A peculiar low-luminosity short gamma-ray burst from a double neutron star merger progenitor.

ABSTRACT: Double neutron star (DNS) merger events are promising candidates of short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) progenitors as well as high-frequency gravitational wave (GW) emitters. On August 17, 2017, such a coinciding event was detected by both the LIGO-Virgo gravitational wave detector network as GW170817 and Gamma-Ray Monitor on board NASA's Fermi Space Telescope as GRB 170817A. Here, we show that the fluence and spectral peak energy of this sGRB fall into the lower portion of the distributions of known sGRBs. Its peak isotropic luminosity is abnormally low. The estimated event rate density above this luminosity is at least [Formula: see text] Gpc^-3 yr^-1, which is close to but still below the DNS merger event rate density. This event likely originates from a structured jet vie

SUBMITTER: Zhang BB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5792494 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature