A structured jet explains the extreme GRB 221009A

Brendan O'Connor^{1

2

3

4}, Eleonora Troja^{5

6}, Geoffrey Ryan⁷, Paz Beniamini^{8

9}, Hendrik van Eerten¹⁰, Jonathan Granot^{1

8

9}, Simone Dichiara¹¹, Roberto Ricci^{12

13}, Vladimir Lipunov¹⁴, James H Gillanders⁵, Ramandeep Gill¹⁵, Michael Moss¹, Shreya Anand¹⁶, Igor Andreoni^{3

4

17}, Rosa L Becerra¹⁸, David A H Buckley^{19

20}, Nathaniel R Butler²¹, Stephen B Cenko^{4

17}, Aristarkh Chasovnikov¹⁴, Joseph Durbak^{3

4}, Carlos Francile^{22

23}, Erica Hammerstein³, Alexander J van der Horst¹, Mansi M Kasliwal¹⁶, Chryssa Kouveliotou¹², Alexander S Kutyrev^{3

4}, William H Lee²⁴, Gokul P Srinivasaragavan³, Vladislav Topolev¹⁴, Alan M Watson¹⁴, Yuhan Yang⁵, Kirill Zhirkov¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, The George Washington University, 725 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
² Astronomy, Physics and Statistics Institute of Sciences (APSIS), Washington, DC 20052, USA.
³ Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-4111, USA.
⁴ Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Rome, Italy.
⁶ INAF - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Rome, Italy.
⁷ Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline St. N., Waterloo, ON N2L 2Y5, Canada.
⁸ Department of Natural Sciences, The Open University of Israel, P.O. Box 808, Ra'anana 4353701, Israel.
⁹ Astrophysics Research Center of the Open university (ARCO), P.O. Box 808, Ra'anana 4353701, Israel.
¹⁰ Physics Department, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
¹¹ The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
¹² Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, I-10135 Torino, Italy.
¹³ INAF - Istituto di Radioastronomia, via Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna, Italy.
¹⁴ Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Universitetsky pr. 13, 119234 Moscow, Russia.
¹⁵ Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera. a Pátzcuaro #8701, Ex-Hda. San José de la Huerta, Morelia, Michoacán, C.P. 58089, México.
¹⁶ Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
¹⁷ Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
¹⁸ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 México, CDMX, Mexico.
¹⁹ Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
²⁰ South African Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 9, 7935 Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa.
²¹ School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
²² Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA), San Juan 5400, Argentina.
²³ Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Fisicas y Naturales, San Juan National University, San Juan 5400, Argentina.
²⁴ Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 México, CDMX, Mexico.

PMID: 37285439
PMCID: PMC10246904
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi1405

A structured jet explains the extreme GRB 221009A

Brendan O'Connor et al. Sci Adv. 2023.

. 2023 Jun 9;9(23):eadi1405.

doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adi1405. Epub 2023 Jun 7.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, The George Washington University, 725 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
² Astronomy, Physics and Statistics Institute of Sciences (APSIS), Washington, DC 20052, USA.
³ Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-4111, USA.
⁴ Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Rome, Italy.
⁶ INAF - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Rome, Italy.
⁷ Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline St. N., Waterloo, ON N2L 2Y5, Canada.
⁸ Department of Natural Sciences, The Open University of Israel, P.O. Box 808, Ra'anana 4353701, Israel.
⁹ Astrophysics Research Center of the Open university (ARCO), P.O. Box 808, Ra'anana 4353701, Israel.
¹⁰ Physics Department, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
¹¹ The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
¹² Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, I-10135 Torino, Italy.
¹³ INAF - Istituto di Radioastronomia, via Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna, Italy.
¹⁴ Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Universitetsky pr. 13, 119234 Moscow, Russia.
¹⁵ Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera. a Pátzcuaro #8701, Ex-Hda. San José de la Huerta, Morelia, Michoacán, C.P. 58089, México.
¹⁶ Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
¹⁷ Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
¹⁸ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 México, CDMX, Mexico.
¹⁹ Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
²⁰ South African Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 9, 7935 Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa.
²¹ School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
²² Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA), San Juan 5400, Argentina.
²³ Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Fisicas y Naturales, San Juan National University, San Juan 5400, Argentina.
²⁴ Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 México, CDMX, Mexico.

PMID: 37285439
PMCID: PMC10246904
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi1405

Abstract

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powerful cosmic explosions, signaling the death of massive stars. Among them, GRB 221009A is by far the brightest burst ever observed. Because of its enormous energy (E_iso ≈ 10⁵⁵ erg) and proximity (z ≈ 0.15), GRB 221009A is an exceptionally rare event that pushes the limits of our theories. We present multiwavelength observations covering the first 3 months of its afterglow evolution. The x-ray brightness decays as a power law with slope ≈t^-1.66, which is not consistent with standard predictions for jetted emission. We attribute this behavior to a shallow energy profile of the relativistic jet. A similar trend is observed in other energetic GRBs, suggesting that the most extreme explosions may be powered by structured jets launched by a common central engine.

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Figures

**Fig. 1.. The extreme brightness of GRB 221009A.**
(A) Top left: Histogram of gamma-ray fluence for Fermi (blue; 10 to 1000 keV) and BATSE (gray; 50 to 300 keV) GRBs compared to GRB 221009A. (B) Bottom left: Isotropic-equivalent gamma-ray energy (1 keV to 10 MeV) versus redshift for a sample of long-duration GRBs compiled from (44, 64). (C) Right: Observed x-ray afterglow light curves in the Swift XRT (03 to 10 keV) energy band for a sample of long-duration GRBs. GRB 221009A is the brightest x-ray afterglow ever observed.

**Fig. 2.. Multiwavelength light curve of GRB 221009A.**
The XRT and XMM-Newton data represent the x-ray flux density at 1 keV, whereas the flux density from the NuSTAR observations is reported at 5 keV. OIR data represented as empty squares were compiled from General Coordinates Network circulars, whereas filled circles are data analyzed in this work. The OIR data are not corrected for Galactic extinction.

**Fig. 3.. Schematic of the structured jet for GRB 221009A.**
Emission from the FS and RS are produced by the jet out to its truncation angle θ_s. The angular structure of the jet, E_K/dΩ ∝ θ^−a, breaks slightly at θ_b, transitioning from a slope a₁ ∼ 0.75 to a₂ ∼ 1.15. The prompt gamma rays may be radiated from the central narrow core of aperture θ_γ, whereas the afterglow and very-high energy (VHE) gamma-rays could come from a wider angular structure.

**Fig. 4.. Afterglow spectral evolution.**
Multiepoch broad-band spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of GRB 221009A modeled by the combination (solid line) of FS and RS (dotted line); see Materials and Methods. The data are corrected for extinction and absorption.

**Fig. 5.. Long-lived x-ray light curves of bright GRBs.**
A sample of bright long GRBs without a canonical jet break to late times is shown. For comparison, the dashed line shows the predicted late-time decay for a sharp-edged uniform jet.

**Fig. 6.. Fluence distribution of Fermi GRBs.**
We have normalized the number of bursts for the mission lifetime, its duty cycle, and field of view (1). At large fluences (S ≳ 5 × 10⁻⁵ erg cm⁻²) the distribution has a slope consistent with the Euclidean one (−3/2), also shown for comparison (dashed line). The two most fluent GRBs are GRB 130427A (circle) and GRB 221009A (star).

**Fig. 7.. Multiepoch spectra and SEDs of GRB 221009A.**
(A) Top: X-ray spectra of GRB 221009A fit an absorbed power-law model: Swift at 0.05 days, Swift and NuSTAR at 1.8 days, and XMM-Newton and NuSTAR at 32 days. (B) Middle: Residuals of the x-ray spectral fits. (C) Bottom left: Spectral energy distributions of the OIR data fit with a simple power-law model. The OIR data have been corrected for Galactic extinction E(*B − V*) = 1.32 mag (50). (D) Bottom right: Spectral energy distributions of the radio data (16.7 to 47 GHz).

**Fig. 8.. Collimation corrected kinetic energy E_K versus prompt gamma-ray energy E_γ.**
We have displayed a sample of long GRBs from the literature (35, 38). The empty red star displays the lowerlimit to the energy of GRB 221009A in the top-hat jet scenario and the filled red star in the structured jet case. The gray-shaded regions show a range of allowed values for magnetar central engines based on the mass of the neutron star (NS) (26, 65). The black lines show a gamma-ray efficiency of η_γ = 30 to 80%.

**Fig. 9.. Multiepoch broad-band SEDs of GRB 221009A.**
We have modeled the data by the combination (solid line) of an FS and an RS (dotted line). A single RS evolved following the thin-shell closure relations (57) cannot reproduce the early optical and late radio emission. The data are corrected for extinction and absorption.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

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A structured jet explains the extreme GRB 221009A

Affiliations

A structured jet explains the extreme GRB 221009A

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Figures

References

LinkOut - more resources

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