Light Curve Test of GRB 200716C as a Gravitationally Lensed Echo

Authors

Oindabi Mukherjee, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
Robert J. Nemiroff, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2022

Department

Department of Physics

Abstract

A gravitational lens can imprint distinct features on the light curve of a gamma-ray burst (GRB). Most prominently, when creating multiple images, the light curves for all images should be identical, within a scale factor in amplitude. For GRB images that are bright enough to have significant counts in multiple time bins, the similarity of the light curves can be assessed with a straightforward χ2 test. In response to a recent claim that the two pulses in GRB 200716C are lensed images of the same pulse, such a χ2 test was computed. The test indicated that the likelihood that the two pulses are images of the same parent pulse is less than 0.218%, differing at about the 3.1σ confidence level. Therefore, under the given assumptions, GRB 200716C is not a compelling example of gravitational lensing.

Publisher's Statement

© 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ac5968

Publication Title

Research Notes of the AAS

Recommended Citation

Mukherjee, O., & Nemiroff, R. J. (2022). Light Curve Test of GRB 200716C as a Gravitationally Lensed Echo. Research Notes of the AAS, 6(3). http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ac5968
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/16278

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.