학술논문
GRB 221009A: The BOAT
Document Type
article
Author
Eric Burns; Dmitry Svinkin; Edward Fenimore; D. Alexander Kann; José Feliciano Agüí Fernández; Dmitry Frederiks; Rachel Hamburg; Stephen Lesage; Yuri Temiraev; Anastasia Tsvetkova; Elisabetta Bissaldi; Michael S. Briggs; Sarah Dalessi; Rachel Dunwoody; Cori Fletcher; Adam Goldstein; C. Michelle Hui; Boyan A. Hristov; Daniel Kocevski; Alexandra L. Lysenko; Bagrat Mailyan; Joseph Mangan; Sheila McBreen; Judith Racusin; Anna Ridnaia; Oliver J. Roberts; Mikhail Ulanov; Peter Veres; Colleen A. Wilson-Hodge; Joshua Wood
Source
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol 946, Iss 1, p L31 (2023)
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
2041-8213
2041-8205
2041-8205
Abstract
GRB 221009A has been referred to as the brightest of all time (BOAT). We investigate the veracity of this statement by comparing it with a half century of prompt gamma-ray burst observations. This burst is the brightest ever detected by the measures of peak flux and fluence. Unexpectedly, GRB 221009A has the highest isotropic-equivalent total energy ever identified, while the peak luminosity is at the ∼99th percentile of the known distribution. We explore how such a burst can be powered and discuss potential implications for ultralong and high-redshift gamma-ray bursts. By geometric extrapolation of the total fluence and peak flux distributions, GRB 221009A appears to be a once-in-10,000-year event. Thus, it is almost certainly not the BOAT over all of cosmic history; it may be the brightest gamma-ray burst since human civilization began.