Probing Thermal Electrons in Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

Abstract Particle-in-cell simulations have unveiled that shock-accelerated electrons do not follow a pure power-law distribution, but have an additional low-energy “thermal” part, which owns a considerable portion of the total energy of the electrons. Investigating the effects of these thermal electrons on gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows may provide valuable insights into the particle acceleration mechanisms. We solve the continuity equation of electrons in energy space, from which multiwavelength afterglows are derived by incorporating processes including synchrotron radiation, synchrotron self-absorption, synchrotron self-Compton scattering, and γ – γ annihilation. First, there is an underlying positive correlation between the temporal and spectral indices due to the cooling of electrons. Moreover, thermal electrons result in simultaneous nonmonotonic variations of both the spectral and temporal indices at multiple wavelengths, which could be individually recorded by the 2.5 m Wide Field Survey Telescope and Vera Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The thermal electrons could also be diagnosed using afterglow spectra from synergistic observations in the optical (with LSST) and X-ray (with the Microchannel X-ray Telescope on board the Space Variable Objects Monitor) bands. Finally, we use Monte Carlo simulations to obtain the distribution of the peak flux ratio ( R X ) between the soft and hard X-rays, and of the time delay (Δ t ) between the peak times of the soft X-ray and optical light curves. The thermal electrons significantly raise the upper limits of both R X and Δ t . Thus, the distribution of GRB afterglows with thermal electrons is more scattered in the R X −Δ t plane.