The very high energy view of gamma-ray bursts with the MAGIC telescopes
The very high energy view of gamma-ray bursts with the MAGIC telescopes
Alessio Berti on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Željka Bošnjak on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Alberto Castro-Tirado on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Stefano Covino on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Susumu Inoue on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Francesco Longo on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Serena Loporchio on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Davide Miceli on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Razmik Mirzoyan on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Elena Moretti on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Lara Nava on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Koji Noda on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, David Paneque on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Antonio Stamerra on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Yusuke Suda on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Kenta Terauchi on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Ievgen Vovk on behalf of the MAGIC Collaboration, Katsuaki Asano, Satoshi Fukami, Nuria Jordana-Mitjans, Andrea Melandri, Carole Mundell, Michele Palatiello, Manisha Shrestha, Iain Steele
AbstractGamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are one of the main targets for the observations of the MAGIC telescopes. As a result of the effort in improving the sensitivity of the instrument and the automatic follow-up strategy, MAGIC detected two GRBs in the very-high-energy (VHE, $E>100$ GeV) range, namely GRB 190114C and GRB 201216C. In GRB 190114C ($z=0.42$), the data collected by MAGIC revealed a new emission component at sub-TeV energies in the afterglow of the GRB. The very rich multi-wavelength dataset, spanning 17 orders of magnitude in energy, allowed to perform a detailed modelling of the broadband emission. The multi-wavelength data could be modelled within a one-zone synchrotron-self Compton scenario with internal $\gamma-\gamma$ absorption, where the model parameters are compatible with those found in previous GRB afterglow studies below GeV energies. Similarly, GRB 201216C broadband emission could be explained using the same model, although the amount of simultaneous multi-wavelength data is reduced with respect to GRB 190114C. In particular, GRB 201216C challenged the current MAGIC detection potential, as its redshift was determined to be $z=1.1$, strongly reducing the observed gamma-ray flux but making it the most distant source detected at VHE. These two detections, accompanied by evidence of VHE emission from a few more GRBs, opened up new questions such as the presence of sub-TeV emission in different classes and phases of GRBs. In this contribution we will present the status of the MAGIC GRB follow-up program, with an highlight on its detected GRBs. Moreover we will show the results on the GRBs observed by MAGIC from 2013 to 2019 with no evidence of VHE emission, in particular for those with simultaneous X-ray observations and redshift $z<2$. We will discuss the implications of these results for GRB physics and the challenges and prospects for future GRB observations with MAGIC.