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The characteristics of the spectral evolution of the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which are closely related to the radiation mechanism (synchrotron or photosphere), are still an unsolved subject. Here, by performing the detailed time-resolved spectral fitting of GRB 131231A, which has a very bright and well-defined single pulse, some interesting spectral evolution features have been found. (i) Both the low-energy spectral index α and the peak energy Ep exhibit the “flux-tracking” pattern (“double-tracking” characteristics). (ii) The parameter relations, i.e., F (the energy flux)-α, F–Ep, and Ep–α, along with the analogous Yonetoku Ep–Lγ,iso relation for the different time-resolved spectra, show strong monotonous (positive) correlations, both in the rising and the decaying phases. (iii) The values of α do not exceed the synchrotron limit (α = −2/3) in all slices across the pulse, favoring the synchrotron origin. We argue that the one-zone synchrotron emission model with the emitter streaming away at a large distance from the central engine can explain all of these special spectral evolution characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quasi-thermal components found in many Fermi gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) imply that the photosphere emission indeed contributes to the prompt emission of many GRBs. But whether the observed spectra empirically fitted by the Band function or cutoff power law, especially the spectral and peak energy (Ep) evolutions can be explained by the photosphere emission model alone needs further discussion. In this work, we investigate in detail the time-resolved spectra and Ep evolutions of photospheric emission from a structured jet, with an inner-constant and outer-decreasing angular Lorentz factor profile. Also, a continuous wind with a time-dependent wind luminosity has been considered. We show that the photosphere spectrum near the peak luminosity is similar to the cutoff power-law spectrum. The spectrum can have the observed average low-energy spectral index α ∼ −1, and the distribution of the low-energy spectral index in our photosphere model is similar to that observed (−2 ≲ α ≲ 0). Furthermore, the two kinds of spectral evolutions during the decay phase, separated by the width of the core (θc), are consistent with the time-resolved spectral analysis results of several Fermi multi-pulse GRBs and single-pulse GRBs, respectively. Also, for this photosphere model we can reproduce the two kinds of observed Ep evolution patterns rather well. Thus, by considering the photospheric emission from a structured jet, we reproduce the observations well for the GRBs best fitted by the cutoff power-law model for the peak-flux spectrum or the time-integrated spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The radiation mechanism of the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) remains an open question. Although their spectra are usually well fitted with the empirical Band function, which is widely believed to be fully nonthermal and interpreted as an optically thin synchrotron emission, accumulating evidence shows that a thermal component actually exists. In this paper, a multicolor blackbody (mBB) model is proposed for the time-integrated spectrum of GRB 081221 by assuming a power-law distribution of the thermal luminosities with temperature, which manifests photospheric emissions from a different radius and/or angle. The effects of the minimum temperature kTmin, the maximum temperature kTmax, and the power-law index m of the luminosity distribution of an mBB are discussed. The fitting to the time-integrated spectrum during the bright phase (from 20 to 30 s since the trigger) of GRB 081221 by the mBB model yields kTmin = 4.4 ± 0.3 keV, , and . When the time bin is small enough, the time-resolved spectra of GRB 081221 are well fitted with a series of single-temperature blackbodies. Our results imply the prompt emission of GRB 081221 is dominated by the photosphere emission and its time-integrated spectrum is a superposition of pure blackbody components at different times, indicating that some empirical Band spectra may be interpreted as mBB if the temperature is widely distributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]