1. EP240801a/XRF 240801B: An X-ray Flash Detected by the Einstein Probe and Implications of its Multiband Afterglow
- Author
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Jiang, Shuai-Qing, Xu, Dong, van Hoof, Agnes P. C., Lei, Wei-Hua, Liu, Yuan, Zhou, Hao, Chen, Yong, Fu, Shao-Yu, Yang, Jun, Liu, Xing, Zhu, Zi-Pei, Filippenko, Alexei V., Jonker, Peter G., Pozanenko, A. S., Gao, He, Wu, Xue-Feng, Zhang, Bing, Lamb, Gavin P, De Pasquale, Massimiliano, Kobayashi, Shiho, Bauer, Franz Erik, Sun, Hui, Pugliese, Giovanna, An, Jie, D'Elia, Valerio, Fynbo, Johan P. U., Zheng, WeiKang, Tirado, Alberto J. C., Yin, Yi-Han Iris, Zou, Yuan-Chuan, Deller, Adam T., Pankov, N. S., Volnova, A. A., Moskvitin, A. S., Spiridonova, O. I., Oparin, D. V., Rumyantsev, V., Burkhonov, O. A., Egamberdiyev, Sh. A., Kim, V., Krugov, M., Tatarnikov, A. M., Inasaridze, R., Levan, Andrew J., Malesani, Daniele Bjørn, Ravasio, Maria E., Quirola-Vásquez, Jonathan, van Dalen, Joyce N. D., Sánchez-Sierras, Javi, Sánchez, Daniel Mata, Littlefair, Stuart P., Chacón, Jennifer A., Torres, Manuel A. P., Chrimes, Ashley A., Sarin, Nikhil, Martin-Carrillo, Antonio, Dhillon, Vik, Yang, Yi, Brink, Thomas G., Davies, Rebecca L., Yang, Sheng, Aryan, Amar, Chen, Ting-Wan, Kong, Albert K. H., Li, Wen-Xiong, Li, Rui-Zhi, Mao, Jirong, Pérez-García, Ignacio, Fernández-García, Emilio J., Andrews, Moira, Farah, Joseph, Fan, Zhou, Gonzalez, Estefania Padilla, Howell, D. Andrew, Hartmann, Dieter, Hu, Jing-Wei, Jakobsson, Páll, Li, Cheng-Kui, Ling, Zhi-Xing, McCully, Curtis, Newsome, Megan, Schneider, Benjamin, Tinyanont, Kaew Samaporn, Sun, Ning-Chen, Terreran, Giacomo, Tang, Qing-Wen, Wang, Wen-Xin, Xu, Jing-Jing, Yuan, Wei-Min, Zhang, Bin-Bin, Zhao, Hai-Sheng, and Zhang, Juan
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Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena - Abstract
We present multiband observations and analysis of EP240801a, a low-energy, extremely soft gamma-ray burst (GRB) discovered on August 1, 2024 by the Einstein Probe (EP) satellite, with a weak contemporaneous signal also detected by Fermi/GBM. Optical spectroscopy of the afterglow, obtained by GTC and Keck, identified the redshift of $z = 1.6734$. EP240801a exhibits a burst duration of 148 s in X-rays and 22.3 s in gamma-rays, with X-rays leading by 80.61 s. Spectral lag analysis indicates the gamma-ray signal arrived 8.3 s earlier than the X-rays. Joint spectral fitting of EP/WXT and Fermi/GBM data yields an isotropic energy $E_{\gamma,\rm{iso}} = (5.57^{+0.54}_{-0.50})\times 10^{51}\,\rm{erg}$, a peak energy $E_{\rm{peak}} = 14.90^{+7.08}_{-4.71}\,\rm{keV}$, a fluence ratio $\rm S(25-50\,\rm{keV})/S(50-100\,\rm{keV}) = 1.67^{+0.74}_{-0.46}$, classifying EP240801a as an X-ray flash (XRF). The host-galaxy continuum spectrum, inferred using Prospector, was used to correct its contribution for the observed outburst optical data. Unusual early $R$-band behavior and EP/FXT observations suggest multiple components in the afterglow. Three models are considered: two-component jet model, forward-reverse shock model and forward-shock model with energy injection. Both three provide reasonable explanations. The two-component jet model and the energy injection model imply a relatively small initial energy and velocity of the jet in the line of sight, while the forward-reverse shock model remains typical. Under the two-component jet model, EP240801a may resemble GRB 221009A (BOAT) if the bright narrow beam is viewed on-axis. Therefore, EP240801a can be interpreted as an off-beam (narrow) jet or an intrinsically weak GRB jet. Our findings provide crucial clues for uncovering the origin of XRFs., Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, submitted to ApJ
- Published
- 2025