Discovery of a tight correlation for gamma ray burst afterglows with `canonical' light curves

Understand

Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) observed up to redshifts $z>8$ are fascinating objects to study due to their still unexplained relativistic outburst mechanisms and a possible use to test cosmological models.

• Our analysis of 77 GRB afterglows with known redshifts revealed a physical subsample of long GRBs with canonical {\it plateau breaking to power-law} light curves with a significant {\it luminosity $L^*_X$ - break time $T^*_a$} correlation in the GRB rest frame.
• This subsample forms approximately the {\it upper envelope} of the studied distribution.
• We have also found a similar relation for a small sample of GRB afterglows that belong to the intermediate class (IC) between the short and the long ones.