Issue |
A&A
Volume 460, Number 3, December IV 2006
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 653 - 664 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20054501 | |
Published online | 12 September 2006 |
Properties of X-ray rich gamma ray bursts and X-ray flashes detected with BeppoSAX and Hete-2
1
INAF – Sezione di Roma, via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, 00113 Roma, Italy e-mail: valeria.dalessio@rm.iasf.cnr.it
2
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, Postfach 1317, 85741 Garching, Germany
3
JILA, University of Colorado, 440 UCB Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA
Received:
9
November
2005
Accepted:
16
June
2006
We study the spectrum of the prompt emission and the X-ray and optical afterglow fluxes of 54 X-Ray Rich Gamma Ray Burst (XRRs) and X-Ray Flashes (XRFs), observed by BeppoSAX and HETE-2. A comparison is then performed with classical Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). The goal of this paper is to investigate the nature of XRRs/XRFs, as high redshift GRBs or off-axis GRBs, analyzing both their prompt and afterglow properties. We find that the XRR/XRF spectral indexes of the Band function are similar to those of classical GRBs, whereas the peak energy is lower by a factor of 4. We study the optical and X-Ray afterglow properties of the XRRs/XRFs; in particular we analyze the XRR 011030 afterglow. We find that the X-ray and optical flux distributions and the lightcurves of the XRRs/XRFs sample are consistent with those of classical GRBs; in particular, they show evidence of a break and no rising temporal slope. We compare these results with the afterglow predictions of the high redshift scenario, where XRFs are GRBs at higher redshift and of the off-axis scenario, where the observed differences are due to viewing angle effects. In this last framework, we consider jets with a homogeneous, a -2 power-law shaped and a Gaussian luminosity angular distribution. We find that the high redshift scenario can explain some events but not the total sample of XRRs/XRFs. The off-axis model may be consistent with our findings when a homogeneous jet is considered. However, given the uncertainties on the selection effects in our sample, a Gaussian jet viewed at small angles from the Gaussian core and a power-law shaped cannot be ruled out.
Key words: X-rays: general / gamma rays: bursts
© ESO, 2006
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