Paper detail

Extremely narrow spectrum of GRB110920A: further evidence for localised, subphotospheric dissipation

Much evidence points towards that the photosphere in the relativistic outflow in GRBs plays an important role in shaping the observed MeV spectrum. However, it is unclear whether the spectrum is fully produced by the photosphere or whether a substantial part of the spectrum is added by processes far above the photosphere. Here we make a detailed study of the $γ-$ray emission from single pulse GRB110920A which has a spectrum that becomes extremely narrow towards the end of the burst. We show that the emission can be interpreted as Comptonisation of thermal photons by cold electrons in an unmagnetised outflow at an optical depth of $τ\sim 20$. The electrons receive their energy by a local dissipation occurring close to the saturation radius. The main spectral component of GRB110920A and its evolution is thus, in this interpretation, fully explained by the emission from the photosphere including localised dissipation at high optical depths.