Black Hole Activity Imprints on the Internal Plateau and the Subsequent Sharp Decay

Abstract

A stellar-mass black hole (BH) or a millisecond magnetar is believed to be born as the central engine of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The presence of plateaus in the X-ray extended emission or afterglow of GRBs is widely accepted as an indicator of a magnetar central engine, particularly those with a sharp decay (faster than t −3), the so-called internal plateau. However, an alternative model, by taking the evolution of the magnetic flux at the BH horizon into account, suggests that an internal plateau can also arise from a jet powered by the Blandford–Znajek (BZ) mechanism (hereafter, a BZ jet). In this study, we propose that a precessional BZ jet would manifest a quasiperiodic oscillation (QPO) signature on the internal plateau and the subsequent sharp decay. Such lightcurves cannot be readily explained by the activity of a short-lived, supermassive magnetar, thus favoring a Kerr BH as the central engine. The X-ray afterglow of GRB 050904, comprising nine flares, is characterized by a QPO-modulated plateau and sharp decay, which can be well reproduced by a precessional BZ jet model. Therefore, one potential clue for distinguishing between these two engines lies in whether the QPO signature is present throughout the entire plateau and the subsequent sharp decay, as the magnetar scenario suggests a collapse at the end of the plateau.