Intermittent hydrodynamic jets in collapsars do not produce GRBs

Ore Gottlieb*, Amir Levinson, Ehud Nakar

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Strong variability is a common characteristic of the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRB). This observed variability is widely attributed to an intermittency of the central engine, through formation of strong internal shocks in the GRB-emitting jet expelled by the engine. In this paper, we study numerically the propagation of hydrodynamic jets, injected periodically by a variable engine, through the envelope of a collapsed star. By post-processing the output of 3D numerical simulations, we compute the net radiative efficiency of the outflow. We find that all intermittent jets are subject to heavy baryon contamination that inhibits the emission at and above the photosphere well below detection limits. This is in contrast to continuous jets that, as shown recently, produce a highly variable gamma-ray photospheric emission with high efficiency, owing to the interaction of the jet with the stellar envelope. Our results challenge the variable engine model for hydrodynamic jets, and may impose constraints on the duty cycle of GRB engines. If such systems exist in nature, they are not expected to produce bright gamma-ray emission, but should appear as X-ray, optical, and radio transients that resemble a delayed GRB afterglow signal.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)570-577
Number of pages8
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume495
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2020

Funding

FundersFunder number
JetNS
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme818899
European Research Council
Israel Science Foundation1114/17

    Keywords

    • Hydrodynamics
    • Methods: numerical
    • Radiation mechanisms: general

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