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THE ULTRALUMINOUS GRB 110918A
Tekijät: Frederiks DD, Hurley K, Svinkin DS, Pal'shin VD, Mangano V, Oates S, Aptekar RL, Golenetskii SV, Mazets EP, Oleynik PP, Tsvetkova AE, Ulanov MV, Kokomov AA, Cline TL, Burrows DN, Krimm HA, Pagani C, Sbarufatti B, Siegel MH, Mitrofanov IG, Golovin D, Litvak ML, Sanin AB, Boynton W, Fellows C, Harshman K, Enos H, Starr R, von Kienlin A, Rau A, Zhang X, Goldstein J
Julkaisuvuosi: 2013
Journal: Astrophysical Journal
Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimi: Astrophysical Journal
Vuosikerta: 779
Numero: 2
Sivujen määrä: 20
ISSN: 0004-637X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/151
Verkko-osoite: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/151
Rinnakkaistallenteen osoite: https://arxiv.org/abs/1311.5734
GRB 110918A is the brightest long GRB detected by Konus-WIND during its 19 years of continuous observations and the most luminous GRB ever observed since the beginning of the cosmological era in 1997. We report on the final IPN localization of this event and its detailed multiwavelength study with a number of space-based instruments. The prompt emission is characterized by a typical duration, a moderare Epeak of the time-integrated spectrum, and strong hard-to-soft evolution. The high observed energy fluence yields, at z=0.984, a huge isotropic-equivalent energy release Eiso=(2.1±0.1)×1054 erg. The record-breaking energy flux observed at the peak of the short, bright, hard initial pulse results in an unprecedented isotropic-equivalent luminosity Liso=(4.7±0.2)×1054erg s−1. A tail of the soft gamma-ray emission was detected with temporal and spectral behavior typical of that predicted by the synchrotron forward-shock model. Swift/XRT and Swift/UVOT observed the bright afterglow from 1.2 to 48 days after the burst and revealed no evidence of a jet break. The post-break scenario for the afterglow is preferred from our analysis, with a hard underlying electron spectrum and ISM-like circumburst environment implied. We conclude that, among multiple reasons investigated, the tight collimation of the jet must have been a key ingredient to produce this unusually bright burst. The inferred jet opening angle of 1.7-3.4 deg results in reasonable values of the collimation-corrected radiated energy and the peak luminosity, which, however, are still at the top of their distributions for such tightly collimated events. We estimate a detection horizon for a similar ultraluminous GRB of z∼7.5 for Konus-WIND, and z∼12 for Swift/BAT, which stresses the importance of GRBs as probes of the early Universe.