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

Abstract

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.