Investigating gamma-ray burst data reduction techniques with Swift’s instruments

Abstract

The amount of data on gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and the detected afterglows observed by the Swift satellite contributed significantly to the understanding of the phenomenon. The behavior of the early afterglow rises some interesting questions. With the early afterglow localizations of gamma-ray burst positions made by Swift, the clear delimitation of the prompt phase and the afterglow is not so obvious any more. There are hints of a canonical X-ray afterglow lightcurve with segments of different slopes. Not all bursts necessarily show all the segments. It is important to see if the prompt phase and the afterglow has the same origin or they stem from different parts of the progenitor system. We will combine the of gamma-ray burst data from BAT and XRT and compare the extrapolated gamma-ray flux to the X-ray in a sample of bursts and find that there is a good agreement between the two measurements. This indicates that the physical process shaping burst and the early afterglow are the same.