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Brightening X-Ray Emission from GW170817/GRB 170817A: Further Evidence for an Outflow

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posted on 2018-05-10, 08:51 authored by John J. Ruan, Melania Nynka, Daryl Haggard, Vicky Kalogera, Phil Evans
The origin of the X-ray emission from neutron star coalescence GW170817/GRB 170817A is a key diagnostic of the unsettled post-merger narrative, and different scenarios predict distinct evolution in its X-ray light curve. Due to its sky proximity to the Sun, sensitive X-ray monitoring of GW170817/GRB 170817A has not been possible since a previous detection at 16 days post-burst. We present new, deep Chandra observations of GW170817/GRB 170817A at 109 days post-burst, immediately after Sun constraints were lifted. The X-ray emission has brightened from a 0.3–8.0 keV flux of 3.6 x 10-15 erg s−1 cm−2 at 16 days to 15.8 x 10-15 erg s−1 cm−2 at 109 days, at a rate similar to the radio observations. This confirms that the X-ray and radio emission have a common origin. We show that the X-ray light curve is consistent with models of outflow afterglows, in which the outflow can be a cocoon shocked by the jet, dynamical ejecta from the merger, or an off-axis structured jet. Further deep X-ray monitoring can place powerful constraints on the physical parameters of these models, by both timing the passing of a synchrotron cooling break through the X-ray band and detecting the associated steepening of the X-ray photon index. Finally, the X-ray brightening strengthens the argument that simple off-axis top-hat jet models are not consistent with the latest observations of GW170817/GRB 170817A.

History

Citation

Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2018, 853:L4

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Physics and Astronomy

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

Astrophysical Journal Letters

Publisher

American Astronomical Society

issn

2041-8205

eissn

2041-8213

Acceptance date

2018-01-02

Copyright date

2018

Available date

2018-05-10

Publisher version

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aaa4f3/meta

Language

en

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