GRB 200415A: A Short Gamma-Ray Burst from a Magnetar Giant Flare?

2020/08/01 by Jun Yang, Vikas Chand, Bin-Bin Zhang +16 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Connection (principal bundle) #Flare #Gamma-ray burst #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Magnetar #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Spectral analysis #Spectral properties #astro-ph.HE

paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aba745

ApJ published in August 2020 (Yang et al. 2020, ApJ, 899, 106)

openalex publication_date 2020/08/01 · openalex created_date 2020/08/24 · arxiv created 2020/10/11 · arxiv updated 2020/10/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Abstract The giant flares of soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) have long been proposed to contribute to at least a subsample of the observed short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). In this paper, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the high-energy data of the recent bright short GRB 200415A, which was located close to the Sculptor galaxy. Our results suggest that a magnetar giant flare provides the most natural explanation for most observational properties of GRB 200415A, including its location, temporal and spectral features, energy, statistical correlations, and high-energy emissions. On the other hand, the compact star merger GRB model is found to have difficulty reproducing such an event in a nearby distance. Future detections and follow-up observations of similar events are essential to firmly establish the connection between SGR giant flares and a subsample of nearby short GRBs.

Citations

• Pure and Loaded Fireballs in Soft Gamma‐Ray Repeater Giant Flares
• A giant γ-ray flare from the magnetar SGR 1806–20
• An origin in the local Universe for some short γ-ray bursts
• The Short‐Hard GRB 051103: Observations and Implications for Its Nature
• On the possibility of identifying the short hard burst GRB 051103 with a giant flare from a soft gamma repeater in the M81 group of galaxies
• The Giant Flare of 1998 August 27 from SGR 1900+14. II. Radiative Mechanism and Physical Constraints on the Source
• Peak Luminosity–Spectral Lag Relation Caused by the Viewing Angle of the Collimated Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Gravitational Waves and Gamma-rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A

Cited by

• Detection of a Millisecond Periodicity in BATSE Short Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Rapid spectral variability of a giant flare from a magnetar in NGC 253