Abstract
The rebrightening phenomenon is an interesting feature in some X-ray, optical, and radio afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Here, we propose a possible energy-supply assumption to explain the rebrightenings of radio afterglows, in which the central engine with multiple active phases can supply at least two GRB pulses in a typical GRB duration time. Considering the case of double pulses supplied by the central engine, the double pulses have separate physical parameters, except for the number density of the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). Their independent radio afterglows are integrated by the ground detectors to form the rebrightening phenomenon. In this Letter, we firstly simulate diverse rebrightening light curves under consideration of different and independent physical parameters. Using this assumption, we also give our best fit to the radio afterglow of GRB 970508 at three frequencies of 1.43, 4.86, and 8.46 GHz. We suggest that the central engine may be active continuously at a timescale longer than that of a typical GRB duration time as many authors have suggested (e.g., Zhang et al., Astrophys. J. 787:66, 2014; Gao and Mészáros, Astrophys. J. 802:90, 2015), and that it may supply enough energy to cause the long-lasting rebrightenings observed in some GRB afterglows.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the referee for constructive suggestions that improve our paper greatly. We appreciate Prof. Bing Zhang for his very helpful comments on this model. This work is partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11263002, 11311140248 and U1431126) and Provincial Research Foundations (20134021, 201519).
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Li, LB., Zhang, ZB. & Rice, J. Radio afterglow rebrightening: evidence for multiple active phases in gamma-ray burst central engines. Astrophys Space Sci 359, 37 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-015-2488-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-015-2488-z