Evidence for a Canonical Gamma‐Ray Burst Afterglow Light Curve in theSwiftXRT Data
The Astrophysical Journal2006Vol. 642(1), pp. 389–400
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J. A. Nousek, C. Kouveliotou, D. Grupe, K. L. Page, Jonathan Granot, E. Ramírez-Ruiz, S. Patel, D. N. Burrows, V. Mangano, S. D. Barthelmy, A. P. Beardmore, S. Campana, M. Capalbi, G. Chincarini, G. Cusumano, A. Falcone, N. Gehrels, P. Giommi, M. R. Goad, O. Godet, C. P. Hurkett, J. A. Kennea, A. Moretti, P. T. O’Brien, J. P. Osborne, P. Romano, G. Tagliaferri, A. A. Wells
Abstract
We present new observations of the early X-ray afterglows of the first 27 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected with the Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT). The early X-ray afterglows show a canonical behavior, where the light curve broadly consists of three distinct power law segments: (i) an initial very steep decay (t^{-alpha} with 34, and augments the already severe requirements for the efficiency of the prompt gamma-ray emission.