Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2008-09-02
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
11 pages, 7 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13856.x
We consider radiation emitted by the jitter mechanism in a Blandford-McKee self-similar blastwave. We assume the magnetic field configuration throughout the whole blastwave meets the condition for the emission of jitter radiation and we compute the ensuing images, light curves and spectra. The calculations are performed for both a uniform and a wind environment. We compare our jitter results to synchrotron results. We show that jitter radiation produces slightly different spectra than synchrotron, in particular between the self-absorption and the peak frequency, where the jitter spectrum is flat, while the synchrotron spectrum grows as \nu^{1/3}. The spectral difference is reflected in the early decay slope of the light curves. We conclude that jitter and synchrotron afterglows can be distinguished from each other with good quality observations. However, it is unlikely that the difference can explain the peculiar behavior of several recent observations, such as flat X-ray slopes and uncorrelated optical and X-ray behavior.
Lazzati Davide
Medvedev Mikhail V.
Morsony Brian J.
Workman Jared C.
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