# On the Time Evolution of Gamma-Ray Burst Pulses: A Self-Consistent Description

## 1 Introduction

The mechanisms giving rise to the observed gamma-ray burst (GRB) emission may reveal themselves in correlations describing the continuum spectral evolution. A few such correlations between observable quantities have been found. One of these is that between the instantaneous hardness of the spectrum and the instantaneous flux within individual pulses, especially during their decay phases. Somewhat more than every second pulse decay exhibits such a correlation (e.g., Kargatis et al. 1995). Furthermore, a correlation between the instantaneous hardness of the spectrum and the time-integrated flux, the fluence, has been established in a majority of the pulses where it has been searched for (e.g., Crider et al. 1999).

In this work, we demonstrate that for the decay phases of the light curve, for which both these correlations are valid, the light curve will follow a specific decay law. This is shown analytically in §2 by combining the two, previously well-studied, empirical relations into a new compact description of the temporal behavior of the decay phase. In §3, we study a sample of pulse decays observed by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) and give a few illustrative examples. A discussion is given in §4.

## 2 Descriptions of the Time Evolution

The instantaneous photon spectrum, $`N_\mathrm{E}(E,t)`$ \[photons cm<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> keV<sup>-1</sup>\], having approximately the shape of a broken power-law, is characterized mainly by two entities, the total instantaneous photon flux, $`N(t)`$ \[photons cm<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>\], and a measure of the “hardness”, e.g., the instantaneous peak energy, $`E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)`$, of the $`E^2N_\mathrm{E}(E,t)`$ spectrum. The time evolution of, for instance, a pulse decay phase in a GRB light curve can then be described by a vector function $`𝐆(t^{}t_0;\mathrm{parameters})=(N(t^{}t_0),E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t^{}t_0))`$, where $`t^{}`$ is the time parameter and $`t_0`$ is the starting time of the pulse decay. Apart from the running time parameter there are a number of parameters specific to the pulse decay. The initial value at $`tt^{}t_0=0`$ is $`𝐆(0)(N_0,E_{\mathrm{pk},0})`$. The relation between the evolution of the instantaneous spectral characteristics, e.g., $`E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)`$, and the corresponding intensity of the light curve, e.g., $`N(t)`$, has been widely studied, leading to empirical relations describing the observed behavior within a GRB and even within individual pulses. The most common trend is the hard-to-soft evolution, in which the peak energy of the spectrum decreases monotonically over the entire pulse (Norris et al. 1986). A less common trend, where the hardness and the intensity track each other, was found by Golenetskii et al. (1983). Similar results were also reported by Kargatis et al. (1994) and Bhat et al. (1994). Especially for the decay phase of pulses, such a hardness-intensity correlation (HIC) is common. Kargatis et al. (1995) found a strong correlation for 28 pulse decay phases in a sample of 26 GRBs with pulse pairs. For the decay phase, the HIC can be expressed as

$$E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)=E_{\mathrm{pk},0}\left[\frac{N(t)}{N_0}\right]^\delta ,$$
(1)   
where $`\delta `$ is the correlation index.

A second empirical relation was found by Liang & Kargatis (1996), who pointed out a correlation between the peak energy and the time-integrated photon flux,

$$E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)=E_{\mathrm{pk},0}e^{\mathrm{\Phi }(t)/\mathrm{\Phi }_0},$$
(2)   
where $`\mathrm{\Phi }(t)`$ is the photon fluence $`_0^tN(t^{\prime \prime })𝑑t^{\prime \prime }`$ \[cm<sup>-2</sup>\] integrated from the time of $`E_{\mathrm{pk},0}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ is the exponential decay constant. In their discovery paper, Liang & Kargatis (1996) showed the correlation to be valid for several long, smooth, single pulses and especially for their decays. They found that 35 out of 37 pulses were consistent or marginally consistent with the correlation. This work was followed by a series of papers by Crider and coworkers (1997, 1998a, b, 1999). In Crider et al. (1999), a sample of 41 pulses in 26 GRBs were studied in greater detail confirming the original discovery. They, however, preferred a slight modification for the description of the decay and studied the peak energy versus the energy fluence, instead. The two approaches are very similar and do not describe fundamentally different trends of the decay. This empirical relation was also studied in Ryde & Svensson (1999), who showed that the relation can be used to derive the shape of the time-integrated spectrum, as this is the result of integrating the evolving time-resolved spectra.

The two relations given by equations (1) and (2) fully describe the evolution. If these two relations are fulfilled, one can show (e.g., in §4 below) that the function $`𝐆(t)=(N(t),E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t))`$ is given by

$`N(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N_0}{(1+t/\tau )}},`$ (3)   
$`E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{E_{\mathrm{pk},0}}{(1+t/\tau )^\delta }},`$ (4)   
i.e., the instantaneous photon flux is a reciprocal function in time with the time constant $`\tau `$. The peak energy has a similar dependence, differing by the HIC index $`\delta `$. The number of parameters in the present formulation is limited to two, $`\tau `$ and $`\delta `$.

From equations (3) and (4), all the empirical results discussed above follow. Eliminating the explicit time dependence by combining the two equations, the hardness-intensity correlation described by equation (1) is found: $`E_{\mathrm{pk}}=E_{\mathrm{pk},0}(N/N_0)^\delta `$. The function $`𝐆(t;\tau ,\delta )`$ describes this relation as a path in the $`NE_{\mathrm{pk}}`$ plane, and as $`N(t)`$ and $`E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)`$ evolve in the same manner, except for the exponent $`\delta `$, the relations (3) and (4) give rise to the Golenetskii power-law (Eq. 1). Furthermore, the photon fluence is found by integrating equation (3):

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(t)=N_0\tau \mathrm{ln}(1+t/\tau ),$$
(5)   
which, when used to eliminate the $`(1+t/\tau )`$-dependence in equation (4), gives the hardness-fluence relation:

$$E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)=E_{\mathrm{pk},0}e^{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }(t)/N_0\tau }.$$
(6)   
Identifying this equation with equation (2), one finds the exponential decay constant to be given by $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0N_0\tau /\delta `$, and thus that the time constant,

$$\tau =\delta \mathrm{\Phi }_0/N_0.$$
(7)   
This is the crucial relation that connects the pulse timescale with the properties of relations (1) and (2).

## 3 BATSE Observations

To verify and illustrate the results above, we searched for this specific spectral-temporal behavior in GRBs observed by BATSE. We studied the high energy resolution Large Area Detector (LAD) observations of GRBs. We selected bursts from the BATSE catalog<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1 The BATSE GRB catalog is available online at: http://gammaray.msfc.nasa.gov/batse/grb/data/catalog/ up to GRB 990126 (with trigger number 7353), with a peak flux (50-300 keV on a 256 ms timescale) greater than $`5`$ photons s<sup>-1</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup>, giving totally 155 bursts having useful LAD high energy resolution burst (HERB) data. Out of these, we found a sample of 59 GRBs with a total of 83 pulse decays, strong enough to allow spectral fitting to be done of the time-resolved spectra in at least four time bins with a signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of $`\stackrel{>}{}30`$ in the $`251900`$ keV band. The purpose of the fitting is to determine the hardness parameter, $`E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)`$, and to allow the deconvolution of the count spectrum in order to obtain $`N(t)`$. For this, a larger S/N ratio is not motivated.

Commonly, the Large Area Detector (LAD) and its 4 energy-channel DISCSC data are used, and light curves are studied in narrow spectral ranges, typically $`50300`$ keV, in units of count rates. For our analysis we use the LAD HERB data, since they have the necessary higher energy resolution, with 128 energy channels, and cover the maximal possible energy range, $`25`$ keV $`1.9`$ MeV. Furthermore, we use light curves in terms of photon flux rather than count rates. The spectral fitting was done using the Band et al. (1993) function, with all its parameters free.

Out of the 83 pulse decays in our sample, we found 38 ($`45\%`$) to be consistent with the reciprocal decay law in Equation (3). We start by presenting detailed results of the analysis of two of these pulses, namely GRB 921207 (# 2083) and GRB 950624, (# 3648), see Table 1. A fit of the function $`N=N(t)`$ (Eq. 3) to the data, gives the photon flux at $`t=0`$, $`N_0`$, and the time constant, $`\tau `$. Freezing $`\tau `$ to this value, the fit of $`E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)`$ (Eq. 4) gives the initial value of the peak energy, $`E_{\mathrm{pk},0}`$ and the HIC index $`\delta `$. The results of these fittings are given in the upper half of Table 1. The same information can be found from fits of the empirical relations described by equations (1) and (2). A fit of the hardness-fluence correlation (2) allows the determination of $`E_{\mathrm{pk},0}`$ and the exponential decay constant, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$. Freezing $`E_{\mathrm{pk},0}`$ to the value obtained, the fit of the hardness-intensity correlation (Eq. 1) gives values for $`N_0`$ and $`\delta `$. These fitted values, as well as the computed values for $`\tau =\delta \mathrm{\Phi }_0/N_0`$, are given in the lower half of Table 1. Note the excellent consistency between the two sets of fitted parameters. In the data for the first pulse of GRB 921207, especially regarding the dependence of $`N(t)`$ on $`t`$ and on $`E_{\mathrm{pk}}`$, we do not find any strong indication for it being a double pulse, as suggested by Crider et al. (1998a) (See Fig. 1).

The results of the analysis of a few further examples are given in Table 2. The fitted decay phases of these are presented in Figure 1, where the linear $`1/N(t)`$ functions are displayed. The four parameters describing the decay phases, $`N_0`$, $`E_{\mathrm{pk},0}`$, $`\tau `$, $`\delta `$, are found from the fits of $`𝐆(t;\tau ,\delta )`$ given by equations (3) and (4), while $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ is found from fits of the empirical relation (2). Equation (7) gives consistent $`\tau `$-values within the errors. For our purposes, we need as high time-resolution as possible, but still permitting proper spectral fitting. We therefore chose a S/N$`=30`$. When possible, we redid the analysis with S/N$`=45`$, checking that we arrived at the same results, now, however, with lower temporal resolution.

The panel furthest to the right in the lower row of Figure 1 illustrates a case, GRB 960807 (# 5567), for which the reciprocal law is not valid. In this specific case, the hardness-fluence correlation (Eq.2) is valid while the HIC is not a power law. A detailed discussion of such cases is given in Ryde et al. (1999).

## 4 Discussion and Conclusions

Equation (3) is an important result, as it describes how the intensity declines with time in the decay phase of a GRB pulse, belonging to the subgroup of pulses for which both the two empirical relations, equations (1) and (2), are valid. The reciprocal, instantaneous intensity is a linear function in time, $`1/N(t)=\left(1+t/\tau \right)/N_0`$. This should be compared to the generally discussed exponential decay, e.g., in the terms of a FRED (fast rise, exponential or stretched exponential decay) often used to characterize single pulses within GRBs (e.g. Norris et al., 1996). Our result is an analytical result following from the two empirical relations. We note that $`N(t)`$ approaches $`(1t/\tau )N_0`$ for $`t\tau `$, which is the same time behavior as that of the stretched exponential $`N(t)=N_0\mathrm{exp}\left[(t/\tau _{})^\nu \right]`$ in the same limit. When $`t\stackrel{<}{}\nu \tau _{}`$, it is difficult to distinguish between the two behaviors. The hardness, represented by the peak energy, $`E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)`$, also declines reciprocally with time, but is stretched by the $`\delta `$-power (see Eq. 4). A comparison between the intensity decline and the $`E_{\mathrm{pk}}`$-decline is shown, e.g., in Ford et al. (1995).

As shown by equation (5), the fluence increases logarithmically with time. This divergent behavior must eventually change, when the emission of radiation changes behavior, terminates, or shifts out of the observed spectral range.

The differential equations governing the time evolution of $`𝐆(t;\tau ,\delta )`$ are readily found. Differentiating equation (2) gives

$$\frac{dE_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)}{dt}=\frac{\delta }{\tau N_0}N(t)E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t),$$
(8)   
which, combined with equation (1), gives the equation for $`E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)`$ as

$$\frac{dE_{\mathrm{pk}}(t)}{dt}=\frac{\delta }{\tau (E_{\mathrm{pk},0})^{1/\delta }}E_{\mathrm{pk}}^{1+1/\delta }(t).$$
(9)   
Furthermore, combining equations (1) and (2) to

$$N(t)=N_0e^{\mathrm{\Phi }(t)/N_0\tau },$$
(10)   
gives, after differentiation, the equation for $`N(t)`$ as

$$\frac{dN(t)}{dt}=\frac{1}{N_0\tau }N^2(t).$$
(11)   
Integrating equations (9) and (11) then gives equations (4) and (3).

The description is complete. A different $`N(t)`$-shape of the decay phase will of necessity lead to either that the hardness-intensity correlation or the hardness-fluence correlation or both must have a different shape from the well-observed empirical ones (Eqs. 1 and 2). Details are discussed in Ryde et al. (1999).

The description does, unfortunately, not uniquely point to a specific radiation process. For instance, equation (8) could be due to any thermal process. Consequently, it is consistent with saturated Comptonization, without extra heating, which though, in general, is difficult to achieve. Such a scenario has, however, been discussed by Liang & Kargatis (1996) and Liang (1997). In their theoretical, saturated Compton cooling model, Liang et al. (1997) arrive at the equation $`N(t)=d\mathrm{\Phi }/dt=kt^s\mathrm{exp}(n\mathrm{\Phi }/\mathrm{\Phi }_0)(1+E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t))^n/b(t)`$ (obtained by rewriting their Eq. 5), where $`k`$ is a constant and $`b(t)`$ = (the soft photon injection rate/BATSE photon flux). In order to simplify this equation, they set, in a rather ad hoc manner (guided by Monte Carlo simulations) $`b(t)=(1+E_{\mathrm{pk}}(t))^n`$, resulting in the last two factors cancelling. The resulting equation for $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ then becomes identical to our equation (10) for the case $`s=0`$ (i.e., no Thomson thinning) and taking $`n=1/\delta `$. The resulting solutions are, of course, identical. We strongly emphasize the difference. We obtain our results based on two empirical relations, while Liang et al. obtain their results by employing a rather ad hoc simplification within a theoretical model.

In conclusion, we find a subgroup ($`45\%`$) of GRB pulse decays which behave in a similar way, with the decay phases being reciprocal functions, Eqs. (3) and (4). This should thus represent a signature of the underlying physical processes giving rise to these pulses. We have illustrated the results both analytically and by studying BATSE pulses. The time evolution is fully defined by the two initial conditions at the start of the decay, $`N_0`$ and $`E_{\mathrm{pk},0}`$, and by two parameters specific to the GRB pulse decay, $`\tau `$ and $`\delta `$, or, equivalently, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ and $`\delta `$.

This research made use of data obtained through the HEASARC Online Service provided by NASA/GSFC. We are also grateful to the GROSSC for support. We thank S. Larsson, L. Borgonovo, R. Preece, A. Beloborodov, and J. Poutanen for useful discussions. We acknowledge support from the Swedish Natural Science Research Council (NFR), the Anna-Greta and Holger Crafoord Fund, a NORDITA grant, and NSF Grant No. PHY94-07194.