Short gamma-ray burst progenitors have short delay times

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Pracchia, Matteo, Salafia, Om Sharan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866908751386116096
author Pracchia, Matteo
Salafia, Om Sharan
author_facet Pracchia, Matteo
Salafia, Om Sharan
contents Short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) are thought to be primarily associated with binary neutron star (BNS) mergers. The SGRB population can therefore be scrutinized to look for signatures of the delay time between the formation of the progenitor massive star binary and the eventual merger, which could produce an evolution of the cosmic rate density of such events whose shape departs from that of the cosmic star formation history (CSFH). To that purpose, we study a large sample of SGRBs within a hierarchical Bayesian framework, with a particular focus on the delay time distribution (DTD) of the population. Following previous studies, we model the DTD either as a power-law with a minimum time delay or as a log-normal function. We consider two models for the intrinsic SGRB luminosity distribution: an empirical luminosity function (ELF) with a doubly broken power-law shape, and one based on a quasi-universal structured jet (QUSJ) model. Regardless of the chosen parametrization, we find average time delays $10\lesssim \langle τ_\mathrm{d}\mathrm\rangle/\mathrm{Myr}\lesssim 800$ and a minimum delay time $τ_\mathrm{d,min}\lesssim 350\,\mathrm{Myr}$, in contrast with previous studies that found long delay times of few Gyr. We demonstrate that the cause of the longer inferred time delays in past studies most likely resides in an incorrect treatment of selection effects.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_03861
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Short gamma-ray burst progenitors have short delay times
Pracchia, Matteo
Salafia, Om Sharan
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) are thought to be primarily associated with binary neutron star (BNS) mergers. The SGRB population can therefore be scrutinized to look for signatures of the delay time between the formation of the progenitor massive star binary and the eventual merger, which could produce an evolution of the cosmic rate density of such events whose shape departs from that of the cosmic star formation history (CSFH). To that purpose, we study a large sample of SGRBs within a hierarchical Bayesian framework, with a particular focus on the delay time distribution (DTD) of the population. Following previous studies, we model the DTD either as a power-law with a minimum time delay or as a log-normal function. We consider two models for the intrinsic SGRB luminosity distribution: an empirical luminosity function (ELF) with a doubly broken power-law shape, and one based on a quasi-universal structured jet (QUSJ) model. Regardless of the chosen parametrization, we find average time delays $10\lesssim \langle τ_\mathrm{d}\mathrm\rangle/\mathrm{Myr}\lesssim 800$ and a minimum delay time $τ_\mathrm{d,min}\lesssim 350\,\mathrm{Myr}$, in contrast with previous studies that found long delay times of few Gyr. We demonstrate that the cause of the longer inferred time delays in past studies most likely resides in an incorrect treatment of selection effects.
title Short gamma-ray burst progenitors have short delay times
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.03861