No visible optical variability from a relativistic blast wave encountering a wind-termination shock

Details No visible optical variability from a relativistic blast wave encountering a wind-termination shock No visible optical variability from a relativistic blast wave encountering a wind-termination shock

2009-06-19

arxiv.org/abs/0906.3629v1

MNRAS (2009) 398, L63

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

4 figures, submitted to MNRAS letters

Scientific paper

10.1111/j.1745-3933.2009.00711.x

Gamma-ray burst afterglow flares and rebrightenings of the optical and X-ray light curve have been attributed to both late time inner engine activity and density changes in the medium surrounding the burster. To test the latter, we study the encounter between the relativistic blast wave from a gamma-ray burster and a stellar wind termination shock. The blast wave is simulated using a high performance adaptive mesh relativistic hydrodynamics code, AMRVAC, and the synchrotron emission is analyzed in detail with a separate radiation code. We find no bump in the resulting light curve, not even for very high density jumps. Furthermore, by analyzing the contributions from the different shock wave regions we are able to establish that it is essential to resolve the blast wave structure in order to make qualitatively correct predictions on the observed output and that the contribution from the reverse shock region will not stand out, even when the magnetic field is increased in this region by repeated shocks. This study resolves a controversy in recent literature.

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