GRB 221009A has been referred to as the brightest of all time (BOAT). We investigate the veracity of this statement by comparing it with a half century of prompt gamma-ray burst observations. This burst is the brightest ever detected by the measures of peak flux and fluence. Unexpectedly, GRB 221009A has the highest isotropic-equivalent total energy ever identified, while the peak luminosity is at the ~99th percentile of the known distribution. We explore how such a burst can be powered and discuss potential implications for ultralong and high-redshift gamma-ray bursts. By geometric extrapolation of the total fluence and peak flux distributions, GRB 221009A appears to be a once-in-10,000-year event. Thus, it is almost certainly not the BOAT over all of cosmic history; it may be the brightest gamma-ray burst since human civilization began.
GRB 221009A: The BOAT / Burns, Eric; Svinkin, Dmitry; Fenimore, Edward; Alexander Kann, D.; Feliciano Ag???? Fern??ndez, Jos??; Frederiks, Dmitry; Hamburg, Rachel; Lesage, Stephen; Temiraev, Yuri; Tsvetkova, Anastasia; Bissaldi, Elisabetta; Briggs, Michael S.; Dalessi, Sarah; Dunwoody, Rachel; Fletcher, Cori; Goldstein, Adam; Michelle Hui, C.; Hristov, Boyan A.; Kocevski, Daniel; Lysenko, Alexandra L.; Mailyan, Bagrat; Mangan, Joseph; Mcbreen, Sheila; Racusin, Judith; Ridnaia, Anna; Roberts, Oliver J.; Ulanov, Mikhail; Veres, Peter; Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A.; Wood, Joshua. - In: THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS. - ISSN 2041-8205. - 946:1(2023), p. L31. [10.3847/2041-8213/acc39c]
GRB 221009A: The BOAT
Elisabetta BissaldiMembro del Collaboration Group
;
2023-01-01
Abstract
GRB 221009A has been referred to as the brightest of all time (BOAT). We investigate the veracity of this statement by comparing it with a half century of prompt gamma-ray burst observations. This burst is the brightest ever detected by the measures of peak flux and fluence. Unexpectedly, GRB 221009A has the highest isotropic-equivalent total energy ever identified, while the peak luminosity is at the ~99th percentile of the known distribution. We explore how such a burst can be powered and discuss potential implications for ultralong and high-redshift gamma-ray bursts. By geometric extrapolation of the total fluence and peak flux distributions, GRB 221009A appears to be a once-in-10,000-year event. Thus, it is almost certainly not the BOAT over all of cosmic history; it may be the brightest gamma-ray burst since human civilization began.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
