GRB 221009A, Its Precursor, and Two Afterglows in the Fermi Data

Abstract

We study GRB 221009A, the brightest gamma-ray burst in the history of observations, using Fermi data. To calibrate them for large inclination angles, we use the Vela X gamma-ray source. Light curves in different spectral ranges demonstrate a 300 s overlap of afterglow and delayed episodes of soft prompt emission. We demonstrate that a relatively weak burst precursor that occurs 3 min before the main episode has its own afterglow, i.e., presumably, its own external shock. This is the first observation of such phenomenon which rules out some theoretical models of GRB precursors. The main afterglow is the brightest one, includes a photon with an energy of 400 GeV 9 h after the burst, we show that it is visible in the LAT data for up to two days.