2013/12/31 by Bo Zhang, Bing Zhang · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Computational physics #Doppler effect #Emission spectrum #Gamma-ray burst #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Light curve #Light emission #Magnetic reconnection #Mechanics #Nuclear physics #Optics #Physics #Plasma #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Spectral density #Spectral line #Turbulence #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/782/2/92
published as ApJ, 782, 92 (2014) · 11 pages, 13 figures, matches published version
openalex publication_date 2014/02/03 · arxiv created 2014/02/27 · arxiv updated 2015/06/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In this paper, we simulate the prompt emission light curves of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) within the framework of the Internal-Collision-induced MAgnetic Reconnection and Turbulence (ICMART) model. This model applies to GRBs with a moderately-high magnetization parameter σ in the emission region. We show that this model can produce highly variable light curves with both fast and slow components. The rapid variability is caused by many locally Doppler-boosted mini-emitters due to turbulent magnetic reconnection in a moderately-high-σ flow. The run-away growth and subsequent depletion of these mini-emitters as a function time define a broad slow component for each ICMART event. A GRB light curve is usually composed of multiple ICMART events that are fundamentally driven by the erratic GRB central engine activity. Allowing variations of the model parameters, one is able to reproduce a variety of light curves and the power density spectra as observed.