systematic Analysis of the Fermi Sample

TL;DR

This study systematically analyzes Fermi GRB spectra to diagnose jet magnetization, revealing most jets likely have significant magnetic energy with $\sigma_0 extgreater 10$, and that magnetization varies within individual bursts.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive time-resolved analysis of GRB jet magnetization using Fermi data, highlighting the prevalence of strong magnetic components.

Findings

Most GRB jets have $\sigma_0 extgreater 10$

Magnetization varies significantly within single GRBs

Magnetization analysis supports magnetic energy's dominant role

Abstract

The composition of gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets remained a mystery until recently. In practice, we usually characterize the magnetization of the GRB jets ($\sigma_0$) through the ratio between the Poynting flux and matter (baryonic) flux. With the increasing value of $\sigma_0$, magnetic energy gradually takes on a dominant role in the acceleration and energy dissipation of the jet, causing the proportion of thermal component in the prompt-emission spectrum of GRBs to gradually decrease or even be completely suppressed. In this work, we conducted an extensive analysis of the time-resolved spectrum for all \textit{Fermi} GRBs with known redshift, and we diagnose $\sigma_0$ for each time bin by contrasting the thermal and nonthermal radiation components. Our results suggest that most GRB jets should contain a significant magnetic energy component, likely with magnetization factors $\sigma_{0}\geq 10$. The value of $\sigma_{0}$ seems vary significantly within the same GRB. Future studies with more samples, especially those with lower-energy spectral information coverage, will further verify our results.